I get asked some variation of the following question at just about every workshop I facilitate: 
Since the majority of business in the US generate most of their revenue selling to existing clients what are the keys to retaining and/or up-selling my clients?
Sounds like a great blog post doesn’t it? Well here you go:
Here are the Seven Secrets to Customer Retention:
1. Know your customers world
- Speak their language, know their terminology, learn their industry, understand acronyms, abbreviations, etc.
2. Deliver flawless results
- Do what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it!
3. Develop a proactive plan
- Buyers hate surprises…so create and execute a “customer delight initiative” to make sure you’re proactive versus reactive.
4. Uncover “needs”
- Just because they’ve been a customer for a long time don’t assume you know what they need. Ask them about new initiatives or programs on a regular basis.
5. Manage expectations
- Communicate early and often. Document important conversations with an email.
6. Keep your name in front of your customers
- Establish a drip marketing campaign where you vary the message, vary the frequency and vary the medium.
7. Assume nothing!
- There is no such thing as status quo. Your relationship is either getting better or it’s getting worse…it’s certainly not standing still!
I would also like to introduce you to a Boyens Group® tool to help you identify those clients that are the best targets for up-sell or cross-sell. It is a 14-question Account Penetration Checklist:
1. How much business (share of wallet) do we have with them today?
2. How much additional business is available?
3. What solutions are we targeting?
4. What is the potential annualized revenue for each solution?
5. What is the current strategy for closing this business?
6. What could get in the way?
7. What is the timeframe for closing this business?
8. What are our contingency plans?
9. Who are we competing against?
10. What are they offering?
11. What does the Client say they want/need?
12. What is the Client’s perception of our ability to effectively address their needs versus our competition’s capabilities?
13. What is our “unique value proposition” for this Client?
14. Who do they know that we should be doing business with?
Using our Account Penetration Checklist against your customer base will identify the best clients to target for additional products/services.
Good luck!
