Leads To Customers To Partnerships

If we go by the numbers; 39% of senior marketers use customer retention as a top area of business need
75% of senior marketers find lifecycle marketing programs better than traditional programs
6.7% expect to see growth in b2b marketing budgets
17% of b2b customers are satisfied with the online purchasing process
21.3% of a b2b’s budget is dedicated to product marketing


Now let’s look on the other side of these numbers.


To start 39% of marketers believe that customer retention is the top priority that they need to be dealing with. Behind that 64% of all people that responded in this Forrester Research study stated that the retention of customers and even targeting this group as probably the main way to really get the most impact and value out of any marketing they might do this year (2011).


If in fact retention marketing is far and away on the minds of marketers why? Could it be the economic recession? It is easier and less costly to keep a current customer than go out and find a new one. This is also as there has become a growing awareness that customers should be valued by their lifetime value to the company not as 1 or 2 sales and out.


Fact is that once your company closes the sale, the work moves from client acquisition to client retention. Major difference in approach and you need real coordination between sales and marketing (if you’re that big [which many of my readers are not]). Content becomes critical with more newsletters, white papers, and other avenues of targeted content appeal.


Larson Notes & Satire: My company works on an “almost” no long term contract basis. I figure if you want to stop using us it’s for a good reason. The usual reason is that we have gotting you too many leads and you need to digest them for a while before you can start up again. But sometimes we are not doing a good job. Ya, it happens, and then you know it, I know it and we both really just want to end the relationship. Yet for those that have success with and using the Larson system of customer lead generation we want to help you grow from now until tomorrow. What is the lifetime of a Larson client, looking back if seems to be years, as they flow in and out of using our services.


As for you, what could Larson’s be doing for you? Well to start with, how do you keep in contact with your past customers? Mail, phone, email, nothing. If you’re not there in front of their faces who will fill THAT void? If you have customers in remote places we can keep you in touch with them. If you have a list of companies that you did business with a year or longer ago, we can make the call. These are companies that for the most part, know you and love you but for whatever reason you lost contact with. Reignite the flame. Bring them back into your list of happy currently happy customers.


“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
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P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.