On Monday we posed some thoughts on Customer Retention. Here is an advertisement that I love – this one from American Airlines that I believe stimulates thinking on customer retention. Take a look …
Jenkins is not going to lose that customer! He has made himself invaluable.
Over the years we have helped thousands of companies evolve their sales representatives to what we call a Sustaining Resource. Sustaining means on going. Resource means somewhere from which to draw from. I think we become invaluable to our customers when they see us as Jenkins – that individual they can tap on an on-going basis to bring ideas and solutions to help their business succeed.
Can you think of individuals who are invaluable to their customers, teams, businesses, and or units? Here are some that quickly come to my mind:
- Jenkins was invaluable to his client in the American commercial
- Steve Jobs is invaluable to Apple
- Sidney Crosby is invaluable to the Pittsburgh Penguins
- Kay Wingate, our e-learning coach is invaluable to our clients
- Fred Smith is invaluable to FedEx
- General David Petraeus is invaluable to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan
Traits like innovation, performance, expertise, desire, work ethic, results, leadership, empathy, knowledge, creativity, high standards, values, and others help each of these individuals become Sustaining Resources and invaluable. For those of us in sales, these are the types of things that will lead to customer retention.
Your Turn – Please Share With UsWhat does becoming invaluable mean to you?
How does your definition of becoming invaluable lead to improved customer retention?
In a recent presentation, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer
Cal Ripken Jr. said the key to his hall for fame baseball career and record 2,632 consecutive games played with the Baltimore Orioles was that he made himself invaluable. As he addressed the audience
Ripken said: “Frank Robinson pulled me into his office and said ‘You know how many times I said this was the day I was going to take you down and pull you off the lineup? You couldn’t hit and I was tired of looking at it. But I looked at everything else you do, and I didn’t want to replace it.’”
How interesting is that! Even though Cal Ripken "couldn’t hit" (with a batting average of .276 over 21 seasons), he was invaluable none-the-less to his team, teammates, and manager.
From a business perspective, like Cal’s ability to hit, no company is perfect. Orders will be late. A customer service process will be flawed. Inventory levels will fall short. Yet it is our job to insure we stay in the line up – to insure customer retention.
In these times customers are having their doors knocked on by more sales people than ever before. Sales people are hungry and they have found a renewed interest in prospecting. You competitors are targeting your business, making a customer retention strategy imperative. Here are five keys that we have found important to maximizing customer retention:
- Focus on what you don’t know – Most sales people fail to bring anything new to the table because of their myopic thinking. They focus on what they already know about their customer rather than what they don’t know. Customer retention requires digging deeper for broader understanding of the customers business.
- Get deeper within the organization – It is human nature to stay within our comfort zones. If we have a relationship with the purchaser for example that is where we devote our focus. Customer retention requires multiple relationships within the account – up and down the chain of responsibility.
- Be visible – If the only time the customer sees you is when there is an order to be had, you are at risk. Visibility is important, multiple touches are important, but in all cases, with each touch you must bring value.
- Talk of tomorrow – The past is just that, history. Customer retention is all about the future and what you and the customer together can accomplish going forward. Of course we need to remind the customer of the value we have delivered over the course of the relationship, but don’t stop there. Look to tomorrow and how you can help their business take the next step towards improvement.
- Run towards problems – Most sales people run from problems. Order is late – they blame operations. Inventory levels are not adequate, they blame purchasing. Customer retention on the other hand requires that we run towards the problem and take the accountability to make it right.
Give Me Your Top ThreeThere are of course more keys to customer retention, and I hope you will share your thoughts. What are your top three tips for becoming invaluable to your customers?