Discover Professional Associations to Develop New and Profitable Relationships

Marketing your small business can be tricky—there are a myriad of approaches, theories and potential platforms in which to structure your marketing plan – so putting a plan into action can sometimes seem overwhelming. If your business is relatively new or a marketing strategy such as relationship marketing is unfamiliar, you may want to seek help from a professional association.

Professional associations offer a wealth of information, training classes and expert contacts to help guide you in the right direction. If you choose to join a professional association, you’ll have immediate access to creating relationships with other companies who are also members of that association.

The Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing (AARM)

The Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing (AARM) is the most well known professional association committed to helping businesses develop relationship-marketing platforms. AARM is an international association that offers training courses and information on how to integrate a relationship-marketing scheme into your company’s business structure.

AARM focuses on Customer Relationship Marketing and Customer Relationship Management, both commonly known in the business world as CRM. CRM is the central marketing practice under which relationship marketing fits.

AARM offers professional development workshops, seminars, and coaching with certificate programs to help you integrate a relationship-marketing platform into your business. If your business is new to thinking in terms of a relationship marketing strategy, guidance from a professional association like AARM can help you navigate these uncharted waters that may seem a little daunting.

If you are a business with an established marketing platform, news, information and workshops from a professional association like AARM can help you stay on the cutting edge of marketing ideas for your business, and help you develop new and creative ways to meet the needs of your customers.

It is not necessary to join a professional association like AARM to benefit from what the association offers—you may participate in the seminars, workshops and classes even if you are not a formal member of an association. But one of the main benefits of becoming part of a professional association is the networking possibility that it offers. Membership in a professional association gives you access to other members who have the experience and knowledge that could benefit your own business.

Networking for Marketing

Professional networking is an important part of relationship marketing. By networking with other businesses, you enhance your professional relationships, which can only help benefit the relationships you have with your current customers.

Forming alliances with other companies, or just making a new business acquaintance, can enhance your existing client relationships also. Learning from other experts in your field, or even people in related fields, can give you insight and ideas on how to approach problems and issues with your own business. Another benefit of professional networking is the potential to share clients; you may meet a contact whose clients are in need of the types of products and services that your company provides, and vice versa.

There are many benefits to exploring a professional association, even if you do not want to make the official commitment to join as a member. The networking opportunities and business contacts you’ll make will be beneficial and you’ll stay informed and on the cutting edge of what is happening in the relationship marketing industry, which will only improve your business’s relationship marketing platform.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing
firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by
creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Relationship Marketing: How to Increase Qualified Leads by Using the Purchase-Readiness Survey

The Internet marketplace is growing increasingly competitive and difficult to navigate. The response rates from customer inquiries are trending downward and the process of driving new leads is becoming more expensive.  Therefore, it is critical to incorporate a relationship marketing strategy into your businesses marketing plan to help maximize the power of each and every client lead with which you are presented. Simply put, not taking advantage of customer prospects that you have so diligently laid the groundwork to pursue is tantamount to handing these clients to your competition.

The process of ensuring that your client leads remain engaged and interested in ultimately pursuing a relationship with you is one of the central principles of relationship marketing. There are a few fundamental tactics to use in this early stage of building client relationships, which is also sometimes referred to as the nurture phase. These tactics are a good guide to help you increase the number of actual customers you obtain from your prospecting activities.

Purchase-Readiness Survey

If you do not have or are not already using a purchase-readiness survey, it is time to incorporate this survey into your relationship marketing strategy. The purchase-readiness survey should be incorporated into all of your lead and prospect generating mechanisms. A purchase-readiness survey allows you to gather critical contact information, as well as a customer’s readiness to make a purchase. Some standard questions to consider incorporating into your survey are:

• Timeframe for considering a purchase
• The customer’s role in the decision making process
• Key qualifying questions

Finding the Right Balance of Questions

You will need to balance and be aware of a prospect’s tolerance for and willingness to share information, with your need to gather information. Nobody likes to feel invaded or pushed, so it is important to be clued into the mood of your prospect. The more information you request from a client prospect, the more time it requires of your prospect, which they may be unwilling to give. It may be that the more eager you appear to gain a prospect and make a sale, the more you will alienate this prospect. You do not want to appear desperate to land a prospect (even if you are) –most humans can smell the essence of desperation– and nothing makes a person retreat faster.

Try to take cues from your potential clients: if they seem willing to talk and divulge information, it is okay to proceed with your questions and your purchase-readiness survey. But if you sense reluctance in your prospect, it is always better to scale back and give them space, and perhaps come back and approach this prospect at a different time when they may be more amenable to hearing what you have to say. You may have better luck at forging a lasting relationship at a different time. Nobody likes to feel intruded upon or pressured. Adopting a persistent but more laissez-faire attitude in your relationship marketing plan, you are likely to be more successful and have satisfied clients who are loyal to your company.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing
firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by
creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2