Building Client Loyalty By Tom Hopkins

The average business loses 15% of their clients on an annual basis. It’s safe to assume that some clients move away or sadly, pass away. If you sell to businesses, some of them may close. But, many simply stop using your services or shopping with you. That’s because you haven’t established sound relationships with them. The clients feel no loyalty…no obligation to return.

With the cost of gaining new business five times that of keeping current clients, it’s wise to do all you can to keep those people coming back for more. In order to thrive in business, it’s important to make each client feel important. If they have a negative feeling or are even indifferent to your business, they won’t feel obligated to continue to do business with you.

You start by being grateful for their business. Make good eye contact with clients and say the words, "Thank you for your business," at least once during every contact.

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Just Out: Laugh All the Way to the Bank

Laugh All the Way to the Bank

In this week's Coffee With the Dog newsletter, Michelle Nichols explains how to use humor to make the perfect sale.


In the sales world, one of the most common stumbling blocks is price objection. A potential deal may be moving ahead smoothly until numbers enter the conversation, when eager customers suddenly turn and flee. But I’ve found that humor can be an effective tool for moving the sale along at almost every stage of the process. Using humor doesn’t mean going overboard and acting like a goofball. Adding appropriate levity to a situation can increase your likeableness, and help establish that critical connection with customers. As a result, customers will listen more closely, and if trouble erupts, they’re more likely to cut you some slack.

To read the rest of Nichol's article, click here.

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Just Out: Lost In Translation

Lost In Translation

In this week's Coffee With the Dog newsletter, the President of Robertson Training Group, Kelley Robertson, explains sales jargon and why you should keep it simple.


Too often sales people use jargon, technical terms, acronyms, and other language that sounds foreign to their prospect or customer.

When I worked in consumer electronics, sales people constantly referred to product numbers when talking to customers. Because they worked with the products every day, they were familiar with the SKU numbers but their customers were not.

To read the rest of Robertson's article, click here.

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Coffee With the Dog: Power Tips

Power Tips

In this week's Coffee With the Dog newsletter, SalesDog founder and CEO, Michael Dalton Johnson, is giving you the best tips for making a sale.

If what to do to guarantee a sale is difficult for you, read this article and follow these powerful sales generating tips.

Everybody likes to buy, because buying is fun. If you don't believe this, try to find a parking space at a shopping mall, or a seat at an auction, this weekend. However, while buying is fun and exciting, nobody likes to be sold. (This insight courtesy of Jeffrey Gitomer.)

The truth is: the best salespeople don't "sell" their customers; they facilitate the sale.

To read the rest of Johnson's power tips article, click here.

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Quote of the Week: Destiny and Decisions

Quote of the Week

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Your destiny is in your hands. All of it! Your business life and your personal life are all determined by the decisions you make and the actions you take.

Who do you want to become? And what steps will you take to get there? Got any tips for how all us Sales Dog can determine our success? Tell us in the comments below! 

Coffee with the Dog: Is Cold Calling Really Dead?

Let's Talk About Cold Calling

In this week's Coffee With the Dog newsletter, SalesDog founder and CEO, Michael Dalton Johnson, is giving you the lowdown on cold calling.

If the idea of making the first move and calling your prospective clients sends shivers down your spine, you're not alone. But Johnson is offering up some encouragement: 

"Despite what you are being told, Cold Calling is alive and kicking – and still an important part of many sucessful sales and marketing efforts.

In a lot of instances the need for a human voice is absolutely required. In a world of overhyped and outright devious Internet marketing, impersonal broadcast emailing and a transparently self-serving social media presence with thousands of 'friends,' a person's voice is reassuring and says 'I am a human,.. a real flesh and blood being... just like you. Let's talk.'"

To read the rest of Johnson's cold calling article, click here.

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Give us your thoughts on cold calling in the comments below! 

We're Back! And We Missed All You Sales Dogs!

Our SalesDog Blog is Back!

Hello all you Sales Dogs! Our apologies for the blogging silence. Did you miss us? We most certainly missed you!

We're back now and have some great new content lined up for you! Plus, a brand new editor (that's me, Taylor Eaton). So keep your eyes glued to this blog for inspirational quotes, insights into the business world, and free tips and tricks (who says old dogs can't learn new tricks?) for your sales and marketing practices.

Can't wait for the new content to start showing up? Browse our archives or subscribe to our Coffee with the Dog newsletter for free weekly advice (AND 300 free business leads).

Got any questions for us? Feel free to leave us a comment below! We'd love to hear from you!