Most sales jobs include both cold selling (selling to brand-new prospects) and account management (selling to existing customers). Often salespeople approach cold selling with a carefully designed process in an attempt to maximize those sales. Yet they pay little attention to existing customers, despite the potential for wallet share growth that goes with those customers.
The trick to managing your existing account well lies in having the same kind of structured approach that you might use for new prospects. With existing customers, you have the advantage that they already like you and your product. That makes them ideal candidates for cross-selling and upselling additional products and services.
The most important time for you to reach out to your customers is right after their first purchase. Many salespeople use a 1-2-1 system. That means that they get in touch with each customer one week after purchase, two weeks after purchase, and one month after purchase. These follow-up contacts aren't just an opportunity to chat; each time you call a customer you should do so with a purpose.
Your first contact with the new customer, one week after purchase, is an ideal time for you to offer training and product support. By now your customer has probably tried using your product, perhaps more than once. He may have questions about various operations and may not even be aware that other functions exist. During the one-week call, you can also check if your customer is happy with how the purchasing and installation went, and if he has any concerns about his new acquisition. That way you'll have the chance to resolve such issues right away, making it far more likely that your customer will stick around indefinitely.
The second contact, two weeks after purchase, is a good time to roll out a customer survey. A new customer will have plenty of useful information to share about your company and about the sales process you followed with them. If prompted, they can also provide details about how salespeople from other companies approached them and why they chose your company over theirs. Don't send surveys from your own email account; ask your manager to send them out, or set up a neutral-sounding email address and send them from there. Customers are likely to be much less forthcoming if they know you will be the one reading those surveys.
At the one-month mark, your call serves three different purposes. First, you can check again to see if any issues have arisen and resolve them. Second, you can sound your customer out about providing referrals or even a testimonial. And third, assuming the customer's responses have been favorable, you can schedule an appointment during which you can explore cross-selling options. Asking for referrals at this point is more likely to prove fruitful because not only have you helped your customer solve any product problems that have come up, you've also demonstrated that you'll continue to take care of him over the life of his purchase.
Once you've finished your initial three contacts, you'll want to continue to reach out to your customers at a rate that will vary depending on the customer. Small accounts with simple purchases will usually need only one or two calls a year, but you'll want to get in touch with your biggest accounts far more frequently – perhaps as often as once a month or even more, depending on the nature of your product or service.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
The trick to managing your existing account well lies in having the same kind of structured approach that you might use for new prospects. With existing customers, you have the advantage that they already like you and your product. That makes them ideal candidates for cross-selling and upselling additional products and services.
The most important time for you to reach out to your customers is right after their first purchase. Many salespeople use a 1-2-1 system. That means that they get in touch with each customer one week after purchase, two weeks after purchase, and one month after purchase. These follow-up contacts aren't just an opportunity to chat; each time you call a customer you should do so with a purpose.
Your first contact with the new customer, one week after purchase, is an ideal time for you to offer training and product support. By now your customer has probably tried using your product, perhaps more than once. He may have questions about various operations and may not even be aware that other functions exist. During the one-week call, you can also check if your customer is happy with how the purchasing and installation went, and if he has any concerns about his new acquisition. That way you'll have the chance to resolve such issues right away, making it far more likely that your customer will stick around indefinitely.
The second contact, two weeks after purchase, is a good time to roll out a customer survey. A new customer will have plenty of useful information to share about your company and about the sales process you followed with them. If prompted, they can also provide details about how salespeople from other companies approached them and why they chose your company over theirs. Don't send surveys from your own email account; ask your manager to send them out, or set up a neutral-sounding email address and send them from there. Customers are likely to be much less forthcoming if they know you will be the one reading those surveys.
At the one-month mark, your call serves three different purposes. First, you can check again to see if any issues have arisen and resolve them. Second, you can sound your customer out about providing referrals or even a testimonial. And third, assuming the customer's responses have been favorable, you can schedule an appointment during which you can explore cross-selling options. Asking for referrals at this point is more likely to prove fruitful because not only have you helped your customer solve any product problems that have come up, you've also demonstrated that you'll continue to take care of him over the life of his purchase.
Once you've finished your initial three contacts, you'll want to continue to reach out to your customers at a rate that will vary depending on the customer. Small accounts with simple purchases will usually need only one or two calls a year, but you'll want to get in touch with your biggest accounts far more frequently – perhaps as often as once a month or even more, depending on the nature of your product or service.
By Wendy Connick
http://sales.about.com/
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