RETAINING CUSTOMERS VS ACQUIRING THEM: WHICH IS BETTER BUSINESS?

While account acquisition is one of the main drivers of growth, acquiring new accounts is extremely challenging—and costly—for most businesses. Experts place the cost of acquiring a new customer between 4 and 10 times the cost of maintaining an existing one. Not all companies can weather the financial strain associated with losing a customer—and it could be especially critical to the individual salesperson. Even if the account isn’t viewed as a “strategic” one to the organization, it could be vitally important to you, the salesperson. When customers suddenly and unexpectedly defect, it could take months to recoup the loss—time the sales professional may not have in the current competitive selling environment.  

That’s why keeping customers is so crucial for an organization’s profitability. As competitors become stronger contenders for your accounts’ business and customer loyalty is no longer guaranteed, it’s more important than ever that your organization take a strategic approach to protect the crucial accounts none of you can afford to lose. Here are a few things you as a sales professional can do to directly aid in account retention. 

Eliminate single-point-of-contact relationships in an account. One of the biggest mistake still made in sales is having a single contact point in an account. Make sure you have multiple people associated with each key account–at your customer’s company as well as within your own company. Such relationships can also prevent situations in which that sole contact person defects to a competing company, taking that precious account along, or just leaves in general and then no one is talking to the customer. 

Spend more quality time with customers. It’s not just about increasing the frequency of customer interactions but increasing the value of those interactions. Always have a valid business reason to meet. Focus your dialogue with the individuals you interact with to let them jointly evaluate the impact of your solutions on their business goals and objectives and to allow you to check on customer satisfaction (or lack of). These conversations may lead to new opportunities to cross- or upsell, introduce new products, or penetrate adjacent buying centers.  

Learn to read the warning signs of potential customer defection. Customers rarely decamp without giving off signals. However, if the sales professional lacks visibility into what’s happening at all levels of the organization, the signs can be easy to miss. Strategic accounts often have numerous touchpoints—executives, product specialists, customer support, accounting personnel—so it’s likely that those accounts will have at least one relationship within almost every department in your organization. Each of these contacts has the potential to spot red flags that they can pass on to the sales professional, so make sure to regularly collaborate across departments.