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Chris Bjorklund: Hello, I’m Chris Bjorklund for the Business Resource Center. Today, I’m talking with Jan Triplett, the CEO of the Business Success Center in Austin, Texas. Jan, you’re the expert on sales process and I know one thing you recommend is that businesses be selective in customers. Why is that such an important thing?

Jan Triplett: It’s because of the lack of time and money that goes across the board no matter what size business you have. Everybody doesn’t have enough of either one and when you are selective, then you can get seven benefits from really making sure that you have a sales force that is concentrating on what I refer to as a platinum customer.

Those seven benefits make it possible for you to get clients faster, to have more lucrative clients, to have a better opportunity to have a more marketable product or service at a higher price with less resistance. Those are some examples of the benefits.

Chris: So Jan, isn’t it always expensive to acquire those new customers and a lot less expensive to hold onto the ones you have?

Jan: It is, absolutely and that’s why having a platinum profile gives you a way to really determine whether this is a customer you want to keep or a customer you want to lose and firing customers is good for them and it’s certainly much more lucrative for you. So making sure that you are selective and having a very clear understanding of what is the best customer for your business in terms of all of the things they bring, not only the money but in terms of these other major benefits that really add long term as well as short term value to the business.

So we’re talking here about a platinum customer brings you other businesses or other customers like them because they are so engaged with being part of you. They’re pleased to be smart enough to have worked with you and so they become kind of a secondary sales force, if you like. They give you not only referrals but they act as quality control. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things happen and you need somebody who really believes in you who instead of trying to stick it to you, says, “Oh by the way, you really need to recheck your numbers,” or “You put something out that you might want to reconsider,” and so they’re on your side.

They want you to succeed and so they are a quality control. You want this platinum customer, because one of the other things they bring to you are ideas. They tell you they are engaged with you. They want you to be part of their team and so they tell you about things that are coming up in their industry or in their communities that might lead to another product or service that they could purchase from you or recommend to others that you have. So there are several things that really being selective allows you really to build up basically a group of only the best customers and they in turn, attract more best customers and they weed out the rest. That’s what you want to do.

Chris: Thanks so much for talking to us today.

Jan: Thank you for the opportunity.

Chris: You’ve been listening to Jan Triplett, the CEO of the Business Success Center. This Business Resource Center is a free resource for all businesses made possible by the Business Bank of Texas.

I’m Chris Bjorklund, thanks for listening.