Conversation is where the “know, like and trust” is being built these days.

This is not your Father’s marketing , you either engage with clients actively or you turn into a salt statue like some of Big Business is today.

How cool is it to find your ideal client then have them tweet for ya , shazam!

The concept of Social CRM is very well received, and makes a great deal of sense for Franchise companies that need to court a prospective franchisee, develop a strong relationship, and court the prospect through a large investment decision over a 45-60 day cycle.

I think it’s important for every businesses to define what customer relationship management means to them. That will help them determine what’s the right strategy and process to successfully implement their definition. Tools and packages are only as good as the processes they implement, so it’s really important for each company to figure out how they need to approach relationships with customers and prospects. Then find tools to help them implement that approach efficiently and effectively.

I agree with your thoughts on doing more with current customers, as it’s been proven time and again that they can help you grow your business quicker and more efficiently than by acquiring new customers. But I think there are many people who have recently started new businesses out of necessity, after being laid off. Others are still trying to build up their client base.

These are the people who I think are really focused on leveraging CRM and social media to attract new customers. They have to have customers before they can retain them, cross-sell/up-sell them and receive referrals from them.

Thanks!

Thanks for your kind words. I think the first impulse for many of us is to try and sit this one out. But the folks who fight that impulse and stretch out will give themselves an even better chance to make it.

Unfortunately I’ve never come across that silver bullet we hear of, and CRM is definitely not one. It can help increase the effectiveness of our customer acquisition and retention efforts. But we have to be willing to explore new ways of building relationships. And let’s be realistic and not expect people to throw their money at us just because we wrote a blog post. Just like anything else, it will take time to turn our content into meaningful business relationships. But isn’t it worth our time and effort to figure out how to speak to people in the language and channels they use? We owe it to our customers, prospects and ourselves to give it a shot.

My hope is that they find their existing customer base to be limited in its budget and therefor not able to purchase more goods and services from the small businesses.

My fear is that these companies are mistaking new customers for more business, forgetting that your existing customers are the one’s who are the least costly to sell to. Why? You have a relationship with them, you know how to do business with them, and you should know what their needs are.

A new customer is always more costly to sell to than an existing customer. This is adroitly explained in “Managing the professional services firm”, which isn’t about selling per se, but does a great job covering the main themes.

More time needs to be spent with existing customers than new one’s.

In a down economy, the ratio of time spent with existing and new customers may change though. It absolutely may be necessary to reach out to new bases.

However, using some Seth Godin marketing ninja tricks I think we can clearly see how in a down economy the goal is to become even more critical to your customers, and to spend more time with them.

Sit down with them and figure out ways to save them money, figure out ways to lighten their supply chain costs and inventory levels.