6 tips for increasing revenue with existing customers
In marketing, buzzwords keep popping up that make seasoned sales veterans suppress a yawn: Customer Loyalty used to be called customer retention, Upselling was an additional purchase, and good old customer service is currently known as After Sales Management.
Be honest – you’re rolling your eyes right now too, aren’t you? That’s okay – provided you understand why marketing has to keep selling these terms to itself: they are quite simply incredibly important.
Your success, that of your company, and the prosperity or downfall of entire firms and industries depend to a significant extent on your existing customers.
Hand on heart: how high do you estimate the share of revenue generated by existing customers? And when was the last time you checked? In Europe, statistics show that an existing customer is worth as much as seven new customers – yes, SEVEN. Furthermore, with license-based software like ours, it is not unrealistic to generate up to 40% of annual revenue from software maintenance, which also comes from the existing customer base, even during expansion phases.
In the battle for market share, which is traditionally fought through new customer acquisition, this fact is often overlooked. The result is unsatisfactory situations like those with mobile provider XY, where the new customer gets the brand-new smartphone as a bonus with a super-attractive tariff, while you, as a long-standing customer – effectively as a reward for your loyalty – are stuck with the old model, pay more, and get less in return.
It is obvious how little business sense this approach makes, especially since the existing customer is significantly more attractive than a new one for several other reasons:
- A business relationship already exists with all contact details.
- You can contact them with offers without risk of legal warnings, and they
- have hopefully already built up trust in your performance.
Thus, it no longer matters for the purchase whether a provider is listed on cheap-is-cool.com who charges a few euros less. Often the customer doesn’t even search anymore; they already know what you have and simply order from you. And if, like yours, they have also installed and integrated software, the power of facts helps with customer retention almost automatically.
Use this to your advantage and run periodic EXISTING CUSTOMER CAMPAIGNS.
Are you motivated now to give your existing base some attention again?
Let’s go!
Here are six important tips to keep your existing customers happy in the long term and keep the cash register ringing sustainably:
1. Stay on the ball.
When it comes to existing customers: proximity is capital. Put it to work, because just like monetary capital, it loses value if it just sits around. Use every reasonable opportunity to contact your customer: send a newsletter, an email, call them, or drop by if you are in the area. But maintain a balance – ensure that your information is targeted and represents added value for your customer, not annoying spam. You can read tips on this here.
Ideal opportunities are topics that are currently dominating the media, such as:
2. Take a coordinated approach.
Create an attractive campaign for your topic. You know the drill: traditionally, you write an email and send it to targeted recipients. Include a so-called Call to Action in the email – an element that allows the customer to react immediately if interested, to get more information, to arrange a consultation, or even to order right away.
ATTENTION: The Call to Action must match the offer. Are you launching a high-priced product that requires explanation? Then it probably makes little sense to place a “Buy now” button at the very top of the email. You might prefer to work with “Request consultation”. If it is an add-on for an existing product with a moderate price, “Order now” can certainly make sense. However, ensure that the button leads to a landing page where the product is offered and ready to order with a fixed price, because after such a click, few customers will want to dig through confusing shop pages with search filters; they simply expect that you have understood what they are interested in.
If the sale is not made via the shop but through personal consultation, it is recommended to link the button with a mailto link. Most word processing programs can do this. Remember to fill in the subject line of the email form descriptively so that you can clearly assign the email to the campaign. Pre-formulate a short request in the text, such as “Yes, I would like to know more about the Privacy Toolkit, please contact me!”
3. Don’t waste time.
Ideally, you will then have a few responses that explicitly asked for a personal appointment. Process these immediately – because once the customer has made a decision, you should never let this positive moment pass unused.
PRO TIP from sales practice: It is amazing how many signals of buying interest are repeatedly overlooked/ignored by sales teams or left sitting until the customer has lost interest or bought elsewhere. Don’t make this mistake – always respond IMMEDIATELY to active inquiries – that’s how you stay ahead of the competition!
4. Be consistent.
And what about all those who didn’t get back to you? At an appropriate interval, neither too long nor too short (between three and five days is ideal), follow up by phone with all recipients who didn’t respond. You put a lot of effort into the email and the presentation of the offer; it shouldn’t go to waste. If colleagues joke that two-thirds of the effort is wasted anyway, they just don’t know which third, stay calm. That is nothing more than an excuse for inactivity. You can easily reverse the ratio if you only proceed purposefully and consistently enough. The right proverb is: “No pain, no gain!”
5. Don’t be afraid of emotions.
What place do emotions have in digital business? More than you might think. While a romantic mood is unlikely to arise when talking about the General Data Protection Regulation, a frustrated one might. Nevertheless, you should definitely keep talking – because these are also emotions that help you sell. While your competitor practices supposedly noble restraint “because nobody wants to hear it anymore,” you can rub your hands and write orders. Because the general level of annoyance ensures that none of your customers will forget what comes into force on May 25. You just need to be there for them when they decide to do something now to avoid fearing negative consequences. Fear, after all, is also an emotion.
Go all out on this topic, whether on the phone or in the text of the email:
6. Be a consultant and expert for your customers.
In the B2B sector in particular, your customer expects expertise from you. Don’t miss any opportunity to shine as a specialist in your field. This takes work, as you have to research, stay up to date, and always have a good overview. But it’s worth it and it’s also fun: the more you know about your industry and/or niche, the more confidently you appear to customers, and the more welcome your visits and offers will be. And all of this will be expressed in a noticeable increase in revenue.
With these 6 tips, you should be able to significantly increase the success of your existing customer campaign. Be sure to check this and document the success. This way, you can track successful measures and apply the experience to further actions.
Here you can find helpful tips on the topic of new customer acquisition:
Hunting for new customers with telephone acquisition