I recently read this article by Belle Beth Cooper from Buffer (which references an original post by Ben Chestnut of Mail Chimp) where Belle (and Ben) discuss an approach to marketing/sales which goes against the traditional sales funnel approach – that is, throw as many leads as possible into the top of the funnel and eventually a few sales will drop out the bottom.
I really like this. It focuses on the customer that you have and not the one you’re hunting for which, to me at least, makes a lot of sense.
“That’s all well and good when you have clients but we don’t have any” you might say. Agreed, when you have none you need to be actively filling your sales funnel and selling to them. But the point is, when you have a client you can make future sales easier if you spend more time and effort on their needs than selling to the next hot prospect. Happy and satisfied clients become your best sales force, far better than any sales person could ever be (trust me, I know).
