Why is it that business owners.....

This is right here is one of the main reasons why businesses and sales people often have a sell & forget mentality. They are so afraid of dealing with a problem that they lose sales opportunities.

I'm not sure why people are so afraid but it happens no matter what is sold. I know it more from the sales vs. business side but the basic idea is the same.

On the sales side often the difference between the guy making $50k and the guy making $100k is the fact the $100k guy is keeping in touch with his sold prospects. They are giving him repeat and referral business both of which are easier to close vs. "ups" or cold prospecting.

I'm honestly of the belief that once a sales person has been there for 2 cycles (the time it takes the average customer to buy again) on a big purchase item they shouldn't need to take ups anymore. In the car world this would be like 6 years. A sales person who is doing his job right should simply have his time full with repeats and referrals.

Of course a lot depends on how the company handles things but in most environments this would be true. It why top sellers in most sales environments seem to always be selling yet don't seem to have to work as hard as the new guys.

I can't remember the exact numbers but Joe Verde has done surveys is the auto world and found the following.

• New Ups: Close about 20% of the time
• Referrals: Close about 60% of the time
• Repeats: Close about 75% of the time

Your past/current customers are simply easier to sell to as are those they refer to you. Why any Sales Professional (or Business) would ignore their sold prospects after seeing numbers like this is beyond me.


Yet the vast majority of Sales People don't keep in touch with their prospects since it "takes too much time". And the vast majority of Businesses focus all their advertising on customer acquisition vs. customer retention.


For sales people I have the numbers from Joe Verde's research to use. For businesses I don't but need to find sources to show that. Hopefully someone here will link us to some studies that will back up what we are saying.

It's a mystery for the ages. That info from Aaron should open a lot of eyes. Current and former customers are a gold mine.

According to business experts Griffin and Lowenstein, you have a 20-40% chance of closing a sale with a lost customer.

I've worked with local businesses for over 30 years. I think many business owners are not very organized. They fly by the seat of their pants. I call them professional firefighters because that is what they do all day. All they need is an big red truck and a few dalmatians.

Almost every business could get immediate revenue by running a simple direct mail (or email) outreach campaign to invite lost customers back. These lost souls already know what the business is about, so the business owner does not have to familiarize them with the store, half the battle when garnering customers.

It's one of the first things I suggest to a business owner, yet they often draw a blank when you ask if they have a customer list or database. I'm thinking, "Really? Come on, now. How long have you been in business?"

crazy isn't it, I mean ask them a simple question, they don't know it. (to be fair some do, many have an idea, I'm just having a laugh here)

So how many new clients would you need to get a good ROI for a £3000 p/mth investment? what? well you are going to be paying me £3000 p/mth, how many clients will I need to deliver to you to cover that £3000 and enable your business to grow? ehh?

Jesus! OK, what is your average value of a sale? my what !

If each new client spends an average of £500 , of which £300 is net profit, then we need 10 new clients to cover the £3000 investment agreed? (300*10=3000) (keeping it real basic without any follow up sales etc taken into consideration, come on I'm struggling with this business owner) . OK so if I win your business 15 new clients a month, based on those metrics, you'll be making about £1500 profit from me, great so after 6 months that's £9000 extra you'll have , much of which can be reinvested into my marketing service in a lump sum rather than being declared for tax, there that wasn't hard was it?
Of course I don't do this , I'm just mucking about but I do love talking metrics