Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Melanie
Happy Monday, and welcome back to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, I'm going to be talking with Esther about the value of relationships and the three different types of ways that you can connect and relate with your customer. But first of all, let's hear from our sponsor.
Esther
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Melanie
So Esther, what relationship values do you think would be important to have with your customer?
Esther
That's a tough one because some customers are seasonal and some customers are more eternal, if that makes sense.
Melanie
Eternal customer.
Esther
No, but I mean, obviously, brilliant marketing term. It depends because first of all, it depends what business you're in. If you're in the wedding business, you wouldn't want maybe necessarily the same customer returning for a different wedding dress every time. I mean, it's probably been done, but you would want them to be happy with their choice of both dress and husband. But you would also want them to then make referrals. So you'd want to, that could be a way for them to be more of an eternal customer. But yeah, it's definitely one of those things that, first of all, it depends what business you're in, but you want customers to return, mostly.
Melanie
Yeah, I agree. And every relationship with the client begins somewhere. And if you can give multiple offerings, so you can offer a cheaper, intrigue-only relationship with somebody, and then you've got a middle-of-the-road premium value, and then you've got, obviously, a high ticket item. And we've discussed it before when we've been talking about other types of service. And when you're going to a coffee shop, you normally buy the middle sized cup because you don't want to pay too much, but you also don't want to get the cheap one And so if you can offer three different types of service values, like bronze, silver, and gold, or whatever you want to call it, then that can be helpful and meaningful for people because then it depends on their budget. As you say, it depends.
Esther
It depends. But yeah, it also... If somebody only wants to dip their toe in the water with you and see what you do offer, then they may go for the cheaper option, the bronze option. And then you can always upsell to them. You can always say, Look, no stress, no hassle. Download this for free or receive this sample for a dollar in the post. And then they're more than likely going to come back and go, I really like that. I really like what you do. I want to work with you more. So let's see what the next level is. And then once they get more and more involved with working with you or buying your products, then they'll fall more and more in love with you. And they'll move on to the next one, which is where you want them to become the eternal customer.
Melanie
Exactly. So now we're talking about relationship values. And those relationship values can incorporate hand-raisers, which I'm sure we've all heard before, which is exactly what Esther was suggesting there in the shape of a lead magnet or a download or an e-book or something like that, where you're just getting people started with a quick fix. And the only commitment that they need to give you is their email address or something like that. But then you can take people from a hand-raiser to a handshake. So this is when you start getting a more personal relationship with them and it's more formal. You've actually maybe got the chance to speak to them rather than just visiting your website and pinching a download. And so with the handshake, you're then building that rapport that you didn't previously have with the hand-raiser. And so that's, yet again, a second layer to the relationship. And then for the third layer, for the third relationship value, it's the handhold. And that's when you've got a true relationship with them, when you are starting to cross-sell and upsell. And you're then explaining to people what extra value you can offer. So it could be you're collaborating with somebody or you're bringing some other product or service to their notice. So it's very much relationship turn, I suppose, going from here, just have a download to nice to meet you, how can I help you? To, right, we've got this relationship now, now you can rely on me.
Esther
Yeah, and it's very true because as we've always heard, and we've always said it as well, people buy from people that they know, like, and trust. Yeah. So we both do it, don't we, Melanie? We will I go onto someone's website and go, Oh, that looks interesting, but I'm not sure if I really want to get into more of a relationship with them, or I don't know if I really want to buy that thing from them. Oh, look, they have a free download, or, oh, look, they have a free sample, or, Oh, look, they have a 15-minute call, which takes up 15 minutes of your time and their time. But it's maybe the one that would get them to the handholding a lot quicker Because then you're seeing the person, you're hearing the person, you've got those 15 minutes to know if you make the click or not, because there's no point in working with someone. And this goes both ways. This goes both for the customer and for the business or service providing the product or service. You don't want to work with somebody that you don't necessarily get along with or that you don't have that rapport with. It's different. Like your broadband provider, you don't have to be in best friends or even first name terms with them. Same with your mobile phone company. But they have to treat you right. You have to feel valued. And if they just ignore your concerns or ignore your complaints every time if you have them, then it's fine to move on. But if it's a more personal thing, like your web designer or your social media trainer, and in the case of Melanie and I, then you do actually need to be talking to them on a more consistent basis and saying, oh, here, I need that fixed, or how do you do that? Or how do we fix this? And what do we do for that? And how can I get more of this, etc. So you do have to have more of that face-to-face time, so why not start with a 15-minute free call to see if you fit?
Melanie
As you were speaking there and before we started recording this today, I hadn't grasped just how much I'd been manipulated by this own system just this morning. I suppose it's got to be about six months ago, I got a download off a website. I then was automatically put into an email list. I've been receiving this email list periodically. Just before Christmas, I downloaded some moderately priced templates from the same person. So it wasn't ridiculously priced. And I thought, well, this would be really handy for next year to help me out with a few things. And then today, I I received information about how they're doing a special offer on a 60-minute meeting, and they're only offering it to the first 10 people. I bought it, didn't I?
Esther
Of course you did, because they've been building that relationship with you, and you have liked the other things that they delivered, the freebie and then the moderately priced useful thing that you use. So then when they come up and offer you a par hour, and you're going to have to repeat that because people aren't going to understand what I said.
Melanie
Power hour.
Esther
That's too much effort. When they offered you that for, like you a reasonable price. But you see what they did there? They also added in a clause or a catch that only for the first 10. So you wanted to be in those first 10. You wanted to get it at that price.
Melanie
It was a sense of urgency.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
A call to action.
Esther
And you acted on it.
Melanie
So now this is the third and final values that I wanted to outline. So we've done service values, which is the bronze, silver, and gold. We've done relationship values, which is hand-raiser, handshake, and handhold. Now down to commitment values. And so the first time I contacted this person six months ago, they were providing information to frequently ask questions. So it was actually God's Honest Truth, that's how I came across their website. It was something I was looking for and I wanted a short, sharp answer, and they provided it. Then, this is so mad, looking back on it, I feel like, horribly manipulated by my own system here. And then just before Christmas, they became a troubleshooter. So they offered me solutions to something that was a bit more in-depth. They understood my pain-point in much greater detail, although I didn't realise it was a pain point at the time. Thanks very much. That's the second the three commitment values. And then the final one is accountability. And that's when you've got a stronger relationship with them. You're beginning to see that you've got maybe a longer, more full term relationship with them. And this time I actually want to speak to the person and get more refined, personalised, customised information. And that's what we can do with our own customers and what we should be doing with our own customers.
Esther
Yeah, but I think one of the key things that you said there was that all of this started at least six months ago. You didn't go from investigating or FAQs into troubleshooting into accountability in the space of three minutes.
Melanie
No.
Esther
It took time. It took them sending emails periodically. It took time for you to realise the value that you were getting from them and what they were offering And even you yourself said that you didn't even know you had the pain point that they were providing the solution for. So it's not an overnight fix. These relationships cannot be built and maintained quickly. It is a slow, long, drawn-out process. And it doesn't matter if you're the only person in your vicinity selling the product or service that you're offering, you still have to build those relationships. You can't become complacent and say, oh, well, there's nobody else that does it. Everybody has discovered the Internet now, and everybody knows that they can get whatever they made at the touch of a button, and they don't have to go to an in-person meeting with a trainer or anything else. They can do these things online. They can have their web designer in a totally different country to them. And that's what people are doing. So you can't just be thinking, oh, well, nobody else offers this or nobody else sells this product that I have. I'm the only one. There's always going to be somebody else. They might not be in your doorstep, but if they're the ones nurturing the relationships and they're the ones going to your clients or your potential clients and showing them how they are and what they do, they're more likely to win the business than you are.
Melanie
It's interesting you made that point, actually, because this person is based in the US. So I'm going to have to speak to them at 7:30 in the evening, which is 1:30 their time. So this relationship has been ongoing and they're in an entirely different country.
Esther
Yeah and that's perfectly valid because even though somebody else in your own country might do or might offer the same thing, nobody else has nurtured that relationship with you. Nobody else was on the ball when you were looking for the information. So these are just some ideas, guys, of what we can do and how we can nurture relationships and build relationships and maintain relationships. Because at the end of the day, you want the forever client. You want the people that come back, the ones that stay, the ones that are in retainers, the ones that pay every month and just have you around when they need you, or pay every month and constantly need you. You want the clients that will always be there and will always refer you on to other people. So the cycle continues and you will always have a flow of customers coming through. So that's it for today, guys. We're back next week with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. And until then, bye bye.
Melanie
Bye.
Wasn't that weird, that slow realisation that I've been manipulated by the own system that I was created?
Esther
I could see the light bulb moment.
Melanie
That was so funny. I hadn't actually given any real thought until we started talking about it.
