How to make a customer for life

The world we live in today has never been more challenging. The industry is a microcosm of our world. Problems are endless. Never ending obstacles seem to be the only constant.

For you to achieve longevity & success, you must continue to build on your foundational skills, acquire new perspectives, and evolve as a leader/executive.

Welcome to the Polaris Perspective. 

Below you’ll find:

1. Making a customer for life (Leadership & Growth)

2. Industry Headlines

3. A word from Polaris Partners

4. Ship of Theseus event recap

Let’s get into it.

Leadership 

How to gain a customer for life. 

Being a cannabis retailer, there’s many areas of difficulty. The first is creating differentiation to get customers in store in a heavily regulated market. Getting customers to make a purchase decision is another hurdle. But what about making customers come back again and again?

If you can gain loyalty from your customers, they are going to want to grow with you, be more lenient about your F-ups, and refer you to their friends and family. As a leader there’s a few key things you can do to make more customers for life:

1. Understand their problem so well that you’re the one teaching them how big the problem really is and how you’ve solved it or seen it solved in the past.

2. Show up in person. Nothing replaces face to face. I saw one of my fractional clients run their onboarding live and immediately received a testimonial that read “I can go to sleep better knowing you are here taking care of us”. - Best sentence you can hear.

3. Have your executive leadership present to customers. Ensure you’re front and center with ground-level communication, providing a clear path for customers to reach you.

4. Be willing to introduce customers to partners who can help solve their problem without expecting anything in return. This demonstrates how much you really care about their business. 

5. Accept and address feedback. Create a culture internally where there’s excitement and flexibility around creating a product that reflects the needs of the customer - NOT staying irrationally committed to an original product roadmap.

Making a customer for life comes down to doing everything in your power to prove to your customer that you care. Make sure they feel cared for and they won’t go anywhere else. 

🌟 Polaris Pulse: newest innovations updates, and announcements from Polaris Partners.

Proofly is a leading topical brand in Canada. Providing unparalleled value and superior-quality cannabis-based topicals across three categories: Relief, Beauty, and Intimates. Comprising a dedicated team of science-focused professionals, we specialize exclusively in crafting small-batch, high-quality topicals to ensure an exceptional cannabis experience. They have: Topicals, Softgels, Oils and Edibles.

Cruelty Free | Natural Ingredients | 100% Research & Science Based | Paraben Free

THE PROOF IS IN THE PRODUCT

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BLAZE recently released a transformative software redesign that unlocks a new level of flexibility for cannabis dispensaries with a hardware-agnostic web-based POS system. This strategic change helps burgeoning retailers stay technologically competitive and reduce upfront hardware costs. The new update also introduces a reimagined UX and UI designed to increase efficiency and intuitiveness for front-of-house employees. BLAZE Retail® empowers retailers of all sizes to meet and exceed their goals through innovation, automation, and seamless scalability. LEARN MORE

Event(s) Recap

JUNE 4th: Ship of Theseus: The missions remains although the parts may change

We hosted over 130 executive leaders and stakeholders from across the industry.

The night was modelled after The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus´s Paradox-A thought experiment about whether an object (in this case your leadership) is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.

Takeaways:

1. Deals get done in person, with people you have mutual respect for

2. You need to be willing to get uncomfortable and vulnerable to progress

3. Listening is the skill that is significantly undervalued and the skill that needs to be practised everyday

4. Trust is at an all time low, get good at building Trust and you will eat forever

📆 Upcoming events

Hall of Flowers September Market:
September 20-21, 📍 Santa Rosa, CA.
Renowned buyer-focused trade show opens the doors for its first September market

Business of Cannabis: New York
November 12th, 2024, 📍 The New York Academy of Medicine  
Bringing together over 400 industry leaders, investors and policy-makers.

Game Changers

That was the first edition of the Polaris Perspective, the newsletter for Executive Leaders. The inception of our brand came from the idea that a North Star resource for evolving rising leaders in our industry is sorely needed. If we can make you 1% better or think 1% differently, then we´ve succeeded.

This newsletter will act as a beacon of support for you in your leadership journey, as well as keep you on the pulse of what’s happening across the world of cannabis leadership globally and within the Polaris ecosystem.

So if you know anyone else that would love this newsletter feel free to refer them so they can join this incredible community!

- SKV