Many sales people and small business owners lull themselves into a false sense of security. They are confident their current clients will return or continue to buy from them. Then they are shocked when that doesn’t happen.
Confidence can be dangerous when it isn’t based on anything. Okay, doing a good job is something. However, it isn’t enough. We live in a very competitive time. There are more and more companies offering the same product or service. Maintaining customers requires more than just selling them something.
Anyone involved in business development has an obligation to stay in contact with their customers. You need to know what is going on with your customers over time. Imagine this scenario:
Let’s say you sell gift baskets. During the holiday season, you sell your products to Company ABC. Every year they reach out in October to start working on their holiday order. The revenue from this client alone is significant. This year October comes and goes with no contact from ABC. You reach out in early November and discover that a new committee is now working on this and have selected a different supplier. Surprising and disappointing. And, frankly, your fault.
You were confident they would order from you because they had in the past. That confidence prevented you from continuing to work with them. You didn’t see value in building the relationship, staying in contact, and learning more about them. If you had done these things you would have learned about the new committee. You probably would have had the chance to meet the new people and start a relationship with them.
This new committee had no reason to buy from you. They had no connection to your company; no loyalty either way.
This level of confidence is misguided. It assumes that your client will remain loyal, even with no attention from you. It assumes that your competition won’t try to take them away. It assumes that your client doesn’t care that you only care about the dollars you get from them.
Those are dangerous assumptions. Don’t put your business in a situation where it loses money unnecessarily. Nurturing client relationships is easy; easier than trying to get new clients. There is an initial level of trust in the first sale. That trust can be deepened and solidified if you work at it. Give your customers a reason to stay. Continue to connect with them and learn. Build as many relationships within the customer as you can. Give them attention on a regular basis.
If you’re going to be confident, be confident that you need to work on maintaining current client relationships. Be confident that, at any time, your competition is trying to take your clients away from you. Be confident that if you don’t nurture those relationships, those clients will probably leave without you even knowing it’s happening.
