Where have all my customers gone?
Let’s get down to basics; the majority of UK businesses will be having problems with their customer base, it just depends upon the severity of the impacts of the pandemic, lockdown measures, and what a recovery looks like. So, where have all of your customers gone?
Most companies plan for where they get their revenues, but not all do, and sometimes that lack of customer planning can prevent success. And now, more than ever, that success will be measured in the degree to which a company recovers.
Most businesses apply some form of key account principles in the way in which they do business with customers, especially those that are significant. In our experience, it will be a combination of those principles which we refer to as best practice that will be applied; but again, in our experience, not all will be applied.
So in this scenario, customer segmentation is critical to know who your existing customers are, and the value that they provide. But more importantly, the customers that you need to get fully into recovery mode.
We worked with a major supplier of health and safety products recently, who could not get to grips with why the sales teams were not delivering against expectations.
The answer was simple – they were focussed upon existing clients with long term relationships and getting good growth. But that was not enough – the shareholders expected (in fact demanded) more. And the solution was readily available once they had performed a proper market segmentation for growth opportunities, and then put a series of key account plans together to activate that growth.
The outcome was immediate – a serious redirection of resources; engagement of new contacts with strategic customer potential; and the start of double digit growth.
Key Account Management best practice is something that can be delivered across any industry sector. If you want to kick start the recovery programme, our KAM boot camp might just be the thing you are looking for and has been designed for either face to face or virtual classroom delivery.
For further details on the programme, drop us an email at hello@customerattuned.com
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