Bad things happen to all of us–that’s what keeps soap operas on the air. This blog talks about “churn” as a not-so-nice reality of business and what it means for your marketing activities.

Churn refers to the turnover of customers in a given period of time. Every firm loses a percentage of its customers every year. To what degree you can and should slow down your churn rate is a complex topic for another day. Today we will worry only about what it means for your marketing activity.

You will never eliminate churn. It is inevitable. Despite all of your best efforts, you will lose a percentage of your customers. As a consequence, you need to devote some portion of every week to marketing and sales to replace the lost clients. This is where small firms, especially newer ones, may hit the rocks. Small businesses with just a few employees find themselves completely focused on servicing their clients. MSPs generally offer 24/7 services, and you may feel it is all you can do to satisfy your client’s needs and expectations. As a result, you may let marketing and sales efforts go slack, at least periodically. Unfortunately, the excuse that “clients come first” isn’t an acceptable maxim. If you don’t maintain a steady schedule of marketing and sales efforts, eventually you won’t be able to maintain the revenues to keep you in the black. The lesson here? Marketing needs to be a regimen, just like the gym or healthy eating. There can never be a good reason to skip your scheduled marketing and sales time because it is just as critical to your business success as keeping your customers happy.