Many companies and salespeople follow the same formulas for bringing them closer to what they think their customers really want. Concepts like “customer
focus” and “customer satisfaction” are warmly embraced. Today, who isn’t focusing on satisfying customers?
However, in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, if you’re doing what for companies and salespeople to set themselves apart from the rest of the
competition. If your company is going to be a leader in your market, you are going to have to really practice things like “customer intimacy”, “customer
interaction”, “customer loyalty” and perhaps more important – “customer partnership”. Partnership is a single-thread relationship. It is being” one.” Such a relationship is built upon a mutually agreed-upon plan that reflects the nature and needs of all parties involved. This is not a re-wording of old terminology or a redefining of the same, tired concepts of “sales and service”. Instead, it is a paradigm shift, moving away from transactional customer satisfaction and
towards permanent customer loyalty.
In order to achieve success today, companies and salespeople must develop the needed skills to develop long-term relationships with their best customers. Too
often, however, the constant push to increase sales and market share leads companies and salespeople away from their current customers and, instead,
towards finding new ones. Such a strategy is a terrible waste of time and money. The most effective way to assure the growth in profitability that every company
and salesperson wants is to turn their already-existing customers into “apostles”. For far too many companies and salespeople today, the overriding focus of their growth strategy is on increasing sales and market share. This is eerily similar to what I experienced when I was working my way through college selling cookware door to door. As a beginning salesperson, I naively believed the best way for me to make more money was to make more sales. The foolish dedication to this premise led me to ignore my past customers in favor of always finding new ones.
It was only afterwards, when I found myself working harder than ever before and making less money for the time I invested, that I realized my strategy was wrong. Unfortunately, many companies and salespeople today are acting and thinking ke I did over thirty years ago. They dedicate far more of their resources to expanding sales at the expense of their already existing clientele.
Since 1974, while working with some of the smartest and most successful companies and salespeople across America, I have learned that the ability to
convert new sales into “apostles” for companies and salespeople is the best path ards stable, long-term growth. Moreover, I have recognized which skills are
needed to accomplish this task. The stairs of customer loyalty is the process which, in a simple, straightforward manner, shows you how to convert your
prospects into sales, and then to customers, and finally, into apostles, who are a group of raving fans who will “preach your message” and “sing your praises” to
the marketplace.