5 ways to retain customers in your network
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
For most network marketers, getting customers is the easy part—retaining them, however, can often be a whole other story. In this article I will bring across five crucial points I’ve found to be vital when it comes to retaining customers in your network.
#1 - Follow up, follow up, follow up.
Building a networking marketing business and retaining it is all in the follow up; you can’t sell someone a product or service and expect them to reorder or stay with it if you never talk to them again or if you wait too long. Typically, you will want to follow up your sale with phone call or email (phone call preferred as it is more personal) within a week to a week and a half.
Things to ask:
- How did you enjoy [the product or service]?
- Do have any questions?
#2 - Periodically email customers new information.
If it’s a nutritional supplement you market, regularly send new information (research, testimonials, articles, etc.) by email. The easiest way to do this is to create a mailing list that doesn’t disclose any emails or names, then send out the information to everyone in your network with one click.
Make sure the information you’re sending them is both relevant and of interest to them. If it’s something you did not write yourself (e.g. an article about the product written by someone else), then perhaps attach a friendly note at the beginning of the email telling the receiver what it is that you’re sending them, why it should be of interest to them, and what they should expect to find.
#3 - Regularly hold meetings.
Home meetings are an excellent way to start, and are of little to no cost to you. Simply ask around in your network to find a good date, then set it and send out invitations. Follow this up with calls. Make sure you tell everyone to bring a friend (or two, or more!) to the meeting if possible.
If you don’t want to host the meetings yourself but your upline or someone else in your company is bringing in a doctor or lecturer to speak at a presentation meeting, be sure to attend and send invitations out to all of your network. Get the word out there. Tell everyone to bring their friends.
And don’t forget - after the meeting is over, be sure to follow up!
#4 - Get your customers earning money.
In my team’s experience, consumers (product or service users who are not also doing the business) are more likely to stick with a product if they’re also getting money back from it. Depending on how your company’s compensation plan is set up, this may or may not be possible.
If it is, this is how to make it happen: When you see that the consumer is enjoy the product and seeing results, you know that they may be open to sharing it with others - People rarely like to keep good things to themselves. Tell the consumer that there is a way to get their product paid for (by x amount of money back—variable depending on your company’s compensation plan) if you refer another person(s) to the product. In my experience, I have never had someone say no; It’s hard to pass up free money!
#5 - Create a monthly newsletter.
A monthly newsletter is an excellent way to connect your networking team with each other. When composing your newsletter, keep in mind the following things:
- Make it worth reading. Provide your reader with networking tips, new information your product, new science (if applicable), testimonials, etc.
- Keep it brief. Nobody is going to read all ten, seven, or even five pages. Try to keep in to two pages maximum.
- Recognize your leaders. Everyone loves recognition, and by publicly recognizing those in your organization who have grown or done well over the month (or whatever time period), you’re doing two things: First, you’re showing that you value your team members. Second, you’re providing an inspiration and goal for others: to progress in their business and be recognized.
