In business, compounding interest is often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” In business, and especially sales, I compare the compounding effect of interest to the compounding effect that occurs with current customers who can become repeat customers and referral machines.

You may have seen examples of how someone can start an Individual Retirement Account when they are 25, invest $2,000 a year and by retirement age they will have a significant seven-figure account balance based upon the power of compounding interest. They receive interest on their investment which eventually includes interest on their interest as well as principal. The compounding effect creates tremendous and exponential growth.

Your current customer base is equal to the principal investment in the compounding effect. In my article “How To Increase Your Sales by 20 Percent or More,” I wrote about the idea that I termed “Dance With the One You Came With,” or in my book How To Be A Sales Superstar, I termed it “Dance with the One Who Bought You.” Obviously, the play on words was “Bought you” vs. “brought you.” The idea is to spend the most time with the one who brought you to where you are now, which is your customer base who has bought from you.

The Eighth Wonder that I refer to is the ability to use smart, laser-focused, personality-infused communication that creates relationships, top-of-mind awareness and value-added perception that creates you as the brand by emphasizing them.

Most businesses and salespeople never follow up, let alone try to create a value-added relationship, with customers. After 18 months of weak or no communication with your customers, it is as if they never bought from you. Any relationship or experiential capital is completely lost.

When most businesses or salespeople follow up, it is often boring, bland drivel that hurts more than helps. What is your game plan to create not just a follow up plan but to add your personality, to personalize it to your different types of customers and utilize many different forms and media for the follow up?

Do you have an ongoing plan involving postcards, letters, dimensional mail, automated phone calls, personal phone calls, written newsletters, ezines, autoresponder e-mails, text and mobile marketing and even in person visits? Do you have a persona you are creating to increase the ability for your customers to connect with you? Do you have an SDP (Specific Defining Proposition) that allows your customers to instantly understand your value versus any competition? Do you have a written plan to segment your database of customers based upon as many different criteria as necessary to personalize your communications and address the customers in a way they want to be addressed about things they care about? Do you have all the low to no cost tools available to do all these things?

The advent of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems have been a blessing and a curse. The best CRM systems are only as good as the people using them. CRM’s are often set up without a well thought out, personalized, segmented and automated sequences. Not all follow up is created equal or creates a brand with relational capital.

When you give enough value and create enough awareness through smart communication with your customers, you will begin to experience a compounding effect of repeat sales and referrals as well as good old fashioned word of mouth advertising that builds your business exponentially while you sleep. You become free from the slavery of, “I have to have the next deal to survive” syndrome. You also become less affected than others to any economic down turns.

Everything starts with one small step. What one small step will you take today to create your own Eighth Wonder of the World game plan?

For a free Special Report “How To Out Think, Out Maneuver and Crush the Competition” – e-mail me at info@tewart.com with the word “Crush” in the subject line.