By: Patrick McClure – ECF Member •
We’re all salespeople, especially business owners. We survive by generating new business, increasing our revenue, and expanding our market share.
Statistics and our business experience tell us that 80% of our new business comes from our existing clients. That begs the questions…what are we doing to proactively cultivate our existing clients?
Especially at this time of year, we need to review our successes with our best customers and show our appreciation.
Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of sales organizations to show appreciation, build customer loyalty, and repeat business. Here are some of the best strategies we’ve developed:
1. Give warm referrals and introductions. This usually results in your clients being motivated to give more referrals to your company. It’s the law of reciprocity. Your clients want to help those that help them!
2. Become the “Godfather.” In the movies and books, there was always an older father figure that people came to when they needed a favor or help. Actively work with your clients to help them, do them favors, and be a resource to them.
3. Stay Connected with newsletters, blogs, podcasts, Zoom calls, your website and social media sites such as LinkedIn and professional business sites. Freely offer tips, suggestions, and best practices to your customer base. This increases your VALUE and ensures you remain top of mind.
4. Develop special “Members Only” offers. Search your mind and business for what you offer. Some ideas from my clients in the past:
— Members only cocktail/networking party
— Business books, the hottest topics
— Memberships to business groups
— Access to a “members only” section of your website
— Tickets to a special performance or seminar
5. Get creative and Add Value. You might survey your clients to find out what would be helpful to them. Find out what they are struggling with and see what you could offer to help. Giving leads or referrals is always top of mind, but what if you gave them a business strategy that would double their revenue or drive more prospects to their front door. Brainstorm among your team and get creative!
- They have a poorly defined target market.
- They’re not calling on the actual decision makers in their prospects.
- It’s easier to reach and talk to the “nice people” whose job is to filter inbound calls and prevent access to the Boss.
- They haven’t done enough research into who actually buys their product or service and why!
Salespeople tend to fantasize they have a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities and therefore don’t need to spend more time making uncomfortable calls to people who might hang up on them. In fact, most sales pipelines are filled — generally 40% or more – with “prospect” that will never close!
Because salespeople have big EGOs and pride themselves on closing deals, they spend way too much time on unqualified opportunities. Come hell or high water, they are determined to close this deal no matter how long it takes. Meanwhile, dozens of highly qualified opportunities are not pursued because your focus was on closing this one challenging deal no matter what!
Here’s my Best Sales Tip: FIND the EASIEST SALE and sell to THEM! We need to focus our prospecting efforts on finding the people who are already at YES!
Most salespeople spend 80% of their time “working their pipeline” and only spending 20% of their time looking for new business. To succeed, you need to reverse that ratio: spend 80% prospecting for new clients and 20% working the pipeline.
See quote from Chapter 8 of my book Precision Selling…