…Retention

Your "phone focus" right now needs to be on nurturing the client base you do have.

Did you know some studies say that it costs 4x more to acquire a new customer than it does to get repeat business?

Too often we assume the way to grow market share, profit, or sales is to find new prospects - especially if things are dry or sales are converting quite slowly.

Here are some things you should try right now:

cross-sell or upsell current clients onto other products or services you offer
follow up sales visits, then follow up those phone calls, then follow up the follow-up email that follows up those calls... this is where things often get dropped, often because the skills and habits used to persuade during a visit are not the same as those used to move things along the sales pipeline. One call is not enough. If your sales rep/s are letting a lead go too soon, use a dedicated team member to hit follow up checkpoints until they get a yes/no - or outsource someone to help with that.
follow up marketing campaigns - think newsletters or mailed brochures/catalogues with a new product or major announcement in them. Often people haven't read things you send because it went to someone else or spam, or they meant to but were busy and forgot. Doing this will bring it to their attention if they haven't seen it or get their feedback if they have.

Whichever activity you choose or adapt, using the phone for retaining the leads you have in order to maximise your current marketing and sales investments, go in with the expectation the KPI's are quite different to other telemarketing activities.

Don't focus so much on how many calls you make, but don't fall for a KPI such as average amount of time spent per call, either. Rather, come up with internal checkpoints that show the caller listened, such as learning

what new thing is happening in their business
what current challenge are they facing whether it relates to your company or not
what product are they getting elsewhere and why
what new information did they agree to look at if you send it.

Anything that will help you send targeted offers or make future communications more insightful!

& Reach

Reach means focusing on exposure and building your list of contacts.

Make sure everybody knows you are in business!

Ask prospects

if you can have an appointment
to send them presentations
for opportunities to quote
for a specific type of referral - especially if the previous 2 points came up empty.

Look into the psychology behind an effective pitch so that they don't tune out when you tell them what you do - the aim is to have them ask questions about it so that you can tailor it to their interests, not to vomit up all the points you find exciting.

Whether you are in B2B, B2C or e-commerce, use your existing network to spread the word.

Ask friends, family, past colleagues and clients, social media contacts... to think of you next time someone is complaining about (insert problem you solve) or someone who is looking for (product you sell).

Ask them for a specific referral, whether its a type of person/company or an actual name you would love to do business with that they already have a relationship with.

Whether you do Reach calling in addition, instead of, or integrated with the Research strategy depends on nuances within your business.

Explore other options: Refinement, Research

book a discovery call now