68% of customers leave because of indifference.

5 Ways to Stimulate Repeat Business 

 

Almost two thirds of all lost customers leave because of perceived indifference to them. Here's another way to look at it... over 5 years businesses are likely to lose over 50% of their customer base. Here are a few simple tips that you can implement right away to avoid this situation:

1. Know your customers. Take a few moments, look into your database, accounting books and see the 20% of your customers that bring in 80% of your revenue. Yeah, it may seem boring, but we challenge you to take the time to go through the list. It may surprise you! We've been in the Materials Handling Equipment business and when you add in the parts and services in addition to the equipment sales, you may see some folks that employees swear are not important customers! Take a look at this list and see who you may have not been paying attention to, it could change the way you perceive some of your customers.

2. Segment your customers. It's good to put your customers in various buckets based on their profile. For example, if they are a Grocery or Food Distributor, make sure that you have them marked as so, your products and services may change and you can provide a more all encompassing solution, rather than just selling them a few lift trucks here and there. They may want an overall picking/ slotting solution and as a supplier, when you can team up with other partners in the industry to truly provide them with a true storage solutions... you will be one of their favorite vendors. So again, segment your customer list based on who they are so you can provide them with more solutions that will have them coming back to you for more.

3. Keep your customer database up-to-date. Take the time to categorize make sure that the contact information is correct. I once read a story about a big Chief Marketing Executive that came into a large fortune 500 company that did an amazing marketing campaign. They sent out expensive scooters with a great message to their customers, but they didn't check on the integrity of the database... so what happened? About a million dollars worth of marketing expenses went down the tube. The costs of the scooters, shipment and marketing research and efforts all wasted simply because most of the list was BAD. Bad names and addresses. Take the time to put together a good list of customers and ideal customers for your materials handling business to maximize every marketing dollar.

4. Thank your customers. In writing. We all know we should take a few minutes to do it... but just as Monday just started, it's already Friday. Here's a tip, if you leave a stack of Thank you notes and stamps on your desk, just take 15 minutes a day to get a few written and sent off. If you don't have time to send a card here and there, your customers may forget that you're around and find another vendor.

5. Keep in front of your Customers. Instead of calling "just to see how things are", it's also great to put together some valuable information that your warehouse customers would like to see. If you have some customers that you have helped dramatically improve their operational productivity, have a story on it and share it with others. The more helpful the information you provide to your clients, the more likely they'll remember you when they on considering a new warehousing solution. A classic example is the forklift dealer that is seen as only the "Forklift Company", in addition to lift trucks you provide other services that they don't relate you to and you need to let them know. If your business has connections in WMS, let them know. Remember that warehouses and distribution centers are all crazy busy trying to serve their customers and sometimes the obvious solution isn't so obvious. Let them know by sending out quarterly newsletters.

As they say "a little goes a long way", and with a little planning and effort you can keep your warehouse and distribution customers happy. Loyal customers not only mean more business from them, but perhaps referrals to others. Take the time to show your customers some love, because at the end of the day, they are your boss, they help pay for your salary and keep your business running.

 

Why the Ideal Customer Criteria is Crucial

Crucial may be a strong word, but we at Khach Customers, believe that it is a pertinent starting point when doing business with a customer.  During these tough times you may think, “Who cares?  I just need to sell something now”.  While it is good to focus is on making money right now, not taking a look into your ideal customer criteria may cost you more than you think.  You could be throwing money away.

 Where most of your sales are coming from

If you take a moment to look at your existing customer list, chances are that that Pareto rule holds true; 80% of your business is coming from 20% of your customers.  Imagine if you can acquire more of these ideal customers… how much more sales revenue would you have?  Take a look at your warehouse and distribution center customers and think about what are the like.  To start, these ideal customers of your probably understand the value of your Material Handling products and services.  Additionally, they have other similar attributes that you can categorize them under.   These ideal warehouse and distribution customers probably appreciate the cost savings that your material handling products and services provide them.  They see the value of the material handling equipment/systems that allows them to be more efficient. 

Identifying your Ideal Customers 

By understanding who your best customers are and what makes them wonderful, you can take this information to further improve your business.  A list of your top distribution and warehouse customers will allow you to 1) better serve them, 2) upsell to them and 3) build a better marketing program to attract more of these types of customers.  

Meet with your sales team and account managers to categorize your ideal customer off the following criteria:

1.       You are their preferred material handling supplier and they do regular business with you
2.       They have personal relationships with you and your materials handling team
3.       They pay their bills on time
4.       They don’t mind paying more to have better service (profit margins are higher than average)

Understand why they buy from you

The next step to selling more to your ideal customers is to understand why they purchased from you.  Example, they may buy from your Materials Handling business because you offer the best customer service in the region, your service technicians are always on time, you provide quality products, you provide great training to optimize their warehouse efficiencies.  Whatever it may be, based on this information, you can go back and put together a more effective marketing message to caputuring ideal leads, filling your sales pipeline with quality deals and closing more deals that are likely to allow your materials handling business to thrive.

Let us Khach and Keep you more Customers

We are more than an ad agency, SEO, SEM, internet, direct mail, telemarketing, direct sales and online marketing company.  We offer the entire marketing solution all at one place and do it only for the Materials Handling Industry.  Khách is a “done for you” outsourced marketing company.  It’s easy, it’s effective, and it pays for itself every month with qualified leads, closed deals and repeat sales.  No wonder so many businesses are starting to KHACH on.

We will reduce the time, money and resources required to develop qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline. With our marketing services (either "a la cart" or pay for performance program), you will enjoy "sales ready" leads and increase your business sales revenue and growth.

Interested in learning more?  Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887.

Money in the Database

How much money is there in your database?  

At Khach we strongly believe in database marketing.  We understand, database marketing is one of the least glamorous elements of marketing, however it is a must.  If you truly want to make more money for your material handling business, you need to start with a strong database. 

Without a good, clean, and accurate list of ideal warehousing and distribution customers, you may be wasting all your marketing efforts.  Who you market to, whether it is via email, directmail, telemarketing and etc., you must maximize all marketing campaigns.  There could be a goldmine in your database.  Imagine the deals that are waiting to be had if you sold to 10-25% of your list!  With proper organization of your list, marketing and sales efforts can be relevant to build interest, open up more opportunities and close more sales.

Mining your database can lead to much more money in your sales pipeline.

 

How do you make the most of your database?

1. Define your ideal customers - Make a list of your top customers based on their type of business, their demographic and psycho-graphic qualities.  Demographics: type of business, SIC code, size of revenue, location and etc.  Psychographics: their management style, their attitude towards change, how they value their warehouse workers, how they feel about new technology and etc. 

2. Put your ideal customers in buckets - Your database should profile the type of customer you are selling to.  It is best practices to set a "type" for your customers in your database so that you can send relevant information based on their business needs.  As a material handling business, your products and services may change from time to time (example: new warehouse software, warehouse systems and new technology), therefore it is best to categorize your customers by type of business; "cold store/freezer" vs. a "pharmaceutical" warehouse.   

3. Scrub your warehousing and distribution list - Take the time to categorize make sure that the contact information is correct.  I once read a story about a big Chief Marketing Executive that came into a large fortune 500 company that did an amazing marketing campaign.  They sent out expensive scooters with a great message to their customers, but they didn't check on the integrity of the database... so what happened?  About a million dollars worth of marketing expenses went down the tube.  The costs of the scooters, shipment and marketing research and efforts all wasted simply because most of the list was BAD.  Bad names, and addresses.  Take the time to put together a good list of customers and ideal customers for your materials handling business to maximize every marketing dollar.

  


4.Test out your list - Implement a marketing campaign and see the % of bounces you get back from emails, names, titles, addresses and such.  This will give you an idea of what kind of work you are facing to get things in order.  Remember that is is an on going project.  I am part of Kaiser Permanente and I kid you not, every time I call them, they are verifying my home address and phone number.  Every single time.  They value their database and constantly send me great marketing material, calls and messages.  You should do the same with your customer list and your ideal customer list for your material handling business.

Khách Customers’ marketing services include helping your materials handling business build its database to maximize the returns on all marketing efforts.  We have been in the materials handling industry for the past 45 years and have successfully sold and marketed to the food, freezer, cold store, pharmaceutical, food service, food manufacturing, beverage and similar industry.

We are here to help you Khach and Keep more Customers with focus on more sales revenue, growth and profits to your business.

If you are interested in learning more about Khach's marketing service or our pay for performance program, please contact us at 714-476-2887 or go to www.khachusa.com.

Introducing Khach Customers

Khách Customers is a professional marketing company like no other.  We provide innovative custom designed marketing and sales solutions dedicated to increase your Material Handling business’ sales, market share, and growth.

With more than 45 years of successful experience marketing and selling to the Warehouse and Distribution Industry, you gain access to a professional marketing team that will develop your business.   Our experience has allowed us to dramatically increase the sales, revenue and profits of many businesses selling to the warehousing and distribution industry (food, cold store, freezer, pharmaceutical and beverage industry).

The following are a few key points differentiating Khách company:

• Unique marketing services that are a hybrid of “a la cart” and pay for performance based.
• Expertise in marketing premium, innovative and advanced designed MH products.
• 45 years of successful marketing and selling experience in the Material Handling Industry.
• We truly know your ideal customers and still have personal contact with them.
• Our network of friends and colleagues include distribution centers in food, beverage, cold store, health care and pharmaceutical.

Khách Customers reduces the time, money and resources required develop qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline. With our pay for performance program, you enjoy "sales ready" leads and pay for the results.  Let us Khách and Keep you more Customers

Interested in learning more?  Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887.