Five Relationship Blunders to Avoid in Your Sales and Marketing

Valentine's Day is here, so it's the perfect time to use one of my favorite marketing analogies: Marketing is like dating.

Why? Because you have to attract leads by playing up your positives; you have to differentiate yourself from the competition; and you have to spend time building meaningful relationships—ultimately choosing one person for what you hope will be lifelong wedded bliss.

How business owners attract leads and differentiate themselves will differ from one company to the next. But in building relationships, there are a few common blunders that many entrepreneurs and marketers tend to make—no matter what industry they're in. 

If you can avoid these five common mistakes, you can easily build long-term relationships with all of your prospects and customers.

1. Waiting Too Long to Call After a Date

Let's face it: Failing to follow up is a common problem for entrepreneurs. Because they're busy chasing other opportunities, too many business owners give up on their prospects way too early. They think that if the sale doesn't happen on the first contact, it will never happen. In reality, most consumers (81%) don't buy until at least the fifth contact.

So rather than be the guy or gal who didn't call...

• Systematize and automate your follow-up process. This ensures that leads you worked hard (and probably spent marketing dollars) to get... don't get lost. By automating aspects of your marketing with email auto-responders and long-term, multichannel marketing campaigns, you ensure that lead nurturing is happening.
• Be a trusted expert, not just another vendor. Be their go-to source for quality content—from reports to video tutorials to an informational email series that they can learn from consistently—so that when they're ready to buy, they buy from you.

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