From Obscurity to Loyalty in the Mind of the Client




Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales show

Summary: Getting from Obscurity to Loyalty in the mind of the client is all about building relationships, and I'm all about that! Until I sell you something and then I'm off doing the next thing, and I forget about you completely, until and unless you call again.<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how you get from obscurity to loyalty in the mind of a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay. Great to have you here...<br> <br> <br> <br> Jay: Thank you, David. And once again, I'm super excited about this.<br> How Do You Move from Obscurity to Customer Loyalty?<br> Jay: I feel like customer loyalty is the holy grail of having a business. But I'm not sure if people know how to get their customers to that point. So I'm very excited. Where do you even start with that? From obscurity to loyalty. How do you begin this process?<br> <br> David: Yeah, it's a fun topic because I think again, most people don't think of it like this. It sort of ties back to what we were talking about last week. But the idea of getting from total obscurity to blind customer loyalty for most people just seems impossible. You know, "how do you do that?"<br> <br> But if you think about it, one of the things that I normally do, if I'm explaining this to an audience, I'll draw a target on a flip chart. At the center of the target, the bullseye is blind customer loyalty. This is just loyal. I would never consider doing business with anyone else, but you.<br> <br> And then, a couple of rings out -- outside the circles -- you have obscurity, total obscurity. I have no idea who you are. I have no idea that you're taking in air on the planet. I have no idea why I should do business with you, right?<br> Intelligent Repetition of Contact<br> And so you're not going to get from total obscurity to blind customer loyalty in one step. It's going to require intelligent repetition of contact, which is something we talked about last time as well. So when you think about it, there are stages you have to go through to get there.<br> <br> The first step is to move from obscurity, "I don't know who you are," to recognition, "Oh, I recognize you." I recognize that you're here. I don't love you. I don't hate you. I don't know you well enough to do either of those things. But I recognize that you're alive. So recognition is that first step.<br> <br> Jay: Okay.<br> Moving from Obscurity to Recognition<br> David: And when we think in terms of communication, the type of communication that you will engage in to let somebody know you're alive is very different than the type of communication that you'll engage in to get them to be more loyal to you and to get them to place that first-time order. So that initial step -- moving from obscurity to recognition -- that's step one.<br> <br> Then from recognition, the next thing we have to get it to is some level of comfort. They have to be comfortable enough with you to have additional conversations, to place that first-time order with you. And then once they're comfortable with you, that first order happens.<br> <br> From there, if you perform properly, if they place that order, and if you deliver the way you're supposed to and everything works out well, then they might say, "okay, I'll give you another chance and we'll do it again."<br> Getting from Recognition to Comfort<br> At that point, they're in that comfort ring. They're in that comfort level. You can operate in the comfort level for quite some time. And if you continue to perform in the comfort level, then eventually you start to move into that bullseye area. You start to move into that area of loyalty where people essentially say "Okay. I'm going to continue to come back to you... unless you mess up."<br> <br> Jay: Mm-hmm<br> <br> David: So now at that point, I'm pretty loyal. I'm kind of loyal.