Of course you can run a business with one-time clients (and there are many about), but is pretty difficult to BUILD a successful business based on one-time clients.
Reasons ……..
- First you need an inexhaustible supply of new clients. All your focus will be on attracting endless stream of new clients. Your marketing spend WILL be high, you will be working long hours and churning clients. Exhaustion and burnout is the norm.
- Then you shift from attracting clients to chasing them.. If all you have in your business are one-time clients, you’re too busy chasing clients to properly service your existing clients.
- You reinforce the one-time client phenomenon. Because clients only buy your first product or service -and you’re too busy chasing them to develop new offerings- you limit your business to a one-solution shop. This only serves to reinforce the one-client model. You’ve become the problem. One-time clients are like one-hit-wonders.They’re here today and gone tomorrow. If your business is full of one-hit-wonders, you’re limiting their experience, their deeper success, and your own business potential.
What can you do about it?
It’s possible for even one-hit-wonders to make a comeback. And like the rockers of yesteryear, your comeback depends on several factors: choosing the right material, matching it with the right audience, but more importantly, reducing the risk associated with your second hit.
Shift your focus from giving one-time value to Lifetime Value! If all your clients stay with you for their lifetime, what is it worth to you? (More about Lifetime value in another blog!)
Lifetime customers sound pretty good?
And they should. They provide some outstanding benefits for your business. Not only does your advertising budget get slashed, but there are a whole host of other benefits to boot…and not just for the business owner, but the customer as well. Let’s talk about some of them, shall we?
A few benefits of cultivating lifetime customers include:
1. Decreased marketing budgets
2. Consistent revenue streams
3. Increased referrals
4. Deeper market knowledge
A few benefits of being a lifetime customer:
1. Predictable business experiences
2. Predictable product expectations
3. Predictable customer service
4. Happy to refer others
Your Actions
1. What needs to change in your business to keep your clients for life time? (Philosophy, strategy, products, services etc…)
2. Calculate Life Time net worth for each client. (If a client stays with me for the life time…how much Profit will I make?)
Have fun!
+ Ravi Peal-Shankar
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