When do owners usually start thinking about marketing? When they need to get more business, correct? When they experience a lull or change in the market or business climate that spurs them to say to themselves (and I’m paraphrasing), “Hmmm…I need to get more butts in the seats.”

But what if owners look at the purpose of marketing a little differently? What about those “butts already in the seats,” so to speak? In other words, what about those customers they already have?

In traditional marketing there is a sales funnel. We market to the masses through traditional and non-traditional means – radio, television, billboards, flyers, social media, electronic marketing and signage. The sole purpose of this broad-reaching campaign is to “catch” as many in that large end of the funnel as possible. Then we keep marketing to that captured audience through drip marketing and ta-da: out comes a sale at the small end of the funnel!

What if we flipped that funnel upside down and started marketing to the core business base we already have? This outlandish idea also flips the definition of marketing on its head. I can hear the objections now (again paraphrasing): “Why spend all that money on customers I already have? I want more and new customers. I’m looking to differentiate and move into new markets. I’m looking at my numbers, and I need to increase volume and sales by XX percent.”

Marketing is part of an overall strategic culture of a company. If part of that strategy and culture is appreciating those longtime clients and the core business we already have, we can transform our sales approach. By spending time and marketing dollars on our core customer base, we help instill a sense of ownership, loyalty and “brand love” with our clients. We fill up that small end of the funnel, invest in our greatest resources and trust they will help spread our message.

While there is a time, place and strategy for marketing to the masses and filling up that large end of the funnel, sometimes we can miss the forest for the trees in the process. We are so concerned with getting more butts in the seats that we become obsessed with the seat – the height, the cushion, the proximity to other seats and the emptiness. We can’t wait to pack the room with a new, fresh audience of future customers ready to buy that we miss the low-hanging fruit of what we already have.

Part of our marketing plan should be focusing on existing customers and going beyond the status quo in our marketing efforts. If we concentrate our marketing message and dollars on helping our existing customers feel special, they will gladly spread our brand for us. When we start appreciating them, we reap dividends in referrals. Plus, we get to build on an already established platform of trust.

I am a big advocate of referrals and the power of word of mouth. In fact, research shows that 70 percent of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels he or she is being treated. My company has grown through just that – referrals and word of mouth. I have a select few who I thank often for helping me grow (you know who you are). Then I try to do a good (great) job for my clients and see where else that word of mouth takes me. While I like to display your marketing message in as many creative ways as possible, nothing, absolutely nothing, beats word of mouth.

But clients need something to talk about. They need to see a new marketing campaign, a new website or be invited to a carefully orchestrated open house. They need to see a marketing plan in action and feel like they are an essential, intrinsic part of it.

If we market to our clients, if we create a VIP club and appreciate them with our marketing dollars, clever marketing messages, promotional giveaways, happy hours or simply thank-you messages, if we appreciate them the way they deserve, that upside down funnel will start churning out new customers.

We essentially market to the masses as well. We do it through our customers. Our core clients tell other new, potential customers about the loyalty and brand love they have towards us and ta-da: out comes more sales. In other words, our powerful word-of-mouth message and our strategic culture of making our customers our primary focus helps increase the volume of our sales.

We are no longer marketing to sell to the masses. We are marketing to appreciate our current customer base: the people who keep the lights on. Then we will realize that this forest has a lot of trees. Plus, those new customers we get through word of mouth have been vetted and already believe in our strategic culture because they have started with trust. It’s a beautiful thing when marketing goes from selling to the masses to appreciating the most important.

I’m not advocating removing all marketing to potential new clients. However, I am proposing a new way of approaching marketing. It begins with a company-wide culture of appreciating clients. In this type of culture, the main goal is appreciating those we already have rather than despairing over those we don’t have. Potential customers know when they are being oversold to. In the same way, they know when they are being appreciated. How we frame our marketing messages to both segments can make all the difference.

With this approach, the new clients will come. They will wonder what all the fuss is about. They will see all those butts in the seats and wonder why they are all being treated so well. Instead of being sold to, they will see and hear all about the brand loyalty and brand love that they are missing out on.

Benjamin Franklin famously stated, “Well done is better than well said.” We can say all we want in our marketing messages, but the people who have walked through our doors and experienced our service and product firsthand are the best messengers. They can testify to the fact that our companies are “well done” as opposed to just “well said.”