Key Reasons to Outsource your B2B Sales Efforts

Customer retention is a key to a successful business. It is what allows you to pay salaries and generate profit and provides a basis from which to grow a company. We have a saying “Without revenue there is no profit.” Customer retention provides a key component of your annual revenue stream and hence a key aspect of your profit. In many cases too, it is often less expensive to keep a customer than to continue to acquire new ones.

Here are some helpful statistics from OutboundEngine.com:
• New customer acquisition can cost five times more than retaining a current customer
• Increasing customer retention by 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95%
• Up sale success to an existing customer is 60% to 70% vs the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5% to 20%

We are all in the customer service business. Here are a few tips to consider when it comes to customer retention:
• Be Responsive – acknowledge customer requests quickly and set timelines for a full response.
• Set Expectations – ensure your customer understands time frames around responsiveness and deliverables and that they are realistic, keep the customer apprised of your progress.
• Take Care of Business – many of our customers are overwhelmed with their work and tasks and are looking for assistance in taking the sales and or marketing burden from them.
• Complete Projects On Time – getting this done on time and reliably builds confidence and trust. We want to be seen as a trusted partner and resource.
• Taking and then Sending Meeting Notes – taking notes during meetings and then sending the follow up notes and Action Items gives a customer comfort that we have the situation covered and it also provides an Action Item list.
• Be Consultative – act as a sounding board and guide for your customer – if they have ideas that are “out there” let them know in a diplomatically correct way – don’t down play their ideas but discuss it constructively.
• Regular Communication – schedule regular reviews with customers.
• Work as a Team – include team members in decision making. Oftentimes the best guidance for customers can come from a team approach to problem solving.

If you’re looking for outsourced sales and marketing assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. For great insight into sales and marketing, feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.

Key Reasons to Outsource your B2B Sales Efforts