Permission is Golden
Posted by Mike Ferris on Friday, April 27, 2007 and posted in SalesThe cycle that your prospects go through to become customers is:
First - Strangers
Second - Friends
Third - Customers
Fourth - Loyal Customers
And Fifth - Former Customers (not the desired outcome)
What is the difference at each level? The level of permission and trust granted by the customer.
With the high cost of acquiring new referral sources and the even higher cost of loyal customers, the home care marketing professional today must focus on turning as many friends into loyal customers as possible. This must be done while avoiding allowing loyal customers from becoming former customers.
In home care marketing today the secret to success does not lie in a focus on finding as many new customers as possible, it is the focus on how to extract the maximum benefit from each customer. Many of the markets that you are working in are saturated and over-saturated with home care agencies. How the marketer leverages the permission granted by the friend, customer and loyal customer will dictate their success. You cannot build a long-term relationship without their explicit permission. The old adage about being able to lead a horse to water but being able to make them drink is all too true.
What is the difference between the home care sales person that is considered a “pest” because they come in to the referral source’’s office once a week and the one that is expected and welcomed once a week? Permission is the difference.
Where does trust come from? It starts with familiarity and awareness of your agency and its services. When the referral source is comfortable enough, and only then, will you get your first piece of business. What you and the agency do with that first referral will build the structure for building long-term opportunities to earn and build trust. When you think about those companies that have your trust you will find that you have had frequent and satisfactory encounters with them. They have not betrayed your trust and have always fulfilled your expectations.
You build a “trust” account with referral sources. If you build up enough trust, your relationship can overcome a lapse in service or problem. By handling the problem quickly, visibly and to the customer’s satisfaction will actually add to the balance in that “trust” account. But if you do not have the referral sources initial trust, you will be just one more home care agency.
Managing these relationships takes time and effort. It may be necessary to “fire” some referral sources if they are consuming all of your time and endangering your relationships with loyal customers. If you have too many loyal customers, then it may be necessary to split the territory or otherwise enable the more effective management of these relationships.
Having your customer’s permission to conduct an ongoing conversation with them is something to not take lightly. Referral sources that have allowed you to become their primary resource for home care will expect you to not betray their confidence. They should expect, maybe even demand, that you be proactive in making sure that they have all of the information necessary to make good home care choices. You must be their resource for any information that they need about home care services.
Note: Permission in E-mail communications is especially important. You should not send any unsolicited or undesired communications to prospects or referrals sources. Getting permission to have the E-conversation is the only way to really use E-mail to leverage your relationship electronically.
Remember: Permission is Golden.