Some companies act like dinosaurs and learn nothing from those old beasts. They are EXTINCT for a reason (the dinosaurs, not necessarily the companies…yet!). Old sales techniques, “all about me” marketing collateral, and failure to understand how to create an audience out of customers. People who think they are great business development leaders are handed their hats (often in bankruptcy court) when their customers don’t come back for more. They are forced to find new customers because the old ones never graduated from customers to fans…never mind even ever reaching the “audience” stage.
To help, here are my own definitions:
Customer- someone who buys something from you.
Fan- someone who wants to support you.
Audience- someone who wants to buy, support, hear and tell others about you.
The differences can be both qualitative and quantitative, and I invite you to think of yourself walking into a Jackson Browne concert for the first time, having perhaps never even heard his songs. You’re a customer because you bought the ticket. He has fans who will surely greet him warmly because they love his music. Yet what I learned from my own first event with him is that he clearly developed an audience, for when they leave the concert, they want more…
On the qualitative side, an audience’s engagement and involvement are far superior to that of a customer. They will seek you out. They will ask for more even if you are not offering. They will exude the greatest loyalty, and they will cost you NOTHING to bring back.
On the quantitative side, the frequency of engagement with a customer can be just once. The frequency of engagement with an audience can be as much as you can give them.
In developing a sales plan, we often project out numbers that we hope to achieve, yet they are all built on the current realities, which often means that we have NO customers yet. That is why most plans are proven to be folly just a few yards from the initial take off point. Rather, I prefer to think of the race as one in which you will have to make changes including resetting the ultimate goal before you get there. And one major reason for that is that the voice of the customer will change as their engagement changes.
The costs will be far reduced when you go in with a second offering if you’ve been successful in delivering the first. They will reduce again if you find a way to have that customer become a fan. Now that you’ve established a relationship, and remembered their birthday (or their spouse’s), the critical point is how you get them to move from fan to audience, and herein lies the most important word…relevance.
If you show relevance at all times when they expect an interaction with you, an audience will develop and they will become your cheapest source of business development growth for they will tell their friends/colleagues/family to come too. Staying relevant today is so different than even just a few years ago. In an era where tweets can distract at a mile per minute rate, the key is to develop a focused approach to your business, with a clear vision that all of your colleagues, customers, fan and eventually audience can buy into at their core.
What have you done to turn your customers into an audience today…and will everything about your business be positioned to grow them tomorrow?
Sass
PS. When I started to write this solar blog the main readers were colleagues and customers. While the numbers have indeed grown into thousands of views per month, I am most rewarded when something that I write resonates to the point of having improved just one person’s day. I guess in the case of a free solar blog its more about moving from readers to repeaters (ie. facebook “like”). So thank you to all who consider themselves reader, fan or audience. The time you are taking to read this is appreciated.
UPDATE: Apr27,2011: Successful business development is no longer measured by the closing of the first sale. Rather it is measured by the profitability of the account with a longer term view, since client acquisition costs are usually higher than client retention costs, whether you are talking about video game users or solar canopy buyers.