Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Why loyalty schemes work here, but not there

The research, which included a meta-analysis of nearly 50,000 relationships across 170 studies, 36 countries and 6 continents, was conducted to uncover cross-country insights into the most effective relationship marketing strategies as well as where customer relationships pay off the most (and least).

For example, while many companies believe rewards programmes help build loyalty, the researchers find the effectiveness of certain reward strategies is contingent upon a country's culture. Take Gazprom, a major Russian fuel company; it rewards its customers with points delivered in a tiered, status-based system that highlights membership level (silver, gold, etc.), consistent with Russian culture that emphasizes social status.

Alternatively, Shell in the US similarly rewards fuel consumers but does not highlight status, consistent with the America's more egalitarian cultural values. Moreover, while status-based rewards programmes may work in Russia, rewards programmes in general do not, partly due to a cultural tendency to avoid unfamiliar giveaways.

The analysis, which appeared in the September issue of the AMA's Journal of Marketing, also highlights the effect of relationship marketing on performance (sales growth and market share). On average, building strong relationships is far more effective outside the United States, exemplified among BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) where relationship marketing is 28%, 20%, 71%, and 100% more effective, respectively. But, what strategies work best at building those relationships?

For managers launching on-the-ground relationship marketing initiatives, the co-authors created benchmark comparisons across the 25 largest countries and six continents that provide insights into the most effective strategies by country. The strategies evaluated were those involving communication, seller expertise, dependence, investments, and length of relationship.

The research was conducted by Assistant Professors Stephen A. Samaha at California State University Northridge and Joshua T. Beck at University of Cincinnati and Professor Rob Palmatier from the University of Washington's Foster School of Business.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)