After almost a month of training my new puppy, Buddy, I have come to realize that there are similarities between dog training and marketing yourself to your customers.
It drives me crazy to have dogs jumping around while their food is being prepared, so I train them to sit and wait to eat until I give the command, “Say Grace, Amen”. Buddy LOVES food, so this behavior modification has been relatively easy. The food is coming nowhere near the floor until he sits and waits. Getting it down to the ground without him jumping up again took a bit more time, I did have to hold him for the first couple of weeks, but he’s already getting this down, too. What it took was persistence.
Persistence
When teaching a dog a new trick, you have to repeat yourself often and often be ruthlessly persistent to get a consistent behavioral change.
In your marketing plan, you need to be persistent in reaching out to your customers. Life is a moving parade, filled with distractions. If you do not keep in contact (in some form or fashion), your customers could potentially follow someone else who is more persistent in their message.
Buddy likes to cuddle, which makes it easy to reward his good behavior. I pet him regularly and tell him how much I care about him. I am myself rewarded with more good behavior and a wagging tail. This is all about bonding and creating loyalty.
Creating Loyalty
Dogs are said to be loyal by nature, but I don’t know that this is necessarily true. You can certainly create this loyalty by showing affection and appreciation.
Customers will remain loyal to you, if you show them affection and appreciation. This can be as simple as thanking them for their purchase or as complicated as a loyalty rewards program.
Unfortunately, Buddy came to be with a bad habit. The foster family had let him sleep on the bed with them. While I am sure he would be a great cuddler, an unsupervised puppy can create havoc. Even a supervised puppy can destroy something with those sharp little teeth. So, no bed time for Buddy. He sleeps in his crate protecting my furniture and also him from my wrath, if furniture were to be destroyed.
To break this bad habit, I had to be consistent in putting him in his crate and ignoring his pleas (barks and whining) to come onto the bed.
Consistency
With dog training, this kind of goes hand-in-hand with persistence. You have to be consistent in your behavior so that they know what to expect and when.
Your customers will appreciate when you are consistent on the service they can expect. Remember, one bad experience can unravel the entire relationship that you created through your marketing.
Ironically, it has taken a little over 21 days for Buddy to learn the new habits discussed here. Reports on human behavioral change suggest the same length of time to form either a good or bad habit. It’s a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things. So, continue to form good habits around your marketing.
One final tip (for dog training and marketing), don’t try to tackle everything at once. Pick one or two thing to implement and then be persistent, consistent and reward yourself (or your customers). Eventually, it becomes a habit and then you can add in something new.
© 2011 Heather C. Morrow. All rights reserved
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Heather C. Morrow, owner of Pottery Daily, helps emerging artists express their true value and get paid what they are worth. Her products and services show you how to make more money, save more time while enjoying the freedom in your art. For your FREE audio go to www.marketandsellyourart.com.