Introduction to the process of Guest-Centered Marketing

Introduction to the process of Guest-Centered Marketing

For those of you in the catering business you will find I refer to those guests as clients.  In any regard a customer implies a one time transaction where guest or client implies a long term relationship.  This is a very big point and being Guest or Client centered is very important.  We want a sale to gain a guest (or client) which we keep for life.  Most businesses are on their head, they look at a customer for a sale. A slight difference in how you look at things really can change everything.

I’m constantly amazed at how many clients and people in my audiences think that marketing is an event. They’re looking for the one thing that they can do that will produce instant, profitable business.

It doesn’t happen that way. The reason is that people don’t work like that.

People don’t just wake up in the morning and decide to find you and buy from you. They generally don’t buy because they see a single, stunning ad or get a single, persuasive letter. No, when they show up at your door or website, it’s the result of a process.

They have to know you. People won’t buy from you unless they’ve heard of you and know something about you.

They have to like you. People must be comfortable enough with you and the way you do business to take a very big step: buying from you for the first time.

They have to trust you. If you have a choice, you won’t keep doing business with a company you don’t trust. Neither will those first-time customers that you want to become lifetime customers.

For years, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on about marketing. I’ve gone to seminars and conferences. I’ve talked with colleagues, worked with clients, and absorbed the thinking of people like Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Michael Masterson, Michael Gerber, Jim Collins, and many more.

Guest-Centered Marketing starts with people and their needs and wants. Guest-Centered Marketing is the process of developing mutually beneficial relationship with customers that extends over time.

I divide the process into three stages because your relationship with the customer is different for each one. In the beginning, you don’t really have a relationship. Then the customer takes the leap of faith to buy from you for the first time. They are now a guest. From then on, every contact with “Your Guest” puts a stick on that pile of your relationship, or takes one away.

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