In an old Marx brothers movie, Groucho Marx is talking to a pretty, young girl, and he’s going on and on about himself. Finally he says, “That’s enough about me, now let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?”
I’m afraid that’s the approach many companies take in their marketing: they forget that marketing is a two-way relationship, and they talk only about themselves. They forget to ask, What are customers interested in? Not a good way to build relationships!
To catch more customers, you have to go beyond simply focusing on “making the sale” to focusing on building strong relationships that will build your business—short term and long term.
Relationship marketing has been a focus of mine for many years. I’ve created dozens of successful relationship-building programs for a wide range of businesses, large and small. These programs have helped businesses create an ongoing stream of qualified prospects, give better support to sales staff, stimulate greater word-of-mouth and referrals, promote greater repeat business, cross-selling and customer loyalty and close more sales.
Here’s one example.
Building Strong Relationships with CEOs
Manufacturers Hanover Trust (MHT) wanted to build relationships with CEOs to help promote their business banking division. Their plan was to send CEOs their business banking brochure.
I told MHT, “Sending your brochure serves your interests, but I’m not sure how interesting it will be to CEOs. Why don’t we do something that serves the CEO’s interests and really gets their attention?”
To do this, I created a unique program for them called Pivotal Perspectives: every month we sent CEOs an executive portfolio containing key excerpts and quotes from one of the best-selling business books of the day.
Since most CEOs are so busy that they don’t have time to keep up with their reading, they really appreciated getting these excerpts. These mailings served the CEOs interests and got a lot more attention than a typical sales brochure would have gotten.
This series of mailings helped build relationships that led to almost two hundred face-to-face meetings between CEOs and MHT representatives, resulting in many new clients and millions of dollars in new business.
If you are interested in exploring outside-the-box ways to build relationships with your prospects and customers, just send me an e-mail and I’ll get back to you to discuss options for your company. The first consultation is free—no pressure and no obligation.
Geoffery Moore