We’re usually asked to cold call to help bring new business to our clients’ sales pipeline. While we are doing that, we sometimes come across contacts that have not been identified as customers in the list review. It is surprising how often we hear “We haven’t heard from anyone there in years”, and, “Yes, we know you. We used to do business with you”.
This happens rarely where a company has a small customer base, but frequently when the customer base is hundreds or thousands.
Sales people will naturally spend most of their time with the larger customers. The smaller ones, the ones who purchase infrequently, and the ones who are far away do not get much attention.
Knowing this, I usually suggest that as part of the lead generation and appointment setting program (where we call people you have never done business with), we also connect with the older and/or smaller accounts. The response I often get is “don’t worry about it, it’s taken care of”. That’s not always the case. Any smaller account on its own may not be much of a priority, but collectively there’s a lot of money left on the table. We can reach out to them at a reasonable cost.
Customer retention and revival usually provides a faster ROI than cold calling. This is important to those companies who are eager to see revenue coming back from a program as soon as possible.
You may also have customers who buy frequently or are on some type of subscription, but they don’t hear from you very often. A call on your behalf can increase their loyalty and alerts you to any developing concerns or problems before they escalate or cause the customer to drop off. You keep track of how satisfied your clients are while you also have the opportunity to introduce new products, suggest support contracts, upgrades, add-ons, etc.
