This is the second in a three part series. If you haven't read, Net Sales - Why Do My Customers Go Away?, you may want to do it now and come back. As you may have noticed, I tried to write that first article from management's perspective. This article will be from the customer's perspective.

Last month, I wrote How to Maximize Client Retention, Evangelism and Sales to share how I as a solopreneur did it. I've had several conversations about client retention since the article published. Typically asking, "What's causing my clients to go away rather than staying for life, or at least until we finish?"

This story comes from my daughter-in-law, Melissa, who is the co-owner of the Inbound Design Studio, the most reliable source for an effective website to sit on the Hubspot CMS. (But I might be biased along with her 100's of customers.)

An elderly Floridian called 911 on her cell phone to report that her car has been broken into. She is hysterical as she explains her situation to the dispatcher: 'They've stolen the stereo, the steering wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator!' she cried.. The dispatcher said, 'Stay calm... An officer is on the way.' A few minutes later, the officer radios in 'Disregard.' He says. 'She got in the back-seat by mistake.'

You've probably heard it before. I started my business in 1986. I had no money and not a lot of brains. I'd been in the industry for less than a year, but I did know how to make cold calls. So, I started. 30 cold calls every morning before noon. Spend the rest of the day following up on the promises that I made and received on the calls. I made thousands of cold calls in the first year of my business, but I didn't make any in year 2. I learned how to ask for and get referrals.

I just saw a survey about on line civility.

I was talking with a 'former' client today and she told me that another 'former' client had asked her if I was OK. She asked what he meant and he replied, "He seems a bit grouchy." She said, "Come on! That's Rick!"

This is a very special article written by Greg Brown. Greg is Senior Enterprise Account Executive at HubSpot and according to every manager that he's worked with, it's almost embarrassing how badly he's always blown away his quotas. In his own words...

How many clients do you have?

Everyone has heard of the acronym AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). It’s been around since the the turn of the 20th century when E. St. Elmo Lewis first described it. Over the years, many ‘experts’ have felt the need to modify, rename, or add to the basic steps, but seriously, do we really need a submarine version, a basebal version or an inbound marketing version? If a salesperson understands and follows the basics, they can do quite well.

So, taking a lesson from Star Wars, why start at the beginning when you can start in the middle? Let’s start with Interest. I know that the acronym means that we need to create interest within our client, but my question is, “Can you teach a salesperson how to be create interest?” Several years ago, I attended a conference in Rhode Island. One of the speakers reflected on advice that his father had given him as he set out to make his fortune. His father said,