Customer Acquisition & Loyalty

The following is an excerpt from an article by DrawSuccess founder and Chief Innovation Officer Brownell Landrum in the November 17 issue of ASTD Links Magazine:

Customer Acquisition & Loyalty

No company can stay in business without customers (or, in the case of nonprofits, benefactors). Which explains why sales training will always be a viable investment, especially when segmented into these two categories: skills for acquiring new customers and solutions for offering exemplary service in order to build long-term customer loyalty.

However, the most successful companies go a step further and embrace the mantra, “Everybody sells.” They engage every employee, from the mail room to the board room, from finance to supply chain, to recognize their role in the company’s sales process. In addition, everyone can (and should) be trained to improve their sales skills within the organization. Some of the most ingenious new product ideas in history have come from people in obscure positions in a company, but they wouldn’t have seen the light of day if these people hadn’t had the ability to “sell” others to take a chance on their ideas.