Reconnecting with Your Customer: Today’s TOP Sales and Marketing Strategy

Looking for a sure-fire strategy to build and boost sales?

Seeking a magic bullet to pump new life into your business?

Surprise! The obvious sale is hiding in plain sight, right under your nose. Few marine retailers, however, recognize or take full advantage of this most highly targeted, prized catch: your own existing customers!

Who better to sell to than those who have already invested in both your product offering and your dealership? What are you doing on a regular basis to reconnect with your customers and to give them reasons to return and buy? Far too many dealers spend their valuable time and efforts mining new business exclusively, or simply hoping a new prospect will stumble through their door, when in fact they miss the boat by literally ignoring and failing to connect with their existing customer base.

Several Top 100 marine retailers from various regions of the country participated in a marketing panel discussion at the outset of the recession and were asked to identify their #1 sales and marketing strategy. While numerous concepts were discussed, there was 100 percent agreement on the #1 Priority: Good Old Fashioned, 1:1 Customer Contact!

Seven Proven Tips to Building Existing Customer Sales

1. Launch a Calling Campaign!
When was the last time you picked up the telephone and called your customers? Mining your own database is a goldmine for sales. Now is the time to pull together your list of customers and prospects, organize your team and explain the purpose of the program and the protocols, then divide and conquer!

2. Establish Management Accountability
For any program to be successful, there must be accountability in place. A leading sales trainer said, “If you think your salespeople are doing their phone follow-ups like they should without management accountability, you’re an idiot.” Create a program that includes weekly calling reports and results. Invest the time to meet and discuss what is working, and what’s not.

3. Set Appointments!
Automotive sales expert Joe Verde has trained thousands of car and truck retailers. He submits that if you schedule a sales appointment in advance and the customer shows up, 50 percent will close. That closing ratio suggests a powerful motivation to focus on the customer and find reasons to get them into the dealership!

4. Create Reasons to Call
When speaking at a national dealer conference, I surveyed a group of key ownership principals about why they believed their sales team failed to call and reconnect with their customers on a regular basis. Responses varied, from fear of rejection, to lack of focus or understanding of the opportunities that are available. Another compelling rationale emerged that had real claws: if they weren’t overtly selling a specific product, they just didn’t have a clue what to talk about!

For the past year and a half, I’ve made it my business to analyze successful retailers in both marine and other discretionary recreational product markets to observe how they tap their existing customer base. The ultimate goal is to transcend the role from a “sales person,” to becoming a valued and trusted friend or advisor with whom they establish loyalty after the sale. How is this achieved? The answer is simple and straightforward: regular, ongoing 1:1 customer contact!

Here are some reasons you can use to make ongoing contact with your customers:

– Call them when new or premium pre-owned inventory arrives that might be on their radar screen for future purchase. If you don’t know, ask!

– Let them know personally about upcoming special events – issue a personal invitation.

– Clip a magazine article about a topic you know they are interested in – mail it or tell them you have it at the dealership to share

– Advise them of service specials or any other promotion

– Tell them about an upcoming boat show and what you’re showcasing. Offer comp tickets to your best prospects!

5. Host Special Events
You need to create reasons for your customers to come to the dealership and visit often. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.” You need to continually build and reinforce awareness among this most targeted group after the sale. Here are a few ideas of special events you can host to keep them coming back for more!

– Conduct a Focus Group. Invite 8 to 12 of your best customers in for a 2-hour lunch and use this time to pick their brains about anything, from how to improve the dealership experience, to your specific marketing efforts, to your boat shows, and more. What a great way to solicit great ideas, build loyalty AND get your top customers into the dealership! Do these quarterly.

– Host a Factory Rep Meeting. Your reps are visiting the dealership anyway … so ask them to prepare a 30-minute presentation about the company’s plans and new products. Invite your customers in one evening for a wine and cheese party and to meet with the rep.

– Have a Party! VIP events for customers only are always fun and can stimulate sales! Holiday parties and cookouts year round are winners.

– Go Boating! Whether you launch a day trip or a multi-day outing, organize a boating extravaganza a few times a year. Many retailers testify that this initiative not only builds camaraderie among owners and the dealership, but directly facilitates sales.

– Host Seminars. Why not have a free seminar program once a month on a Saturday morning for customers? How to provision for and plan a boating trip? Troubleshoot common problems? Learn-to-drive class? The options are endless and the execution is easy.

– Free Donuts or Dogs! Take a cue from the motorcycle retailers and offer free donuts and coffee every weekend, or hot dogs and sodas at lunch.

The idea is to provide plenty of legitimate reasons to come into the dealership besides buying a boat. If they are there, no doubt they will see the new product without the pressure associated with sales.

6. Maintain Ongoing Communications
We’re not talking about a one-call, answer all here. We’re talking about the need for regularly scheduled customer touch points. Besides the 1:1 calls and personal, what else can you do to keep your dealership top of mind with your customers?

– Opt-in E-blast Campaigns. Send out eblasts to your customers once or twice a month. Alert them about special events, promotions, shows and more.

– Publish E-newsletters. This doesn’t have to be expansive or expensive to produce. Use available Publisher templates or other software and create a monthly e-newsletter mailing that you distribute to your opt in customer and prospect list.

– Direct Mail. While digital is fast and cheap, don’t discount the value of mail yet. Mix up your marketing campaign to include both print and digital contacts. A personal note card, a letter from the dealership or a professionally produced postcard all work.

The more you communicate, the more you connect. The more you connect, the better you create real long-term, lasting relationships. Relationship selling works.

7. Use Social Media
An entire series of article could be produced about how to leverage social media to stay connected with your customers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and others are all growing exponentially and have real merit. Your dealership should analyze the options, consider your customer demographics, find out what social media they are using, and then choose to invest and commit manpower into social media platforms that best fit.

In closing, remember the quote by Walmart founder Sam Walton who perhaps best understood the role of the customer in its proper perspective: “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Whether he’s spending his money on new boating product or other discretionary products, our customers are the lifeline to our business. What are we doing to reconnect with them, to establish relationships of trust and to give them reasons to invest again?

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Wanda Kenton Smith is a 31-year marine industry veteran, national marketing columnist and speaker. She is president of Kenton Smith Marketing (www.kentonsmithmarketing.com) and president of Marine Marketers of America (www.marinemarketersofamerica.org)

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