You should never let a day go by without doing at least one marketing activity. This can take many shapes. If you are normally short on time, focus a lot of your energy on the activities where you learn more about your customers as opposed to just trying to sell to them. This will both build your relationships and give you an insight into where you can improve to better help them solve their problems.

If your schedule is normally packed full, your lunch could be a great way to do this. Start every day with making a phone call or two and see if you can book a lunch with a customer or prospect. The key here is to take the time to listen to them, ask questions about who they are, what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what problems they are having.

Don’t sell, don’t try to sneak in your pitch, and try to talk a whole lot less than you listen. Remember, this is not a sales meeting, this is marketing research. You are going to learn a whole lot about the customer and by not putting any sales pressure on them; you will be given a much greater gift, Information.

You can then take that information back and take a long hard look at what you are doing to meet the customer’s needs, and solving their problems. This is often the best way to find areas where you could be selling your services to a customer that neither you nor they have thought about. It can also be a way to find out that your customer could become a strategic partner.

You have to eat, why not make it count.