1. Personally and consistently model the ideal sales process. Talk about a morale-builder! Everyone needs role models. Who plays the role better than the head of the company?



2. Establish personal visibility within the marketplace. Imparting a touch of personal accountability and a sense of mission enhances the organization's brand(s), image and reputation.

3. Personally monitor changes in the marketplace. There's nothing like talking to customers directly about how they're using your product, service or solution. Leaving this to the marketing department or a team of consultants can lead to missed opportunities and a slower-than-necessary time to market for new products and services.

4. Constantly build interpersonal skills to secure one-on-one loyalty from customers. Top CEOs send personalized, handwritten thank-you notes to each and every one of their colleagues at client/customer organizations. (Don't underestimate the power of a hand-written note-these can build truly extraordinary customer relationships.)

5. Increase the amount of high-margin add-on business. Often, this occurs when a CEO assumes direct, personal responsibility for connecting with people at the highest level of the target organization and building long-term partnership plans.

6. Call a meeting of your best (noncompetitive) customers. Not a fiscal quarter should pass when you don't have a customer "touch point" that will keep you and your ideas in the "top of the mind" category. Customer summits are a great way to do this.

7. Send a gift that dramatically illustrates the value of the relationship. Here's a real-world strategy I love: Get a fancy coffee mug with your company's logo on it, place your signed business card inside, and attach a large "Sale Price" tag to the handle. On the front of the tag, list the hard-dollar value that your business relationship has delivered; on the back, list the harder-to-quantify soft-dollar value that has accrued to your customer. Send the mug to the CEO of your top customer. Then repeat the process for the next most important customer after that.