The Lifetime Value of a Single Contact

We are continuing to provide you with information on marketing in our second post on the WIB blog (and will continue to do so for the next few posts as well.) We hope these will assist you with marketing your business! I received this information in an email newsletter last week and wanted to share it with you. It was originally written to help artists market their work, but it applies to any business and ties in nicely with our theme – marketing. It shows just how important it is for you to network with others, advertise your business, and nurture your contacts.

FYI – I’m sure you’ll notice that the last name of the author is Watson. Yes, there is a connection…He’s my son!

What’s the Lifetime Value of a Single Contact?

by Clint Watson

Each person you know and meet has a “lifetime value” in terms of your career that is most certainly not immediately apparent. However, just as $1 in the bank will grow enormously over time through the “miracle” of compound interest, so will the benefits you receive from people *if* you treat each person with respect, honestly and with an attitude of how you can mutually help each other (not just what you can “get” from the other person).

I’ll illustrate the point with a story and let you decide the lifetime value of a single contact. (The actual names in this story have been obscured or changed).

Years ago, when I operated an art gallery, a salesperson came in representing a local publication for tourists. We generally didn’t advertise in such publications, but somehow, he convinced us to place a quarter page advertisement for $300. The ad ran and, to my knowledge, we garnered not a single customer. However, a young artist, “M” saw the ad and visited the gallery to show us his work. His breathtaking work captured our hearts and we began to represent “M” (and sold quite a lot of his work). So end the end, the $300 ad had been worth it.

But wait. There’s more…much more.

About a year later, my business partners decided to visit Santa Fe to do some prospecting for new artists. When the artist from the ad, M, heard about this, he suggested that they visit a particular gallery in Santa Fe that also represented him, J’s gallery.

Arriving in Santa Fe, my partners began perusing J’s gallery and in walked an artist J represented, K. My partners struck up a conversation with K. As the conversation progressed, K suggested they continue talking at his studio in Taos. After a short (OK not so short) drive to Taos, my partners enjoyed the privilege of hand-picking paintings in K’s studio to show in our gallery.

Now K turned out to be quite a discovery. Our customers loved his artwork and proved it with their pocketbooks. K worked diligently and sent new works often and within a few years we even hosted a sell-out one man show (and several more in later years). So the $300 ad and the contact with M had now paid off handsomely.

But wait . . . . There’s still more.

In the intervening years, K had become involved in a national painting group, we’ll just call the group NPG. NPG, although very young, appeared to be on the rise, garnering media attention and developing a good reputation. K let us know that the venue for their next national show had not yet been decided. We asked K for their contact info and, with K’s introduction, were able to speak directly with the president of the organization. Long story short – less than a year later we were hosting NPG’s national painting exhibition – over 200 fantastic paintings by artists from all over the United States and Canada. In fact, during that show we discovered “S”, one of the finest painters we had ever seen. (S is one of my favorite painters to this day). S won the show and within a month we were representing S as his only United States gallery. I won’t go into details but the number of paintings we sold for “S” are staggeringly large. In addition, we garnered many other fine artists from the NPG show and even hosted the show a second time.

This story could and did continue with one contact leading to another one. Since the NPG show was over 12 years ago the “compound interest” continued to get bigger and bigger, but after this point, I kinda lost track of the “trail” of connections. Things just started happening too fast as the gallery rose to national prominence.

So back to the original point. What’s the lifetime value of a single contact?

What’s the lifetime value of that ad salesperson to the gallery?

What about M? K? NPG? S?

As you can plainly see the lifetime value of each contact is enormous. Almost incalculable.

So let’s talk about you.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that you make a list of everyone you know. I followed up with a plan for communicating with those people and garnering support and help.

Now perhaps there was someone you were tempted to “skip” for one reason or another. If so, go back and add that person to your list and get him into your plan. Or perhaps you just made a quick list but weren’t thorough in your compiling all those business cards and scribbled names you’ve saved up. Set aside the time to compile them, organize them and get them into your system. The pay off might not be immediate but as my story illustrates, the pay off just might be enormous.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS: For a complete overview of our recommended process for conducting an email campaign please visit the following link:

http://www.clintwatson.net/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=126&subkeyvalue=676

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Introducing the WIB Blog

Welcome to WIBNOTES: our brand new Women in Business (WIB) blog.

WIBNOTES principle purpose is to bring you information that will assist you both professionally and personally as well as provide information about the organization itself. As always your ideas for our blog are welcome! And remember…WIB is about “WE” and not “ME”.

For members who may be unfamiliar with blogs,they are simply a way to present articles, information, ideas,and tips in way that keeps them in sequential order (by date) and categorizes them (by subject). These are called posts and while the most current post always appears first when you go to the blog, you can view any and all previous posts by subject or date. For example all posts dealing with “marketing” can be accessed and viewed as a group. You can also post your own comments in response to any post and thus add to it, express opinions etc.

Currently the WIB blog is exclusively for WIB members and others who may have attended one of our meetings, though at some point we may make it public.

Marketing Theme and March 27th Marketing Workshop

The WIB theme this month is March Marketing Madness and we will provide posts that offer info and tips on various aspects of marketing. We begin in this post with some definitions of marketing, the main goal of marketing, and tips on making your business special. Your comments are welcome.

Don’t forget…WIB is sponsoring a “Marketing Madness Workshop” on Tuesday, March 27th from 9:30AM-2:30PM at The County Seat in Georgetown. This hands-on workshop is designed to help you establish a dynamic game plan designed to increase your customer base and maximize profits! If you’re a new business or an existing business that needs a boost in sales, this event is for you. Cost is $75/members and $90/non-members. For more info and/or to register, call Donna at 931-0406.

What is Marketing?

“Marketing is everything you do or say that your prospects and customers see and hear from you. This includes everyone you meet, every vendor contact, every sign, every point of contact, and every communication. A guerrilla marketing mindset is thinking about this all the time…If you are making a list of the top three things that would make your business a success today, marketing should be at the top of the list.” Excerpted from Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days by Jay Conrad Levinson and al Luatenslager.

Philip Kotler, in his books, defines marketing simply as: “human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes“. Brian Norris, defines marketing as “ the ongoing process of moving people closer to making a decision to purchase, use, follow, refer, upload, download, obey, reject, conform, become complacent to someone else’s products, services or values. Simply, if it doesn’t facilitate a “sale” then it’s not marketing.

Know your customers & always put them first! Find a way to delight your customers every day!

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself. – Peter F. Drucker, American Management Consultant, Author

There are reasons some businesses are hugely successful, others “get by” and the less fortunate fail. From a marketing perspective it seems quite simple: You must know your customers and what it takes to make them happy.
- Bruce Johnson

How To Make Your Business Stand Out From The Crowd

	Define Yourself: Clearly state who you are and what you do by always using a tag line with your logo and company name, whether you are saying it or printing it.
	Create Value: Quickly convey the value of your product or service by making an offer your target audience can take advantage of right now.
	Stay Fresh: Keep your marketing materials fresh and your message up to date. You will be confident and attract like a magnet.
	Make It Easy: Avoid overly complicated systems such as long voice mail messages so prospects and clients will find less resistance to ‘connecting’ with you. Return calls ASAP.
	Be An Expert: Regularly share information you have that may be helpful to your audience–write articles, do talks, share tips.
	Be Professional: Minimum requirements for business technology = dedicated phone line, fax, email, webs.

This article may be excerpted or reproduced in its entirety with the following attribution to the author:

Midge Norris can be reached at:
www.Marketing2G.com 800-541-9945
midge@marketing2go.com