I noticed a very interesting phenomenon when I started offering a new service. I noticed that the first people to sign up were my current clients. This got me thinking that perhaps I was forgetting something that I was teaching my clients everyday–that my existing clients are a very viable source of incremental income and deserve a plan of their own to get some of my attention. This article really sums it up well:

If you have at least two plans, focusing on both prospects and existing clients, and review them on an ongoing basis, you’ll probably fare better.

Why do you need to market to existing clients differently?

1. An existing customer often has a shorter sales cycle for a repeat purchase.
2. A lot of businesses focus so much on new customers that they don’t pick the low hanging fruit that are existing customers.
3. Existing customer marketing has another potential benefit — referral marketing. Their testimonials or reviews and social media activities can help you reach a wider audience via referrals.

via Marketing Plan for Existing Clients.

Famed Sales Guru Kim Duke spoke at a dinner meeting I went to last night and she was stellar. What she said she first did with new clients was to get their list of clients and fans and community and start mining it for new business. If you look at the advice above and listen to her (and to me), you too need to develop a separate plan for your existing clients. It’s just such an obvious slam dunk, isn’t it?
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