Long-term business is the most profitable business. According to the Gartner Group, for an average company, 80% of your profits will come from 20% of your customers. It can cost between 5 times and 10 times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Simply increasing the average tenure of a client/customer by a few months will increase growth without increasing sales.
A lot of selling is done by people who viewed the signed contract or the completed transaction as the goal. In reality, this is the starting point of the relationship, and the sales and service process will be focused not on finding 10 customers that will be around for one cycle, but 1 customer that will be around for ten cycles.
Here’s the advice:
Be Picky
About who you work for and who you do business with. Bad relationships based on a sales pitch will suck resources, energy, and money. Good relationships based on mutual compatibility will generate profit, referrals, and a long-term engagement.
Be Honest
About what you do best and who can benefit from it. Sell solutions to problems, not products and features.
Be Open
About the opportunity for things to happen in the future. People do business with people. If you can communicate your vision, your benefits, and your best attributes, a lot of those “no’s” will become “not right now’s”
taylorworth 