It doesn't matter what you sell. Whether it's widgets or watermelons, we all face the same challenge -- connecting with our customers and getting our message across. I've devised a simple way to do this. I never forget my PAL™: the Purpose, Audience and Logistics of every sales call. This is the same method I use when preparing for any kind of presentation -- from a one-on-one meeting to a full-fledged "dog and pony show" with visual aids. You can do it, too.

Attracting high value customers and keeping them coming back is what customer loyalty is all about. But true customer loyalty does not happen overnight. Instead, it’s built and earned one customer experience at a time. In most industries, customers typically evolve through at least seven identifiable life-cycle stages. For most off line customers, these stages are:

What is a dangerous customer? It is not necessarily a customer that is threatening you with a knife or a gun. (That is not just a dangerous customer, but a dangerous person.) What we are discussing in this article is the customer that puts you into the “danger zone” of lost business. We aren’t talking about customers who have a complaint about you and choose to tell everyone they know. We are talking about that potentially very dangerous type of customer, a “satisfied” customer.

Some heads of companies love to take matters into their own hands when it comes to selling face-to-face. Others choose to delegate selling authority – and in so doing cheat their organizations out of a great deal of selling “impact.” My question: What does the first group know about selling … that the rest of us wish we knew?