Colleen’s Blog

In sales, our focus is often set on making the next sale. But, our current client base should never be neglected for the sake of closing another deal  Always nurture and build relationships within your current customer base. You want to keep them happy because not only does it feel good to deliver quality to your clients, but they will also be more likely to refer you to others, which helps drive more sales for your business. As I see it, all customers want the same 13 things from you. Accomplish them all and you will develop a loyal profitable customer who will refer you to everyone they know:

It’s a simple fact...there are some customers that you must fire if you want to remain profitable. To be fair - some of these customers are sold products and services that are not beneficial for them. It can be easy to get carried away with the thrill of making a sale, but to avoid these situations, it’s important to only sell your services to customers who can truly benefit from using them. Other problem customers could have been the right type of clients at the beginning of the relationship, but due to personality changes and/or changes in corporate policies, are no longer as profitable as they used to be. Stop working with these two client types:

You may be surprised to learn that many salespeople and business professionals spend less than one hour a month prospecting for new business. One thing you must always keep in mind is that there is no sales problem that good prospecting skills can’t solve. Unless you’re rude or have a bad attitude (in which case you shouldn’t be in sales!), nurturing your pipeline consistently will lead you to sales success. I frequently coach sales reps who know exactly what to say, when to say it, and have terrific, well-priced products and services...but they still don’t sell. Why? Because they have no prospects waiting in their sales funnel! Simply put, if you have no prospects, you can’t make sales. <-- Click To Tweet To ensure that you are creating a steady stream of new business opportunities, here are a few tips that can help your prospecting and pipeline building efforts: