Customer Service Through Building Your Personal Trade, Repeat Business and Referral Business

by Brad Huisken

As I have stated many times, building your personal trade, repeat business and referral business base is essential to your future success. Through this article, we will examine several techniques that will dramatically increase the probability that your customers will come back to you in the future.

If for any reason you doubt the usefulness of building personal trade and repeat business, remember that every product that is sold has a certain repurchase cycle. By repurchase cycle I mean when the merchandise will need to be replaced, redone, upgraded or added too, in order to satisfy additional needs. I personally want to save my customers all the time that I can. I would hate to have them wasting their valuable time looking for a new sales professional when I am ready, willing and able to satisfy their needs again. Unfortunately, the customer may have lost my number or forgotten the outstanding service they received from me. A gentle reminder may be all they need.

The point of the following techniques is to keep your name in front of your customer on a consistent basis. If your name is readily available to them, you can count on the fact that you will be the one to whom they will naturally come back.

No matter how much advertising, marketing, prospecting or cold calling you do, your best source of future sales lies in your past customers. They already know you and trust you. Remember, as much as 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customer base. I know that I would personally love to have someone as my personal salesperson in every industry in which I make purchases. I want an insurance agent I can count on, a real estate agent that stays in contact, an apparel salesperson that would fulfill my needs and a furniture salesperson who knows my past purchases, preferences and future desires.

Building personal trade, repeat business and referral business is no different from developing friendships in your personal life. Should my wife and I meet another couple at a social event that we feel may be fun to get together with, the first step in developing a friendship would start with a conversation and asking for the name and phone number. Saying something like, “We would love to get together for dinner or a night out sometime; can we give you a call?” From that point the relationship develops. The same is true of developing your business friends. You need to start with capturing the name, address and phone number. With a customer profile card or clientele system, you should have a tool available to use. Now that you have acquired the customers’ personal information, you can capitalize on the techniques of building personal trade.

Send a personal thank-you note.
Every trainer and sales professional knows that a personal, handwritten thank-you note is one of the most powerful tools that you could possibly use. Yet the strategy is rarely used consistently in everyday selling. I have never received a thank-you note from someone that I made either a major or a minor purchase from. If everyone knows how thoughtful and how powerful a thank-you note can be, why doesn’t anyone ever use this tool? Well, I am a glutton for punishment, so I am going to attempt to sell you on the concept of sending a personal, handwritten thank-you note, consistently. I don’t care if your customer purchases an item that cost $10 or $100,000, they deserve a thank-you note. I am even going to attempt to sell you on the concept of sending a thank-you note to your prospects that don’t make a purchase from you.

I’m sure that the real reasons salespeople don’t send thank-you notes are obvious. It is either pure laziness, or they just don’t see the value of this powerful tool. A postcard is a very inexpensive investment to make in someone who just made a purchase from you, or even allowed you to make a presentation to him or her. They willingly chose to shop with you or purchase from you, the very least that you can do is to take five seconds and thank them for their time.
One of your goals in the furniture business is to set yourself apart from all of your competition. The only way to make you stand above the crowd is to do something different and set yourself apart as exceptional. Until the day comes when everyone is sending thank-you notes to their prospects and clients, a short note will do the job. I am not suggesting that you need to write a full-page, formal letter — just write a simple, short note of thanks for their time or purchase.

When they receive the card from you, what do you think they will be thinking? If they made a purchase from you, they will know that you sincerely are appreciative of them for their business.

If you send your prospects a thank-you for seeing you or spending time with you, you may just set yourself ahead of the rest. If they haven’t yet purchased from your competition, the thank-you note may just close the sale for you. Even if they have made a purchase from a competitor and if they should have a problem with the purchase, who do you think they will call when they are replacing their inadequate purchase? Who do you think they will remember when their repurchase cycle comes along? It may just be you.

Make a follow-up telephone call.
A professional salesperson will always make a follow-up telephone call after a sale, sales presentation or an appointment. The customer that is looking to make a substantial purchase should definitely be called.

In the furniture industry, I believe that a thank-you note should be sent three to five days after the purchase or the event. Then the follow-up telephone call should be made three to four weeks after the purchase or the event. Should you be making a follow-up call after a sales presentation that didn’t result in a sale, make the call within a day or two of the original presentation. Convey another reason for the customer to come back and look again. Whether it is that you received new merchandise, a special order or to look at another vendor catalog, give the customer a reason to come back again.

Use your business cards.
Many salespeople think of their business cards as a means of filling space on their desks or counters. They display them in a nice little plastic holder for people to pick up haphazardly as they meander by. In reality, a business card should be used as a way of getting your name out to the public as another marketing tool.

An excellent method of building referrals and personal trade is through sending or handing out your business cards. Telling your customers that you would like to give them a few business cards for their reference file and to give to anyone else they know that may need your products or services is an effective tool.

It amazes me how many people that I meet on a daily basis don’t carry their business cards with them. In my desk, as I am sure most people do, I have a box full of business cards of people that I have met or done business with in the past. Before I go to the yellow pages or searching out someone that can satisfy my current need, I always go to that box of business cards. Finding a new serviceperson or salesperson that you trust can be a very adventurous task. I would much rather go to someone I have dealt with in the past, even if I don’t readily remember their name.

I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten a phone call from a person who tells me that they got my card from an acquaintance of theirs. The last time I ordered business cards, they were very inexpensive. We can certainly afford the fraction of a penny per exposure to hand someone a few business cards. While I’m sure many of the business cards get thrown in the round file next to the desk, just as many are filed in the box for future reference.

A professional salesperson will make a habit of handing out business cards to everyone that they meet. It could be the grocery clerk, a delivery person, service representative or even the police officer that is writing you a ticket. They are all potential clients that might just call you.

Send holiday cards.
As long as you have taken the time and effort to complete the Personal/Company Profile form for each of your customers, you might just as well use the information to your advantage. You should have your customer’s birth date or anniversary date. Wouldn’t it be worth the time and effort to send them a greeting card?

I don’t care if you use a preprinted card and a computer-generated address label. A card sent for their special occasion can be very effective in keeping your name in front of your client base. The computer is your friend, not a foe, and the time needed to send cards and letters has been reduced significantly with technology. You can send preprinted cards on a bi-weekly or a monthly basis with very little hands-on effort.

The effect is that my name is in front of the people that are my potential future customers. If you really want to stand out from the crowd, pick some other holiday to send greeting cards to the top 20 percent of your customer base, in addition to the traditional holiday season. If you’re Irish, send a St. Patrick’s Day card. If you’re patriotic, send an Independence Day card. You could even send a birthday card to the product they purchased, if appropriate for your industry. You get the point. You can very easily get exposure and keep your name in your public’s eye by sending a holiday card, personal occasion card or other special date card.

Create a Company Newsletter.
Another excellent means of keeping your name in front of your customer and prospect base is to develop a company newsletter. The newsletter can be a simple update of current or upcoming events, care, etc.

Your newsletter can be a single page, or a number of pages, although it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Depending on time, you can do a quarterly or semi-annual newsletter. The key to any newsletter is to make it interesting enough to cause your base of people to actually read it. I would suggest that you include FYI (for your information) articles, local interest stories, favorite recipes, sports information, appropriate cartoons, industry updates, an introduction to new products and special offers. Any of the topics that you pick should contain information that is of general interest to your client and prospect base.

The furniture trade magazines will usually have a number of articles that would be of interest to your clients or soon-to-be clients. With a simple telephone call, most trade magazines will allow you to reproduce an article for no charge as long as credit is given to the author of the article and/or the magazine.
The technology that we have at our disposal with computers and photocopiers makes it extremely easy to produce, print, copy, label and mail a newsletter to your database. I would strongly suggest that you take advantage of this resource.

All five of these strategies are designed to keep your name in front of your prospects and customers. In turn, you will then develop personal trade, repeat customers and referral prospects. It is my opinion that you should get your name in front of your customer and prospect base a minimum of six times per year.

Personal trade, repeat business and referral prospects are what the true professional salesperson relies on for future business. In many cases, the only thing that we as salespeople have in our complete control is how we treat our clients and potential clients. You cannot always have the right product, the right service, the right advertising, the right price, etc., but you can always treat your customers and prospects the right way. The answer is very simple in concept, yet at times difficult to deliver. As a professional salesperson, you must always do the right thing, and the right thing is always treat your people extremely well, with all the love, care and service that you can possibly give. Treating them well not only includes handling them as you know you should during the selling process, but the service you give them after the sale has been completed. Serve them well, and they in turn will serve you well.

Again, a satisfied client may tell a few other people about you, a dissatisfied client will tell many people. The service that you give after the sale will not only eliminate the possibility of dissatisfied customers, but will also enhance the possibility of your clients telling more than just a few people about the extraordinary product and service that they got from you.

Author, trainer, consultant and speaker Brad Huisken is president of IAS Training. Mr. Huisken authored the books “I’M a Salesman! Not a PhD.” and “Munchies For Salespeople, Selling Tips That You Can Sink Your Teeth Into”, he developed the PMSA Relationship Selling Program, the PSMC Professional Sales Management Course, The Mystery Shoppers Kit, The Employee Handbook and Policy & Procedures Manual, The Weekly Sales Training Meeting video series along with Aptitude Tests and Proficiency Exams for new hires, current sales staff and sales managers, along with the new Weekly Internet Sales Training Series. In addition, he publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales Insight” For a free subscription or more information contact IAS Training at (800) 248-7703, info@iastraining.com, www.IASTraining.com or fax (303) 936-9581.

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