Sales as Art

Two partners integrate sales practices and service delivery

PHILADELPHIA—At The Road Company, a Southern New Jersey community theater group, Suzanne Baldino Jones directs shows, serves on the Board of Directors and volunteers as business advisor. Mark Heisler pitches in as a consultant on other matters, keeping an eye on quality, color and what keeps audiences coming back. "It's really a natural fit to what we do in our business," says Jones. "Acquiring customers, keeping them once you have them and building loyalty is quite parallel to producing a play."

"Once you have them-either in the audience of a play or in the list of your accounts-you have to delight them, inspire them and motivate them to keep coming back for more," adds Heisler.

That's no easy task, yet Jones and Heisler, founders and principals of Competitive Business Strategy Group, a Mount Laurel, N.J.-based management consulting firm specializing in customer acquisition, retention and loyalty services and training, have come up with a performance that is winning rave reviews.

CBSG developed the Continuous Customer Contract, a new business model that integrates sales practices with service delivery in ways that build customer loyalty. "It creates value that reinforces the customer's original buying decision," explains Heisler.

"Most organizations are like theater troupes in that they focus on one goal-getting more customers through the door," Jones elaborates. "The role of keeping customers often goes unfilled as does the equally importing supporting role of giving customers a reason to come back at all."

For more information, contact Mark Heisler or Suzanne Baldino Jones at (888) 411-5800 or by e-mail at sbjones@cbsg.com.

Since its inception in 1996, Competitive Business Strategy Group has doubled in both revenue and size each year. CBSG practices what they preach: every client has either been retained for additional assignments or referred new clients to the business.