From a B2B point of view, 2023 defied the odds. Many businesses posted extraordinary returns and the stock market screamed to new highs to herald in the New Year. The backdrop of all this success included extraordinary challenges as well as historic opportunities. Headwinds included growing global geopolitical tensions; contrasted by the emergence of practical use cases for Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models, and Everything-as-a-Service delivered from the omni-present cloud.
2023 was also the year of growth, not just the acquisition of new logos, but more importantly the retention and development of existing customers. If there’s one thing 2023 taught us, in a risky world, with rapid technological change: trusted sources of information and solutions; reign supreme.
When one talks about retention and development, one often thinks about selling to the install base. When one thinks about trusted sources of information, one typically thinks of analysts, systems integrators, sales, service, and product thought-leaders and specialists who can separate the “wheat from the chaff” and help their clients safely navigate risk to the promise of new opportunities.
No wonder, B2B companies focused more on selling to existing customers in 2023, simply because it is more profitable than selling to new customers. And ya know what? They crushed it.
Here are some facts and figures:
1. Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer
2. Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%
3. The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%
4. Loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 4x as likely to refer, and 7x as likely to try a new offering.
5. U.S. companies lose $136.8 billion per year due to avoidable consumer switching.
The data shows us that retaining customers is more important than acquiring new ones. So why do so many businesses focus mostly on acquisition and neglect marketing that keeps customers loyal?
How can organizations best assert the trust of their brand and employees within their customer base?
How do companies more systematically implement sales strategies that drive retention and development of their existing customer?
Well, the first question can be answered by the acronym D&R, and the second by the SS@S acronym. Both are acronyms conceived by Selgine, a leader in sales execution and automation platforms. D&R is an acronym that encapsulates Selgine’s patent-pending approach of running curated and professional email and survey campaigns with and through your B2B direct salesforce or channel partners, not around them as other B2C email and survey campaign solutions do. D&R stands for “Drive and Relay” emphasizing the sales strategy to drive mass customize sales execution across your salesforce with specific industry, product, regional, market size, and other attributes to assure effective sales motions and sales plays. Centrally “driven” sales motions that are curated and distributed to specific segments of the salesforce for “relaying” to their respective customers, assuring the professionalism and continuity of brand presence as well as enhancing the trusted innovator role your front office sales, service, and product experts share in their accounts.
SS@S, jumps on the AI, Large Language Model, and Cloud themes by automating the strategy to “Sell Smarter at Scale™” or SS@S. Here’s where Selgine shines, providing insights that correlate seller behavior with customer behavior through the assimilation of sales signals from both sellers and customers, so one can quickly course correct and learn from prior campaign sales motions and sales plays. Once you master the art of Selgine’s SS@S, there is no limit to the types of campaigns you can drive with your salesforce for them to relay to your customers:
Selling Strategies enabled by Selgine:
1. Upselling new products and services
2. Cross-selling new products and services
3. Launching new products and services
4. Renewing or extending term-based contracts
5. Targeting specific customer niches such as industry, segment, region, language, etc…
6. Surveying customer and seller wants and needs
Marketing with Sales Strategies enabled by Selgine:
1. Staying in touch with your current customer base.
2. Reminding customers of upcoming events as well as tips and tricks
3. Maintaining a professional appearance all the way to the inbox and beyond
4. Taking advantage of opportunities to reach out to clients you have not talked to in years
5. Getting more referrals sent your way
6. Customer recognition and appreciation awards
7. Loyalty recognition and awards
8. Surveying customer and seller wants and needs
So,
Q: How can organizations best assert the trust of their brand and employees within their customer base?
A: D&R - Drive and Relay
Q: How do companies more systematically implement sales strategies that drive retention and development of their existing customer?
A: SS@S - Sell Smarter at Scale
There ya have it, the two acronyms all high-performance sales organizations need to know: D&R and SS@S.