Don’t Waste Money on Marketing: Develop a Secret Salesforce Instead

On 1 May I wrote a blog about the core values we have at Appletree. (Click here if you missed it.) Core values are an essential part of promoting your business because they show other people what you stand for and how your principles influence the work you do for your clients. I’ve recently discovered another reason for having core values and sharing them with the world. They are part of your Secret Salesforce and can help you find new clients without the need for any marketing!

Steve Catchick from Performance Counts introduced me to his Secret Salesforce, which is made up of three vital areas. When you combine them, you’ll be able to attract new business, almost without worrying about spending money on your marketing.

The three areas you need to work on are:

1. Core Values. These are your fundamental beliefs and what you stand for. At Appletree our values include the fact that we get stuff done for our clients. This means that they get more than the service they expect, so they frequently refer us to new clients. We’ve published our values on our website for everyone to see.
2. Relationships. When you provide a service rather than a product, it is especially important to build up great relationships with your clients. We spend a lot of time getting to know our clients, so that we understand them and their businesses. When you know your clients really well, you can provide a great service for them and they’ll keep coming back to you for more work.
3. Communication. This is how you build those great relationships that you need. We keep in touch with our clients almost on a weekly basis; we don?t wait for them to ask for something. We communicate with our contacts and prospects in a number of ways, including a free, monthly email newsletter. The April issue of Scribbles generated two great enquiries for work, one from a contact I first met nine years ago and another from a former client who we last worked with nearly two years ago.

So how does this help you reduce your marketing spend? When you’re clear on your core values and you stick to them, you’ll be able to deliver a better level of service to your clients, which people are happy to pay for. Develop strong relationships with your clients and they’ll be loyal to you, rather than spending money with your competitors. Keep communicating with your clients to let them know how much you value them and they’ll rely on you more and more. Happy clients stick around for longer, spend more money and give great recommendations. Combine your core values with relationships and communication and you can develop a Secret Salesforce that you can use to grow your business, without having spend thousands on your marketing.

Do you have a Secret Salesforce working for you that you didn’t know about?