In a recent posting from Marketing Profs there was an article on Five tips for turning a Business to Business Purchase into a Relationship. Read more here….
The author Jim Logan stated, “when someone decides to purchase from you, stop selling” and he gave these recommendations:
- “Contact the person the day after the purchase and reiterate how pleased you are they’re now a customer and how you expect the purchase to benefit them,” he advises. “Contact can be a telephone call or email.”
- Educate your new client on what to expect next. “Give them clear and reasonable expectations on what they should be doing and what you’re doing now that their purchase has been made,” he suggests.
- Let them know exactly how to request information and support should they have a question or issue.
- Give them an update when a purchased product ships, provide tracking information and call to make sure it arrives.
- Give your current clients a first look at new offerings and special discounts.
I would strongly suggest that “The Relationship” development process started way before the sale occurred. The purchase is just one milestone of many customer development steps to come in the future!
Other items I’d recommend for you to consider are:
Does your business have a “new customer welcome kit” to help signify how they can get started in using your offerings?
Who do they contact if there are issues or errors?
Do you have a web customer service web portal to track their issues? (Ideally this should automatically feed into your CRM system with the appropriate alerting.)
Have you added their interests in an “Interests” field in your contact management system? Did you identify the “must haves” and the “don’t do this” memo items?
Are they interested in automatically receiving your valuable monthly e-newsletter?
Have you left the impression that you are going follow up on specific dates with specific actions?
Is there an expectation of you obtaining future referrals from the Great Value they are to receive?
What other tips have you found helpful in building the B2B relationship?
