Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind..Out Of Business

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You have landed a number of key customers and over time you have completed the projects and received great feedback.

When you take a breather from your current workload you realise that you do not have much in the pipeline.

Then as the weeks go by you begin to wonder why these customers haven’t called you, but you quickly put that idea out of your mind. On your things to do list is of course to contact them.

More weeks go by and you are so busy chasing new customers that you have forgotten to connect with these key customers.

This is unfortunately not that uncommon and one small business owner shared his story a few weeks ago, luckily with a happy ending.

So, how do you make sure you stay engaged?

Keeping in Their Sights

It can be quite easy to be out of sight as it is about having a presence that is relevant to your customers.  A key is interacting with them how they want and when they want and where they want.

This should include online and offline such as the local networking meetings, online networking groups, even on their blogs. There are numerous tactics such as email newsletters to ensure you have a presence in their world. They key is to work out what is the most relevant for your customers and your business.

Keeping in Their Minds

Once you are no longer top of mind with your customers, it becomes that much more difficult to get back in. This is in terms of time and money and of course it does depend on how close the relationship was before.

Once you are not in their minds it is so much easier for your competitors to try and attract them to their business. You may be doing this right know with one of your competitor’s customers.

It doesn’t mean you have to be all deep and meaningful with all customers. It just means segmenting and tailoring your engagement with them. For example some customers may just want to be informed on your product deals. Others may like you to phone them every few weeks as they like informal chats or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Keeping in Business

If you find yourself out of their sights and minds then you have two options. Win them back or find new customers. Both may be achievable but definitely not ideal if you want to have a sustainable business.

Whilst you will lose customers at times as every business does, keeping your focus on key customers and not losing touch will always be crucial to your marketing success.

The closer the relationship the more difficult it is for you customers to leave.