Web_Footed_Newbie - 8:24 pm on Dec 31, 2004 (gmt 0)

Welcome to Webmaster World, Mich9el!
You have asked a very broad question that can have many answers, but here are a couple broad strokes for you to ponder:
Under-promise, over-deliver. By setting customer expectations early, but then beating those expectations, customers love it. Ever have a cable company tell you they will be at your home for installation between 8AM to 5PM, only to have them show up at 8:30am so you can get on with your day?
Web-based business, put on a face! Our company sells on the internet, with about 1/2 our sales done by telephone generated sales from our websites and the other 1/2 by click and buy (ecommerce). Since 1/2 our sales are generated via ecommerce with no salesperson involved, we send out personal "thank you" emails, including a real name and phone number of their personal customer service representative so if there are any questions, they can call or email a real person! Voila!

And remember:
Generating clients leads is promotion/advertising (along with word of mouth as others have written here)
Generating clients from leads is sales
Generating clients for life is customer service and client marketing.

Hope these broads strokes help, and keep reading here at WW!
Good luck, WFN