As any good sales pro knows, it’s those customers that keep coming back time and again that keep the lights on. In fact, it costs twice as much to source and acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. And the key to customer retention? Intelligent sales. But how exactly do you sell intelligently?
Reward loyalty
Everyone has a favourite coffee shop. The one you go to every morning and order the same thing, so much so you’re offered a free coffee once in a while for your loyalty. Offers like this make customers feel special and help ensure they come back for more. So why not follow suit? Use sales technology to identify your most loyal customers and offer them incentives from time to time. A discount on their next order for example, or if they regularly buy stationary from you, then a half price offer if they order paper next time. Get creative with your offers and your loyal customers will stay just that. Loyal. Take them for granted and you risk losing them to the competition.
Upsell
Loyal customers might make the same purchase month on month and if you’re lucky, year on year. But just because you offer the products they need, they’re not obliged to keep coming back, especially when the competition is lurking just around the corner. So how can you overcome this? If you know that, for example, a certain customer always buys keyboards in July – their peak hiring season - you can pre-empt their interest in your devices and stop them heading to the competition. Call them in advance of their usual order and offer them a discount when they purchase a certain number of products, for example. Better still, offer them a bigger discount if they buy computer mice too. By pairing relevant products and upselling to existing customers, you’ll not only see customers returning month on month, you’ll see an increase in orders too.
Know the market
Use technology to identify seasonal upticks in product sales across specific industries and most importantly, listen to each market. If one customer is experiencing very high demand for a particular product, then it’s likely others in the same industry are too. So call them with an offer they can’t refuse and you’ll blow the competition out the water.
New business is no good to you if it doesn’t stick around and at the end of the day, it’s your existing customers that keep the business ticking over. So don’t be complacent and don’t take these customers for granted. Use sales technology to sell smart and make sure customers come back again and again.
By , CEO of sales-i, which delivers an on-demand sales and customer intelligence service for busy, frontline and desk-based sales people.
