How Much Money Are Your Salespeople Leaving on the Table?
By Vistage Chair and Speaker Alice R. Heiman
Are your customers buying all of the products and services they could be? Are you getting all of their orders or are some going to the competition? Are you getting repeat orders? How many customers do you lose each year?
The easiest way to increase business is by getting more business from your existing customer base. The second is through referrals from your satisfied customers (so they all should be satisfied, right?). The third is through networking. The hardest is prospecting for new customers from a list and cold calling. Don't do the hardest thing first. Get those salespeople to go out and sell to the customers that know and love you.
Gather your salespeople and do the following:
- Take a look at your customer list.
- Mark the ones who haven't purchased anything in the last year.
- Mark the ones who only buy one of your products or services regularly but could buy others.
Plan a strategy to go out and get all the money you are leaving on the table.
Current customer list
Who's on the list? Should they all be there or should some be removed because they went out of business, moved away or aren't an ideal customer? Clean up the list. Then follow these steps:
- Look at the customers who haven't purchased in a year or more and develop a campaign. You can use phone calls, e-mails, visits or mail to reach them. Decide which contact method to use based on their potential to purchase, not on their current purchases. Phone calls are a great way to start.
Here is an example of what one of my clients is doing: They started without cleaning the list and had approximately 700 customers to call. The inside salesperson called each customer. She cleaned the list as she went along, asking on every call if their information was still correct. It took about three weeks to get through them all and maintain her current work. Here is what she said: "I'm calling to find out how if all of the equipment we installed is functioning properly? Does anything need to be fixed? Are you interested in having any features added?" Also: "I'm updating our database. Is the following information correct?"
Three of the first 10 calls yielded new business.
- Mark the customers who only buy one of your products or services regularly but could buy others. Again, you can use phone calls, e-mails, visits or mail to reach them. What you want to do is determine the best way to introduce new products. I recommend a visit if that is how you usually sell to them. The best way to introduce items they may not know about or purchase is to determine their needs.
A client of mine who sells medical supplies is having their salespeople do the following:
The sales manager asked each salesperson to identify 10 of their best customers and identify one to five other products they thought these 10 customers could use. The next step was to have the salespeople develop questions they could ask their customers to determine whether they did indeed need those products. The next step was to determine the right buyer. Then they planned the questions they would ask. They made appointments, went in and asked the questions and almost all of the visits resulted in the sale of a product the customer was not currently purchasing.
All of these methods will decrease the number of customers you lose each year, not only because you're keeping in touch with them, but also because you're interested in their business and their needs, not just what you can sell to them. Remember, selling is all about problem solving. If your customer has a problem or a need and your products and services can fill that in a cost-effective way, you will most likely get the sale. Stay focused on what you can do for your current customers to help them attain their goals.
While you're at it, get referrals from satisfied customers you call. They all know other companies that could use your products and services.
Vistage Chair and Speaker Alice R. Heiman is president of Alice Heiman LLC, a sales consulting and sales management firm based in Reno, NV.