Difficult calls to save at-risk B2B customers – how to make them easier
This post was inspired by a recent discussion on The Sales Blog about how it’s easy to do the enjoyable things. Of course! But some things that are more difficult to do can improve sales results. We need to do those things too. Such as resolving tough customer problems, hard as that is.
Because problems with a customer don’t go away, unless the customer goes away.
The Sales Blog post talks about salespeople enjoying taking customers to ballgames. But sales analytics that we’ve done for Fortune 500 sales teams found a surprising result …
(And no, unfortunately the result was not that “your team” was more likely to win because you were there!)
When treated as a defensive strategy to keep a failing account, we found that this socializing approach can backfire.
What? Noooo!
I’m sorry to break the news to you … but, yes!
After the event, most customers subsequently further curtailed orders or reduced spend to zero with the company.
We were very puzzled.
Could fun be a catalyst to losing the account? We hope not! Who wants to not have fun?
Most likely, the difficult conversations that should have happened with those customers did not happen.
Just like the old proverb, “a stitch in time saves nine,” there is a right time for these necessary conversations. Predictive analytics can help detect patterns that show when that first stitch is required – before the relationship is torn beyond salvage.
How to make it easier to raise the difficult conversations
Analytics can help you develop a strategy to retain at-risk and lapsed customers. Here are three tips to reach out to these customers:
Mix up the servings
Segment your customer portfolio based on buying cycle. Ensure that sales reps call on all segments in some proportion that reflects both gains in immediate sales and long-term relationship. Use your CRM system to set up call blocks that are driven by analytics, to ensure consistent actions across the entire sales force.
Show potential revenue loss from not making the call
Salespeople hate leaving money on the table. To show how much money could be left behind, follow these steps:
- Define a customer segment to be called first, as suggested above.
- Then identify actual sales revenue from sales calls made previously to a similar customer segment.
- Use this revenue figure to establish a per-customer baseline of incremental sales generated.
- Multiply this figure by number of customers in your “to call first” segment.
- Use this to show sales reps how much revenue may be lost by not calling.
You can also extend this lost revenue estimate into a longer time horizon, to show revenue lost from what could have been future repeat purchases. It adds up, fast!
Remove the responsibility from the rep
So analytics identified a priority customer to call. This is often a difficult conversation – the rep knows the customer was a great customer at one time, the rep did not keep track and call proactively, and the customer moved to a different supplier. An alternative is, remove this account from the rep’s portfolio. The account can be put into a nurturing program, given to newer reps who are more hungry, or given to more experienced reps skilled at tough conversations, for a fresh start with the account.
President & CEO at Valgen
Rainmaker extraordinaire for our clients. Turns databases into gold. Analytics executive and entrepreneur with a track record of producing significant and sustained revenue gains for sales teams in fleet, transportation, high tech & financial services.
