Right Source Marketing

Do you know who often gets ignored when it comes to the distribution of thought leadership? Your existing customers — the ones who pay your bills. ? Your sales team is focused on using thought leadership content to move prospects through the buying process (while strengthening your position as a preferred partner), but almost as soon the sale is made, the focus is on the next prospect. If you only use thought leadership to lure your prospective customers, you’re wasting a whole lot of time and money. And you’re setting yourself up to lose that client you just worked so hard to get. Here’s how that departure typically happens: ● You work your ass off to woo that customer (when they were still a prospect), using every relationship, tactic, and piece of thought leadership content available. ● You get the deal. ● During the honeymoon period (~first 3-6 months), you’re still on your game, still educating and providing that thought leadership content even though the deal is done.? ● Eventually, your customer calls become largely transactional, often in a good way. Trust has been built, and your team is just executing against the plan. ● You get comfortable, and after a while, you stop providing any thought leadership. But your competitors are smacking your customers over the head with it. In doing so, the competition convinces said customer to let them assess the work their current provider is doing – YOUR work.? ● You end up losing that customer. They’re going to tell you they’re switching due to price, lack of results, needing a different approach, or something like that. And you’ll believe that because it’s human nature to rationalize losses. Here’s the reality: While continuing to share thought leadership ideas and concepts with that customer may not have kept them around, it sure as heck would have helped. And it might have even allowed you to expand that relationship by keeping that client informed about new services or offerings. Every customer wants to hear about new thinking, approaches, and ways of operating, especially if you can apply it to their specific business situation. Because regardless of how much success you have driven for that customer, things can always get better. So instead of only strutting out your best stuff at the beginning of the relationship, start using it to ensure your customer sticks around.?