B2B Sales Pipeline

Many organizations look at a sale as a “1 shot. 1 kill” scenario, where the salesperson meets, greets, engages, builds rapport, educates, and closes the deal with YOUR customer. Then it’s off to the next deal. YOUR customer thinks the same thing my mother says frequently - “You never call. You never write. You never visit.” That type of behavior will get me written out of the will, and get you ridden out of your customer’s life. NEWS FLASH - A representative from your competitor is engaging YOUR customer, and if YOUR customer feels abandoned, or the solution hiccups one time, YOUR customer will likely become THEIR customer. IN OTHER NEWS - Customer retention costs 20% of what acquiring a new customer does, and once you have the relationship, it should be easier to up sell them (assuming your eggheads can make the solution work like you said it would and your support representatives are helpful). So what do you do to hang on to and / or upsell your customers: 1. Make No Assumptions Sure you like your customer - who wouldn’t - they just wrote you a PO, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that they like you. What do I mean? Greg Rohm, VP of National Sales at Datamaxx once told me “Remember - they’re your customer, not your friend.” - This is to say that the customer / sales relationship isn’t equitable - You shouldn’t expect the customer to give up a kidney to help you out, however they may reach in and tear your heart out if your solution doesn’t work as advertised. A great article on GuerillaConsulting.com said it like this - “…the [salesperson] never assumes a client is loyal. A client’s trust and loyalty can be swept away if you get too confident or let performance slip, even on one project or sale.” Don’t assume that because your customer currently chooses to do business with you that he or she will continue to do so. You’ve built the rapport, so ask with YOUR customer how things are going, before they become someone else’s customer. 2. Make it Right Once you’ve had a customer long enough, you will inevitably hit a snag, and since you would never oversell and under-deliver, it was likely - A deliverable was incorrect, late or substandard; support was lackluster; AR mis-billed the customer. Whatever the cause, snafus will happen, and when they do, it’s critical that you proactively step up, and as the customer’s advocate within your organization, find a way to make it right. If you wait for the customer to complain then you’re probably already too late. 3. Make it sticky The more entrenched your solution is, the less likely it is to be pulled for a competitor. This “stickiness” is what many leading companies utilize to (a) ensure the solution is not replaced and (b) upsell by providing additional modules or professional services. Once you are filling a large amount of a customer’s needs with quality and a proven track record, it only becomes logical that you can ask for other opportunities. Just like in point #1 - You’ve already built the rapport - so ask about additional avenues where your solution could make the customer’s life easier by dealing with only one vendor. In closing, I’ve got a great idea - Stop reading this post and go call your key customers…just to talk, but make sure that you steer the conversation toward: How is the solution working? Anything I should know about? Since all is well, let’s talk about some of your other needs. Like me with my mother, your customer will be glad to hear your voice, and less likely to write you out of their will.