Tip sheet: Building lasting customer relationships

Use this list of common-sense actions to build lasting relationships with advertisers.

• For starters, ask yourself: When is the last time you talked with your customer and it wasn’t about your product? Creating a give-and-take relationship is more than just selling them something. 

• Know that building relationships is not a quick process. It takes a lot of time and effort. It’s no different from nurturing a longtime friendship. 

• Realize in all of your dealings that clients want to know how much you care about them. 

• Consider not walking into a customer’s business with your “sales tools” — computers, binders, briefcases, etc. Instead, arrive empty-handed as you visit for an update. 

• Choose a casual time or pick different times for when you drop by. 

• Ask more open-ended questions. 

• Listen. (And while you’re at it, listen to more than the boss. Employees of the business have great insight as well.) 

• Understand that nobody went into business “to buy advertising.” 

RELATED: See more from the Wisconsin Relevance Project

• Shop with your customers. Encourage your newspaper employees to do so as well. 

• Even if you don’t buy from that advertiser, at least give them a chance. (The reference was to buying a car and giving all of the advertising dealers an opportunity to compete.) 

• Provide your customers with case studies proving newspaper ads work. Consider building a library of testimonials and parking it online. Add video. 

• Talk to customers well ahead of a special section to get their suggestions before you commit to publishing. They’ll feel more a part of the project, and not an afterthought. 

• Make sure ads stand out in the newspaper and online. (Hint: Avoid tiny type.) 

• Send sympathy cards to clients when there’s been a death in their family. 

• Make sure the sales rep thoroughly reads the newspaper to help the advertiser know it’s a reliable source “for what’s going on.” 

• Point out to new subscribers your list of advertisers and ask them to mention the newspaper when buying goods and services. 

• Finally, deliver on this guarantee: the more ads that have calls to action and the more times ads run, the better the result for the valued advertiser. Beware of “one and done.” 

The Relevance Project thanks longtime publisher Robert M. Williams Jr. for his workshop at the National Newspaper Association’s 2020 conference.