Quest #1. Keep Your Current Customers!
February 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bill Caskey, Lead Generation, VP of Sales
As sales trainers, we are asked often how to generate new customers. Yet, when I talk to CEO’s /VP’s I hear all the time that “we don’t sell enough to our own clients.” Or “If we never got a new customer but expanded our business with our existing customer, we would be obscenely profitable.”
So what’s the problem? I think I know.
They aren’t happy with you.
That’s right, they may not be entirely happy with your service. So how would you know if they were? Do you test? Do you survey? If not, why not?
Dinner at Sullivan’s
I had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants the other night–Sullivan’s Steak House. It was less than special. Steak grisly. Potatoes boring. Desert lousy. An uncommon experience at Sullivan’s.
So what did the waiter do at the end? Sell us on why we needed to get on the email list.
Hmmmmm. Wouldn’t it have been better if they would have given me a chance to weigh in on my experience? AND THEN….ask me if they could have my email address. Never once at Sullivan’s have I been asked to rate the food, the experience or anything.
That night, the restaurant was 1/3 full. In this day, when customers are weighing their every dollar, doesn’t it make sense to do all you can to solidfy your current relationships?
And that starts not with “Can I sell you something else?” But, with, “How are we doing at providing you unbelievable service?” If it’s not unbelievable, then it can be replaced.
So all the time you’re out selling new prospects, goes up in smoke because you’re losing clients out the back end.
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