June 12, 2006 Comments
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Does the conversion process end at the point of sale? Those of us in service industries realize that the conversion process is ongoing as we have to ensure customer satisfaction in order to continue to get repeat business. But even for those in retail or selling products of some sort, the conversation may be the end of one sales process, but it should also be the beginning of another.
In the service industry, once you've got a client, he or she is yours to lose. That means that unless you screw something up, they'll remain as a client for as long as there is a need for your services. But it's also your job to continue to sell to them by providing the best service possible and making sure the results are more than merely satisfactory.
Providing quality services can net you far more than just an ongoing contract, it can also provide great word-of-mouth leading to scores of referrals, which is the most lucrative form of marketing. What you say about yourself is not nearly as important as what others are saying about you.
Cultivating your existing clients can result in a great source of new clients. This is also true in retail. Anytime you sell a product, name and contact information can be gathered and used to cultivate that contact, providing a means to deliver additional information about your products, offer, etc.
One a customer has bought from you; there is a good chance he or she will buy from you again, provided that the experience was positive. If you don't do any follow up, there is a good chance that you’ll miss the boat the next time that customer needs your product.
So while conversions are the endpoint of a single process, with proper cultivation, follow-up and relationship building, the end of one conversion will result in many more to follow.
Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.
Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.
Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.
Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.
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