The best enterprises understand that they
are nothing if not for their biggest customers. That’s why they're all
too willing to do what it takes to keep these business-to-business (B2B) customers loyal. However,
what happens when it’s no longer a question of customer retention, but one of customer attrition? What must a company do when its concerns are no longer with
keeping new customers, but with winning back the ones they’ve lost? Well, it always comes down to allaying your customer's fears and concerns.
Winning Your Biggest Customer Back
Think back to the last time a vendor of yours lost your business, only to win it back. Think about how they approached the situation. Think about how clearly they defined your company's importance to their enterprise and its future. Think about how they were willing to confront problems head-on and how they followed-through by removing them as future issues. Finally, think about how hard they worked to win you back.
Now right down the steps this vendor took. Hopefully your list includes some of the same five steps we'll employ to dealing with B2B customer attrition. If not, then you've got more tools at your disposal. Either way, convincing a customer to return comes down to your willingness to identify issues and remove them as going concerns. So, what are some of the more proactive strategies that your company can employ in order to defeat customer attrition and win back your biggest customer?
1. Face-to-Face Customer Visits
The best marketing strategy will never trump the power of face-to-face customer visits. Even when customers are at their most upset, even when they’ve stated they’ve moved their business elsewhere, and even when they are insistent that you’ll never win another order, they still need to see your company putting forth an effort at reconciliation. In fact, no time is more important for a face-to-face customer visit than when a customer is upset. You must put your best foot forward. This is a differentiating factor that will help set your company apart from its competition. Ultimately, problems are commonplace in business. However, it’s how your company handles these problems that helps to define your company within your market.
The absolute worst strategy is to avoid conflict, wait for the proverbial “dust to settle,” and then assume that your company can simply come in and win your customer’s business back. The odds aren’t in your favor. Don’t ignore the power of meeting with your customer in person. It shows a willingness on your part to do what is needed to win their business back. In fact, the longer the distance you have to travel, the more impactful the visit and the more likely you’ll be able to win them back.
Maximizing face-to-face visits is an essential part of B2B sales negotiation. To learn more about the strategies outlined in the above video, please see: Five Sales Competencies Every B2B Salesperson Must Master
2. Defining Root Causes
Now is not the time for your company to make assumptions about why you believe your customer is upset. Granted, there may be obvious reasons why your company has let this customer down, but the focus must be on the customer reiterating what went wrong and why. By all means, come prepared with a list of how you believe your company let your customer down and how you plan to rectify the situation. However, having your customer define the root causes of their disenchantment is essential.
Your customer must outline what needs to happen in order for you to regain their confidence. Once they do, make sure to itemize these transgressions so that your team understands exactly how to address similar issues in the future. Identify the issues, keep them for future reference and them remove them as concerns.
3. Adopt Verbal Judo
Your greatest strategy is to freely admit that a mistake was made and that your company will do everything it can to avoid future occurrences of the same problem. However, it’s important to walk a fine line between explaining what went wrong, and promising it won’t ever happen again. Instead, disarm your customer’s anger by stating that their concerns are valid, their concerns are warranted, and that their concerns must be alleviated in order to move the relationship forward.
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is when they try to explain away the anger felt by customers by coming up with an excuse, or a series of excuses. This does nothing more than infuriate customers. Think about it from their perspective; the problem likely cost them time, might have cost them money, or worse, might have cost them one of their own customers. Again, explain what went wrong and how you’ll fix the problem, but avoid getting hung up on semantics.
The surest way to disarm your customer is by rewarding them for their loyalty. Once you've won back your customer, try to get them on a back-end rebate and reward program.
4. Offer Immediate Concessions
Long before you attempt to win back your customer’s business, take the time to come up with a list of concessions they’ve tried to secure from your company in the past. Now is the time to offer some of those concessions to your customer. Now is the time to provide an olive branch, one that demonstrates just how far your company is willing to go in order to win their business back. This is your opportunity to “wow” them.
The first step was visiting this customer. The second step was listening to them vent. The third included agreeing with the issues and finding solutions. This fourth step includes giving your customer something they didn’t expect to receive, something they’ve always ask for, but couldn’t get before.
Managing concessions in negotiation is about matching a high-value customer request with one of equal value. However, when it comes to making amends with your customer, wowing them involves giving them one of their most sought-after concessions, without demanding too much in return. This is why it's critical your team keep a running tab of your customer's biggest needs. To learn more about defining your primary and secondary list of concessions, please see: B2B Negotiation: Preparing Your List of Concessions
5. Establish Future Performance Benchmarks
Finally, your company must demonstrate its willingness to stand by its declaration of improved service. The fifth and final step includes coming to an agreement on future performance benchmarks. You’ll literally outline future periods where both you and your customer will review how the relationships is progressing.
These performance benchmarks could be something as involved as maintaining delivery dates, improving product quality, and reducing pricing, to something as simple as establishing an acceptable reply period for future customer requests. Focus on the discussion that takes place and then set criteria for the future where both of you can assess how your company is performing.
By confronting the issue head-on, you’re showcasing your company’s willingness to improve the situation. You're demonstrating your sincere interest in winning your customer’s business back. It’s the greatest tactic to defeating the issues confronted by customer attrition. In the end, it's about defining what went wrong, why it went wrong, what you company will do in the future and how your customer can measure your performance going forward.
When you do win your B2B customer back, be sure you know how to defend your position against competitors. You can learn more by going to: Defeat Overseas Competitors With Three Simple Steps
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