The Business Bulletin
Building long term customer relationships “People buy from people”. I’m not sure whom to credit with that often-used business adage, but it has certainly held true for as long as sales have happened.
It strikes to the very heart of the sales
Under current regulations, certain
transaction. That a contract has been
sectors actively encourage their
entered into between two parties, both
customers to shop around for the
of whom have a vested interested in
best deals on a regular basis. With
the product or service concerned.
this pressure on a company, it is
However, this is just the start point of the relationship. For a vendor to develop their business successfully, they should look to grow and nurture this relationship over a period of time. After all, it is widely accepted that it is “easier” to sell to existing customers rather than find and win new ones.
no surprise that a great number of vendors now work very hard to retain their existing customer base. In larger corporations, sales teams now are often split between new business sales and account manager teams. Another way companies have
provider. A process they refer to as “reducing customer churn”. A simple fact is that it costs more to win a new customer than to keep selling to an existing one. So with this in mind, this article tries to briefly examine ways in which an SME company can retain its customer base through developing a long term relationship with their customers. A fundamental principle to remember is that the relationship is
found to retain customers is by
a two way street. For this to happen
Over the years, many sales training
adding value to their offering. As an
successfully, both parties have to
courses and training films have been
example of this consider the mobile
be invested and committed to
produced, to illustrate how easy it is to
phone service providers. Over the
developing a relationship with each
lose existing customers. Sadly, a great
past decade, all have invested billions
other. To put it another way, they must
deal of companies invest so much
in additional services (referred to
form a partnership. In order for this
time, effort and money into winning
by them as “sticky services”), with
to be successful, both parties need
new sales and customers, they forget
the hope that the more services a
to get value of some way from the
their existing customer base and end
customer buys from them, the less
partnership. For the vendor this can be
up losing too many of them.
likely they are to move to another
simply in the form of revenue, and for
