Do Your Customers Remember You?

Be honest, do they? Probably not. Here are some scary statistics:

• 88% of customers have no specific plan to buy from the same salesperson or dealership.
• 82% of customers can not recall their salespersons’ name 12 months after the sale.
• 58% of customers have a family member or close friend who will purchase within a year.

Pretty scary facts about the impression or lack there of that most salespeople leave on their customers. Now ask yourself, do you do anything to be memorable to them? Unfortunately, if you are like most salespeople the answer is probably not, again. This second question is actually the key to the first. It is not your customer job or even their desire to remember you. However, it is your job and tremendously beneficial to your career to ensure that you are memorable to your customers. With today’s access to social media, it has been said that every person knows at least one person that will buy a car within the next 90 days. That means that everyone of your friends, family members and even previous customer all know a repeat or referral customer for you. This pool of potential clientele will be your best, most profitable, and happiest of customers.

This journey will be long and a lot of hard work however, it will reap the highest rewards for you. There are several ways and places that you can Prospect for customers. In fact we have an entire lesson dedicated to the many ways that you can Prospect to your friends, family, existing customer, and even the people that you are doing business with yourself.

There are so many potential customers out there that we could not cover them all in one article or even an online lesson. It’s like eating an elephant, it is just one bite at a time. Today we are going to look at how you can be more memorable to your existing customers so not only do they come back to you to purchase future vehicles, but they also send you their friends and family to purchase from you. Earning these sales if easier than you might think if you are memorable. It has been said,

“All things being equal, people would prefer to purchase from someone they know. All things being not so equal, people still want to buy from someone they know.”

Simply put, if people know you, including being referred to you from someone they know and trust, they will prefer to buy from you.

7 ways to follow-up with your customers and be memorable to them:

1. Thank them for their business
2. Send them a lottery ticket in a thank you card
3. Remind them of up coming maintenance and help set their appointments (you can ever go the extra mile and off pick up and delivery for these appointments)
4. Contact them on their birthday
5. Contact them on the anniversary of their car purchase
6. Offer to bring them lunch to their office
7. Offer to send them referral business

These are by no means the definitive list of ways to become memorable to your customers and to get them to become repeat customers nor to send you referrals. These ideas should be thought starters that can grow your business. The most important key to remember when following up with your customers, even though you are mining for prospects you must always be of service and value to your customer first then ask for the repeat and referral prospects. Visit this discussion “How to be memorable to your existing customers?” to expand on these ideas as well as share some of your own.