Customers becoming salespeople

Seth Godin recently made another useful observation about building customer relationships (and sales:)

• Turn strangers into friends
• Turn friends into customers
• Turn customers into salespeople

Of course every business wants viral marketing to be a part of their strategy. The key is to begin at the beginning.  "Friends" are everyone that knows who you are and what you sell...but aren't customers.  They may have requested a quote from your website or visited your store (the physical space or online) but they didn't buy.  Yet.

So how do you turn these 'friends' into customers?  Fortunately there's more than one path to success. But if the goal is too convert a small slice of the new customers into salespeople down-the-road we need to inspire and connect with them all the way through the sales cycle, from when they first walk-in the door to 30 days after they purchased your product or service.  Talk to them about their need, how they will use your product, about how your service affects their life, about what you could do differently next time.

Connect with them.
--
Coming soon:  Turning customers into salespeople.