Reactivating Past Clients

Marketing

Reactivating Past Clients
by Tim Connor



Lost business does not necessarily mean lost forever. Many salespeople neglect this lucrative source of new business. I say new because, if you treat these past customers as new prospects, you may just regain the business.

There are a number of reasons why customers leave you. Some of them are:

They no longer need the products or services you sell.

They were wooed away by a competitor offering better prices, service or some promise.

Management in the organization has changed, and they are not aware of the strengths of your services or products. This information was most likely not passed on to them by their predecessor.

Your organization has outgrown an interest in them for any number of reasons, and they chose to begin again with a new supplier.

You or your organization failed to deliver as promised.

You or your organization let trust and/or respect erode in the relationship.

They have outgrown your ability to deliver the products or services you provide.

There is some hidden agenda reason – they have a relative in the business, have lost buying authority, are leaving their organization for another position, etc.

There are others, but most will fall under these 8.

What can you do to regain this business?

First you must learn the REAL reason why the customer left.

You and your organization must be willing to adjust or modify what you do, how you do it, or when you do it in order to convince the customer that it is in their best interests to rekindle the relationship.

You have to be willing to begin again.

It is important to remember that you need to work as hard to keep the business as you did to get it.

You must re-assess where you went wrong. Was it a pricing issue, a service issue, a quality issue, a distribution issue, arrogance, ignorance, lack of interest in keeping the business, or some other major or minor mistake?

You must keep in touch with previous customers. There are a number of ways to do this such as: newsletters, direct mail, e-mails, conducting a lost business audit or critique.


-----------------
Tim Connor, CSP, is a professional speaker and expert in the fields of management, sales, team building, and customer service. He's the author of 19 books and can be reached at 704-895-1230, speaker@bellsouth.net or www.timconnor.com.