Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sales and marketing professionals in 2008 will be eliminating clutter and getting personal. They know the only profitable way to grow a business today is to create a sustainable relationship with the right customers. This starts with engaging their minds to get to the heart of what they want ? which is a relationship that works. This is the green state of mind.

Here are the 2008 Trends for Building Sustainable Customer Relationships:

1. The Green State of Mind ? Green is more about doing the right thing than saving a tree or an ocean. That?s because doing the right thing - simply making quality actions for the customer - automatically takes care of the results they are looking for. Customers today are keenly aware of being green. Ignoring this implies little concern for the value of their time, money, and most importantly, their values.

Everyone is fed up with the waste in our economy today. Customers don?t want to waste time by playing mind games. Jeff Korhan, sales and marketing consultant and meditation instructor says, ?I can promise you that connecting with your customers is as simple as finding that secret space between those thoughts that clutter their minds. That takes you straight to their heart. The right message about doing what's right for the customer is the ?mantra? that resonates with them. If your marketing message and sales approach clearly mean something to you, it will mean something to those people that are right for your organization.?

2. Surprise Marketing ? To get the attention of customers today requires an element of surprise. No creativity is required. Getting face-to-face with customers and providing personal service on a consistent basis is going to surprise the heck out of them! Walk into an Apple Computer store and you?ll feel the buzz, the training, the levels of planned expertise that are there to ensure personal, consistent service for every customer. This is unexpected these days. You don?t have to be a cutting-edge corporation to deliver this level of service. Surprising the marketplace is simply doing what you know they want. When your staff is trained in a process to deliver exceptional, personal, and professional service, they will surprise their customers AND their competitors.

3. Active Relationships ? It?s easy to start a relationship, but hard to keep it going. Building sustainable relationships is the key to any successful endeavor. You have to go the distance. This is one reason most politicians, many celebrities and some regular consultants and business owners are recognizing the value of blogs as active tools for quickly getting a message out to the marketplace ? and getting it noticed. Blogs are making websites look like static brochures, the dinosaurs they replaced. Blogs are also perceived as real. The same information on a blog is interpreted as raw and unpolished and therefore more believable. If you aren?t blogging by the end of 2008, then you are probably not serious about your business. Professional networking sites like Linked-In are also rapidly becoming acceptable tools for staying in touch. Very little effort is required to stay in the loop ? and as they say - if you aren?t on the inside, you?re on the outside. It is green outside, but it may be chilly out there too.

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Jeff Korhan is an entrepreneur, consultant and speaker who works with sales and marketing professionals in associations, small businesses, and corporations, especially in the green industry, to develop sustainable work practices that get results and create an environment where people enjoy working.

He is a green industry expert, with credentials as a Licensed Landscape Architect and a Certified Arborist. He is a board member of the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), and a Chapter Leadership Consultant for the National Speakers Association (NSA). Jeff can be reached as 630-774-8350 or speaker@truenature.com.