New Clients? 5 Behaviors to Avoid When Pursuing New Business
Client relationships are critical to the success of your business.
Your clients basically sign your paychecks. So, if you think you don’t have a boss because you own your own business, you are sadly mistaken.
Once you acquire a client there is a host of matters you and your staff must attend to in order to keep that client happy and returning to buy more of your products and services, which is a challenge in and of itself. Businesses invest hard earned bucks to maintain clients because everyone knows customer retention is far less expensive than customer acquisition. “Acquiring new customers can cost 5 times more than satisfying and retaining current customers (Alan E. Webber, Forrester Research).”
Customer acquisition long-term sustainability of a business
Customer retention is obviously extremely important, but it is my belief that customer acquisition is even more vital to the long-term sustainability of a business. While no one questions that both are necessary, there has been a longtime debate about which is most important – to acquire or to retain. Interestingly, over the years I have been able to witness first hand that the focus on acquiring new customers must be hands down the first priority. An extreme but true example can be seen in the advertising world.
Aldebaran Associates, the recruiting firm I started 23 years ago, places professionals in advertising and marketing. The biggest mistake I have seen many agencies make is to put all their eggs in one or two baskets, feeding and nurturing less than a handful of clients. They hire staff and third-party vendors to service and entertain these few clients, and they actually do very well…until the rug gets pulled out from underneath. Dozens of times I have seen agencies in utter despair when overnight one of their big clients decides to go with another agency. Since they didn’t do a good job acquiring new customers, they now must face the financial impact, which includes firing staff and often going out of business.
In our own business model we have discovered that if we do not focus on bringing on new clients, our sales pipeline suffers greatly and recurrent business from existing clients does not cut it if we are to reach our revenue goals.
Here are 5 behaviors you should avoid when creating a customer acquisition program:
- Randomly targeting customers is a waste of time and will annoy them.
Don’t do it! As much as possible, make sure your campaigns are strategically created to address specific needs within the target group. And that you are clear about how your business can meet those needs.
- Giving up after reaching out to your prospect less than 7 times is a mistake.
Customers buy from people they feel comfortable with and with whom they feel related. This is hard to accomplish in less than 7 calls/visits/communications. It’s all about branding. In the initial stages of a sales process, you are the brand. The customer needs to interact with you or your name numerous times before they make a purchase.
- Avoid assuming your would-be customer is not interested in your product or service because they are not calling you back.
It is your job as the sales professional to get an accurate read on your customer and to know when is the right time to move on.
- On the other hand.
Being a pain in the butt by calling on your customer too frequently or by leaving messages that are confusing, boring or wasteful will turn your prospect away! Be strategic and provide value in every call or message you extend to your potential customer.
- Expecting at anypoint in the process that your prospect “owes” you something is an error that sets the stage for rejection like no other.
Being humble and respectful is key to building a relationship with anyone you feel will be an addition to your customer base. With careful planning and thought, the numbers game of sales always reconciles. The more prospects you target, the more sales you will make. Keep your pipeline strong, your passion high and your commitment to the customer solid.
Happy acquisitioning!
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Congratulations You Landed the New Client!
