It’s the New Year. Time to hoe, hoe, hoe!
In addition to hunting for new customers, “farm” the ones you already have.
There are two types of salespeople—Hunters and Farmers.
York Consulting almost always “hunts” for new leads.
But lately, some of our clients have asked us to do some “farming,” too—to generate new business from new clients and help them generate more business from past customers and existing clients.
This two-pronged approach gets our clients’ ROI faster because:
1. Customers like hearing from you.
2. There are hidden business opportunities in many companies, York Consulting just has to contact them for you to find out what they are.
3. Customers—past or present—are easier to reestablish contact with…and this can be done most easily by phone.
4. It’s easier to win back a customer that’s drifted to another supplier than to win a new one.
We’ve found that this approach cultivates better business relationships. York Consulting is very sensitive to the existing relationship that has taken you years to establish with your present customers, so rest assured that we will treat them very carefully.
7 Steps York Consulting uses to “Farm” your past and existing customers.
1. We start with your customer list after you’ve removed the names of those larger customers you’re in contact with on a regular basis.
2. To help us know how to approach each customer, we ask you to indicate whether they’re active or inactive. (As a rule of thumb, most of our clients consider a customer inactive if there’s no transaction within the past year.)
When we phone each customer, we:
3. Say we’re calling from your company.
4. Mention that you have either done work for them in the past or are currently providing a service to them now.
5. Depending on whether they’re current or inactive, remind them of what you have available and what’s new.
6. Ask any qualifying questions you need to know to decide if the company is worth pursuing.
7. Book the appointment date and time, or provide the information you’ll need for a follow-up call.
Summary
Hunting and Farming. It’s worth doing Both.
Make the phone your ally. Dig for new business in the fertile soil of your existing relationships…and harvest the bounty. Just follow the simple steps outlined above.
Happy farming!
