Is Staying In Touch a Waste of Time?

You have sold a long-lasting product to a good customer, and there were no problems or complaints along the way and the feedback has been good. So do you really need to keep in touch with this client, or would it be a waste of time when you have new customers to find? The sales process doesn't finish when the initial deal is done, as that's when it can really begin. Customer relationship management isn't simply about getting more out of your existing customers. It can be just as much about managing your reputation and generating word-of-mouth referrals from your happy clients to new ones. By staying in touch (without pestering your clients) you can foster a sense of trust and respectability that will go far towards marking you out as a company that's good to do business with. However, you have to get the balance just right or you are in danger of annoying and putting off customers that were once satisfied but who become increasingly irritated by pointless, inconvenient and time-wasting contacts. Well-timed unobtrusive contacts with nuggets of information or season's greetings can be really effective, but too many with little worthwhile content will quickly put you in their bad books. Dropping an individual an email about an event they may be interested in or congratulating them on a piece of good news you've heard about them can be very effective in keeping you on their radar. The next time they are asked by a friend or colleague if they can recommend a company that offers the same services as yours, you can be sure your name will spring to mind. Hiring sales professionals who are skilled at maintaining and developing customer relationships could be the difference between success and failure for your business, so it is not a task you should take lightly. Sales staff need to be thoroughly vetted and assessed for their skills and their genuine ability in order to make it past the 'gift of the gab' that some posing as trusted sales people appear to have in spades. The impressive performance you get in the recruitment process should be exactly what you continue to get day after day in the workplace once they're hired. That is, after all, their after-sales service. Specialist sales recruitment agencies in Staffordshire are experienced at vetting potential candidates for sales roles and can help your business by managing the initial stages of a thorough recruitment process. By working with sales recruitment agencies in Staffordshire you can get help with everything from advertising the available roles to sifting through applications and carrying out the first round of interviews. This can be very useful if time is limited. If it is specialists in Customer Relationship Management that you need, then this area of expertise can be a focus for the recruitment process and evaluation criteria. It can be helpful to have sales professionals who also have experience of marketing, as the two disciplines support each other.