We have graded our existing client base. We have:
| ______ ‘A’ clients | ✓ All ‘C’ clients have either chosen to become ‘A’ or ‘B’ clients or have been deleted |
| ______ ‘B’ clients | |
| ______ ‘C’ clients | |
| ______ ‘D’ clients | ✓ All ‘D’ clients have been deleted |
| ______ ‘SC’ clients | ✓ ‘SC’ clients have been minimised |
Step 2: Create a menu
How are your new and existing clients given the opportunity of buying more from you? For this to happen, they must be aware of all the products and services that are available to them and all the ways that these products and services can benefit them. You need to create a menu of the full range of products and services you have to offer (see Strategy 6: Preparing to sell, Step 5). If you haven’t done this, please do it now. If you have, please return to it and review and update as necessary. Once you have created your menu, you need to do something with it! Be proactive.
At some point during the client’s journey through the business premises, ensure that somebody presents the menu to the client, asking him or her to take a few minutes to read through it and to tick the subjects in which he or she is interested.
- Include the menu in your practice brochure.
- Include the menu on your website.
- Display the menu somewhere in your reception area.
- Include the menu with your recall letter.
- Include the menu with your end-of-treatment letter.
Make sure the language of the menu is about the clients’ outcomes and not your ‘mumbo jumbo’.
Step 3: Produce a welcome pack
We believe it is extremely important to provide new clients with a welcome pack. A practical format is a printed folder with a pocket into which you can insert the following:
- mission statement
- practice information leaflet/brochure
- CVs/profiles
- testimonials
- terms and conditions
- promises
- prices
- menu.
Step 4: Develop a referral system
Do you have a system for asking existing clients to refer others to you? When do you ask for referrals?
The first time you make contact with a potential new client
Somewhere in the information you give or send to them include a sentence like this:
The bulk of our business comes through personal recommendations. If we do a good job, we would be very happy for you to refer others to us.
The first time you physically meet a potential new client
Let them know that:
Most of our new business comes through personal recommendations. We promise you certain things – if we do a good job we would like you to refer others to us.
During the selling process
Client: ‘How much will it cost?’
You: ‘We get paid in two ways. First, we are paid for the specific service we provide, and second, if we do a five-star job, we ask you to recommend us to others. Is that OK with you?’
At the end of treatment
Write an end-of-treatment letter along the lines of:
We have now completed this treatment. How was it for you? Any problems please let us know. You will recall that our business grows through personal recommendations. Here are three copies of our leaflet/brochure/referral card. Please feel free to pass these on to anyone else who you think would benefit from our product or service.
In any newsletter or other printed marketing material.
Include referral permission, for example:
We have vacancies available for the right type of client. Please feel free to recommend us to anyone you think would be interested.
If you have a website, it is essential that you have a referral permission statement and the ability to recommend others to your website.
Step 5: Produce a referral card
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