The Most Overlooked Sales Channel: How Nurturing Current Customers can Pay Dividends

In this “sales” focused business environment, it’s not uncommon for organizations to place an enormous amount of effort on acquiring new sales and any functions that relate specifically to this task. From direct sales efforts to marketing geared towards client acquisition, generating new business is not only top of mind for most, but also the only focus for many. And while it is extremely valuable to have a sales orientation, if little effort is placed on valuable relationships, not only will client acquisition suffer, but highly beneficial pathways to growing sales may be overlooked. By taking a different slant than your competitors, you might be able to both increase market share and make your customers happier.

Shift from Client Acquisition to Retention Could Pay Dividends

Most companies focus their sales activities on acquiring new customers rather than fostering the relationships with their existing base of customers. This strategy brings along with it a couple of major downfalls. First, when less time is spent with current customers, the probability of the loss of business increases, since less time is being spent on fostering a good relationship and rapport with customers. Especially in this day and age where customer expectations are at an all time high, devoting time to making your customers feel loved is critical to retaining their business. And it’s a well known fact that acquiring new business costs significantly more in most cases than retaining existing clients. Second, by spending time developing relationships with existing clients, you may be able to find additional revenue streams that will propel your sales forward. Occasionally, current customers will give you ideas that will lead to new pathways to revenue altogether – that is, if you listen to them.

Referral Business is Worth Its Weight in Gold

Another very good reason to spend time on your existing base of customers is to uncover those clients that are advocates for your business. In reality, every business is comprised of people. And these people have their own network of people that they interface with and interact with day to day. By regularly communicating with customers, you’ll not only build rapport, but you’ll also uncover those clients that would be willing to refer you to people that they know that might be interested in your product or service. Oftentimes, people want to refer you but just don’t know how or haven’t been trained in a pathway to execute a referral. By giving them a simple way to refer other prospects, and perhaps rewarding them for this effort, you’ll uncover new sales that end up being easier to close than traditional cold sales. After all, these customers will most likely give you a rave review, making the prospect feel more comfortable with moving forward with your business.

Other Benefits of Fostering Your Internal Customer Base

Online marketing has opened up a new layer of potential for partnerships that aren’t directly related to sales but help increase sales over time. One vital area that impacts conversion rates on your website that ultimately leads to an increase in sales is testimonials. Testimonials from happy customers helps to build trust for those that visit your website considering the possibility of using your product or service. Without fostering good rapport with existing customers, it’s difficult to cultivate an ongoing supply of testimonials and clients that would serve as a referral. Furthermore, link building and content exchange are vital to growing your website’s organic search engine rankings, and customers provide a great way to tap into these link building opportunities. By engaging with customers and finding out the types of content that they need and desire, you’re not only able to present that type of content on your website, but also offer content on their websites for their users, gaining an invaluable link for your website.

There are so many reasons to spend more time on your existing customers. By all means, devoting a good amount of time on new client acquisition is smart, but ignoring this oftentimes overlooked area for revenue increase can be catastrophic to your business. Don’t choose the path that most companies travel. Rather, devote more time to your existing customer and watch your business reap the benefits over time.