The Art of Dating and your Customer

The #1 asset in your business is your customer list. How you nurture this list is as important as anything you do.

We’ve learned the fastest way to move any small business from "Doing OK" to dominating a market are business tools that AUTOMATE efficiency. Automating anything with your cherished customer list however can be a minefield.

For our company, we used a technique that I used in my single days (and we’re not talking a half bottle of Aqua Velva, smooth lines and my hairy Italian chest… growl).

We decided to list off everything we wanted in an automated customer list tool – call it our “perfect mate.” We decided to aim high.

First we wanted our partner to build and communicate with our list in a personable manner.

Second, we wanted a business tool that runs while we're sleeping, climbing mountains in the Himalayas or during quality family time.

Third, we wanted it to stuff our sales pipeline full of qualified leads.

Fourth, we wanted business tool that enticed leads to contact us when they're ready to buy.

Can you relate to this list? Where do you look to find this “perfect mate?” I reached out to my Facebook network and an entrepreneur in Halifax introduced me to a company in California. This was a fairly recent but we could not be happier in our new customer list building/communicating/converting relationship. In fact, we’re still in the honeymoon phase but I want to introduce you to the Flowtown business tool and the brains behind it, Ethan Bloch.

Flowtown got our perfect fit list and agreed to help us “deliver 24/7/365.”

Here’s advice they offer (and have agreed to share with our readers):

Create a professional landing page that’s designed to capture leads. Next, establish a never-ending follow-up sequence where no lead slips through the cracks. For example, when you get a lead on Monday, your system automatically sends an email with the information your lead signed-up for. Then, on Tuesday, it sends an email explaining how to get more out of the previously sent information. Follow this with an autoresponder sequence that continues to follow up for the next three months.

Let’s say, six weeks later they become a customer. Ensure your system automatically removes them from Follow-up Sequence A and puts them on new Follow-up Sequence B; which takes them through the steps of being a new customer.

It also puts them on an upsell sequence that gives them more opportunities to do business with you.

This is a sales funnel we’re automating with Ethan and his company; Flowtown.

That's speed. The best part is they tailor the messaging on an ongoing basis. We feel extra special, warm and fuzzy.

How’s that for a “perfect mate?”

Now I feel like a cigarette. ;-)