Loyal Clients: A Modern Sales Game Changer

Welcome back to the new Modern Seller video series. Each week, I’m sharing strategies that you can put into practice as either a sales professional or sales leader. The series is a great companion to the book, The Modern Seller, which is available on Amazon and Audible. In previous videos, I covered sales agility, entrepreneurial selling, and social capital.

Today’s topic in The Modern Seller video series is client loyalty. It used to be that satisfaction was the highest measure of success, and it’s still what many companies measure. But in the new sales economy, satisfaction is merely table stakes.

Gallup has done research in this space and found that only 29% of our clients are truly engaged with us. Loyal.

That leaves up to 71 percent of clients that range anywhere from very satisfied to completely disengaged. These are the clients that can be swayed to move elsewhere…even the satisfied ones.

Modern Sellers are what I call Ambassadors. They’re skilled at cultivating loyalty and building long-term value. Because they take this long view, it’s a game changer for sales growth.

The likelihood of expanding your sales into an existing loyal client is between 60 to 70 percent. The likelihood of selling to a net new prospect is only 5 to 20 percent.

To cultivate greater selling power, there are three common loyalty traits that are worth building in your best clients. I discuss these more in the video.

1. Loyal clients see you as a proactive and strategic advisor, because you’re reaching out to them with ideas and insights for their business.
2. Loyal clients refer business to you. 84 percent of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.
3. Loyal clients buy on value and the overall experience.

For more detailed information on these strategies, pick up a copy of The Modern Seller.

In the coming weeks, look for a year-end recap and my annual “One Word” post on this blog. We’ll resume videos in January. In the meantime, I invite you to watch my previous videos. And download a free chapter of The Modern Seller to learn more strategies for becoming a Modern Seller.