There are two good reasons to focus disproportionately on your existing customers: they cost lest to acquire and are likely to spend up to 60% more than any new customer.

Those who understand the concept, work hard to retain those customers through anything from customer loyalty programmes to communicating better, in terms of message relevance, frequency and sincerity.

Customer loyalty should mean that you are loyal to your customers rather than the reverse, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

I can never figure out how companies operating in B2B can still charge by time – one I know of in Dublin charges in increments of 15 minutes.

That’s wrong on a number of levels:

– Do you train yours staff to focus more on time than content? Lets face it, giving a great service is based on quality content rather than paying attention to a clock.
– Do you want to create a production line environment where the entire day is broken down into 15 minute chunks?
– 15 minutes at £30 is one thing but it can also mean that 16 minutes is rounded up to a full 30 minutes at £60
– how do you present value when its only a race against the clock?

I am currently working with an agency in Dublin who, in the past 4 weeks, have sent in a number of invoices for work undertaken, revised management fees and an invoice for a 40% down payment on a job which hasn’t started yet.

There is nothing wrong with that, if it’s presented in the terms and conditions of engagement, but there is a flaw somewhere, when in that same period, the company makes no effort to underline the value given for their service.

It’s like they are assuming that their value is so great as to be understood easily.

But it’s not and the second the invoice lands, the first question the customer asks “Remind me again what am I really paying for here?”

(That’s the question I asked when the 4th invoice landed)

The further into the relationship you travel, then surely the greater the need to re-confirm that value?

It is easy to get distracted by billings – if you’ve got 8 billable hours a day to charge out, then you can forecast, predict and project till your hearts content, but the burden is on YOU to continually explain WHY you are charging what you are charging.

The first rule of selling anything is to be fully understood – customers, new or existing, just want value, and most are happy to pay for it, so long as they know what they are getting and why they bought from you in the first place.

Below is a download from a book I am currently writing which focuses on how to make the best use of your existing client database, some examples of how you can improve your existing customer relationships and how to grow your business.

Fill in the details below, enjoy the download and let me know what you think.