Small Business Ideas: Marketing Tip - Manage your team changes with clients

Thursday, 29 November 2007

Marketing Tip - Manage your team changes with clients

Marketing isn't just about selling a product - you also are selling your team, your skills and your brand.

One of the most forgotten marketing areas is planning for team transitions. Losing a key contact in your business through resignation, promotion or even just an extended holiday is often a time when your key clients make a choice to go elsewhere with their business.

Without effective planning for this transition you may find your customers follow the person leaving, get confused about who to talk with about their issue or even get frustrated about having to repeat their history to a new person.

Some tips to manage the marketing of succession:

If clients have a personal relationship with the person who is leaving, have the person who is leaving send out a personal letter/email to their clients endorsing the new person in the role (make sure you get final approval before they hit the send button to limit any poison letters going out)
Have the person leaving take the new person around to meet the clients and make sure the person leaving verbally "backs up" the new person's expertise and experience to the clients
Reinforce what is staying the same "same great service, same great products"
Get your basics in place - rush order business cards for the new person so people know who to contact in future
Have the new person reinforce what they know and understand about the client's business to reduce client fears of having to repeat their information
Take is as a great opportunity to get feedback on what clients would like to see more of in the future - ask what they liked about the last person and what they would like to see more of in the new person

Managing a transition doesn't have to mean losing customers - if you deal with it correctly.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

www.heartharmony.com.au

Business development ... through human resources and marketing

Labels: customer service, customers, hr planning, marketing tips