For brands to strengthen their positions in the marketplace, they cannot afford to solely focus on closing new deals as well as bagging new logos. Since most recurring comes from keeping customers and not acquiring new ones, brands should focus on establishing great relationships with new customers from day one.
As per industry experts, current customers account for a significant portion of their total revenue growth, even at smaller firms. The longer their customers utilize their services for subscription-based businesses, the more the businesses can expect recurring revenue from their installed customer base. Since it takes time to develop the business to reach that state, brands should take steps to nurture their current customer base from the very beginning. As per Bain & Company’s “Prescription for Cutting Costs”, even a 5% increase in customer retention produces over 25% increase in profits for customers, showing that taking such steps is a worthwhile investment. Thus, to set the team and customers up for success throughout the customer journey, brands should follow these steps to quickly build trust and strengthen their relationship with customers:
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Providing continuity
One of the major irritations for customers is to receive the same information from multiple sources of the vendor. They become frustrated when they encounter the same information with the pre-sales team, the customer success team, the onboarding team, and the support or customer service team. Instead of bombarding the customers with the same set of information, brands should provide continuity. This will help to build trust and will get them on board with what’s next.
CMOs should collaborate with sales leaders to align the pre-sales and post-sales teams with internal handoff before starting their conversation with the customers. By doing this, they will be able to sustain the momentum they have gained from sales, load the customer success manager or account owner with the information customers have provided to sales representatives, and will help the team to provide the customers with a seamless and positive customer experience.
Connecting with people
While it seems like it is given, small talk is still an invaluable tool for establishing customer relationships. Therefore, brands should train their marketing and sales team to connect with real people before making any purchase. They should help them feel comfortable so that they will be more open for discussions.
Brands should take steps to gain more information about the decision-makers via social media platforms. This will provide the teams with points to get the conversation started paving the path for a successful customer engagement.
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Helping customers to visualize the path for success
Customers suffer from cognitive overload when they have been thrown long task lists and complicated requirements. They fail to process the information and thus become hesitant to share more data about their ongoing problems. Brands should instead opt for visuals that will help the customers to better understand solutions, sharing the images of the journey that they and customers are on together. It will help the decision-makers know where they are, where they’ve been, and where they will partner with the brand.
Brands can no longer just set their sights on getting new logos or ringing the sales bell in today’s marketplace. Instead, they need to identify ways to keep the customers they have, and plan to grow with them.
When developing a long-term relationship with customers, brands should understand that they are not just closing sales deals, but opening important relationships.
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