Five Ways to Retain Business

Let’s start by getting this out of the way, shall we – it’s been a ridiculously difficult time for most businesses. Heck, it’s been an incredibly difficult time for pretty much everyone with our lives turned upside down, family schedules disrupted, and the almost daily barrage of mostly bad news about the global pandemic.

It’s enough to make you want to go back to bed and hide under the covers. (Sounds good, doesn’t it.)

Unfortunately, we can’t do any such thing and instead, we have to “mobilize” if we want to continue to retain our clients and get new ones too.

Consider these five action steps to help you succeed in our “new normal”:

Stay visible
I know that seems rather obvious, however, many companies went “silent” In March and as they retreated into their home offices, their continued outreach to clients and prospects began to falter. Make it a point to distribute quality content, schedule Zoom meetings, make old-fashioned phone calls, and don’t let yourself be forgotten.

Be creative
This is a great time to do some creative thinking and come up with “out-of-the-box” tactics and strategies that may prove to be effective for your clients and prospects. “Same-old, same old” might not cut it if you want to stand apart from the competition.

Be proactive
Don’t wait for your clients or prospects to come to you. Take the initiative to reach out with ideas and suggestions (see number 2!) and position yourself as a trusted resource.

Make introductions
It has always been a good business strategy to be recognized as a “connector” and that’s even more true right now. Businesses survive and thrive by the quantity and quality of their connections and if you can assist your clients and prospects with substantive introductions, you can be certain that they will remember you.

Be thankful
Reaching out to connect with a simple “thank you for your business” can go a long way to help your client feel acknowledged, respected and important. These types of thank you messages should play an integral part in the way you do business and not simply as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Smart companies are looking to new ways to retain their business as well as implementing tried and true tactics. For sure this is not the time to hide under the covers!