K.I.T.

I was looking at my old high school yearbook a while back and laughing.

You may laugh at a photo of me in a leisure suit. And although I find
the fashion funny, too, today I'm laughing at the autographs -- the
corny sentimentality of youth.

"2 Good 2 Be 4 Gotten" reads one from someone I didn't like much.

Another is signed Kit.

I stare at it. I don't remember any guys named Kit. I think I'd
remember a girl named Kitty. Then it dawns on me, it's K.I.T. --
Keep In Touch. I look at the name and feel sad that I don't remember
Laura.

Makes me ponder how many clients I've lost touch with. And wonder
how many customers and prospects my clients have lost touch with.
Without a lot of dedication, it's easy to lose contact.

Current marketing theory teaches that turning a prospect into a
customer requires a series of "touches": ads, mailings, phone calls,
visits, etc. The number of touches differs according to your brand,
your product, your price point and the prospect. I believe you need
to K.I.T. to maintain current customer relationships and resurrect
old ones, too.

Every Christmas, I send cards to people I don't talk to all year long.
But that's not really K.I.T., and it doesn't work in business, either.

To keep in touch you need a systematic approach. A dedication
to make regular contact -- like once a month or once a week.

One client I spoke to this week says it can take up to 8 years to turn
his prospects into clients. Eight years! Imagine how easy it would be
to give up on them. Would more frequent contact shorten the selling
cycle? Maybe. I know that I think more about people that I hear from
more often.

And as long as the customer's around, it's never too late to resurrect
an old customer relationship.

I'm not really sure if the Laura that signed my yearbook was the one
with Farrah Faucet hair or the one with a cowl-neck sweater in her
yearbook photo. Wish Beth and I had gone to my class reunion, now!

-- Phil Sasso