As VP of Sales, how often do your salespeople contact assigned clients? How do you know? Touching clients and prospects on a consistent basis makes you more than a commodity, builds loyalty, and long-term profits.
Client or Prospect Focus
What percentage of your business comes from current clients versus new clients? The answer depends on your business model:
- 1 shot deal? Former customers make great referrals.
- Recurring revenue – What can you do to increase this percentage?
In both cases, finding ways to sell complementary products and services produces new revenue at a lower cost and builds client loyalty.
More Than a Commodity
When client relationships are limited, you may be a commodity and easily replaced. Add value, spend time with clients and move up their Relationship Ladder.
There are many competitors who share your specialty and knowledge. Be at the top so they are not. At the top:
- Your client gives you a chance to fix errors rather than replace you.
- You may be asked to lower your price but won’t be replaced by a lower price.
Relationships require investment and solidify future business.
Moving to the Top
Wes Mullins, Sales VP for ITManager Inc (ITM), has 2 sales managers and 8 sales reps. ITM supplies 3rd party computer support. Five years ago, ITM hit a sales slump.
Wes tried to analyze sales data, but it was hard to understand as they tracked prospects and client sales in multiple spreadsheets.
At that time, Wes had 2 managers and 5 reps. Both managers said, “We need to engage our clients more often and we need a CRM!” They believed:
- The drop in recurring revenue was due to losing clients at the 3 year mark.
- New sales were greater in the smallest client group where follow on work was limited.
In the past, clients stayed forever. ITM set upon a new set of priorities.
New Priorities
The team agreed to:
- Expand client engagement to eliminate the “3 Year Hump.”
- Expand client engagement with “Touches” based on size and VIP status.
- Find clients with 25-100 employees.
- Find a CRM.
They knew the right places to market and engaged a specialist to help with the CRM.
Today – Moving to the Top
ITM’s revenue steadied 1 year later and has rebounded since. The team knew the right marketing and sales strategies. They also chose X2CRM to support their actions.
ITM’s sales team uses X2CRM to:
- Segment clients by size, industry, and systems used.
- Remind sales reps to contact clients at specific times.
- Reach out to prospects 1 day before a call from a sales rep.
- Rank prospects (A-F) to improve lead qualification.
- Report on what client has not been touched in the past 90 days.
Over the past 4 years, ITM’s team has touched clients in very personal and professional ways.
Results
5 years later, the sales team efforts have produced the following:
- No more 3 Year Hump – “We know our clients very well,” said Wes.
- 60% of ITM’s revenue is from companies with 25+ employees. It was 25%.
- Sales conversion rates increased by 1/3rd.
- Client referrals have increased 50%
Each of these results were promoted by the team’s effective use of its CRM.
Wes said, “In summary, we track our clients from womb to tomb.”
How do you know which clients have been touched by your sales reps?
Set up a Meeting so we can share ideas.
