Where’s your focus?
It seems like all the glamour and excitement in sales and marketing focuses on account acquisition. Everyone loves the “rainmaker,” the professional who reels in the big fish and new, headliner clients. We spend our time, our resources and our money on carefully crafted marketing plans. We think through objectives, strategies and tactics. We look for ways to grab clients’ attention, get their interest, research their markets and create messaging around what we perceive to be their greatest needs. And if we do it right, we can make a good living with the batting average of a mediocre baseball player. And don’t get me wrong, having a pipeline of prospects and new business coming in is vital for every business.
New business development is vital because accounts do leave, get acquired, go out of business, change management, change direction and—for all kinds of reasons—evaporate. New business is critical for company morale, growth, and even innovation and creativity.
But …
What about having a retention strategy? Do you put together a formal customer retention strategy? Your most profitable business comes from the customers you already have. Your most potential comes from penetrating existing accounts deeper and broader. You can add more value when you have relationships and communication that allows you to innovate new solutions, create improvements, and process and customize your offerings to the needs of your current accounts. And oftentimes, this is the low hanging fruit. Do your clients view you as a part of their teams? Do they see your daily commitment to providing solutions and creating efficiencies for them? Do they measure your value on something other than price?
Why do companies have people with the title of director of new business development, but we never see director of client retention?
