Acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining an existing one.  And improving retention by just 5% can see your profits increase by anything from 20% to 90%. So why is customer acquisition always prioritised over retention?

Almost all businesses, from the one-man bands to the big corporates, fall into the trap of going all out to win new business but doing so at the expense of their customers.  How many of you have experienced the disappointment of, say, being a broadband customer with a company who are showering new customers in trinkets and discounts but want you to carry on paying as your are as their ‘loyal customer’?  It happens all the time.

There’s glamour, pats-on-the-head and shareholder happiness associated to winning new business but your biggest profits are sitting under your nose if you manage it correctly and focus equally on both.

To get it right, you need someone on your business development/sales team that serves as both a friend and support system to prospects and clients.

Great sales people focus more on the client than on themselves through advocacy, relatability, expertise and excellent listening skills. They build strong relationships that mean they can acquire new business and retain existing customers – increased profit all round!

Is this your team?  If the answer is ‘No’ you’re missing a trick.

If you’d like some help coaching your sales team to increase profits feel free to get in touch.

Every potential customer you have will go through some sort of buying cycle.  There are all sorts of different incarnations of the cycle but, broadly speaking, they will follow the 5 stages below.  The big question I’m often asked is: as a supplier, what is our role in the buying cycle and when should we get involved?  The short answer: every step of the way!

I’ve outlined below each stage of the buying cycle and what you should aim for your role to be, as a supplier, during each stage.

Buying Cycle stage 1: Recognising there’s a problem.

Your role – Get to know your potential customer and ask them what their priorities are.  By building a relationship you can talk to them about their future challenges and build a need.

Buying Cycle stage 2: Searching for solutions

Your role – Listen to your potential customer; what do they think they need to solve their problem?  By understanding their needs you can work together on identifying the issues and help them frame the type of solution they require.

Buying Cycle stage 3: Creating a shortlist of solutions

Your role – Be the service/product expert for your potential customer.  Explain what your product/solution will help them achieve and compare it to alternatives – focus on outcomes.

Buying Cycle stage 4: Finding providers who provide the chosen solution and selecting one

Your role – Be the trusted advisor to your potential customer and the ambassador for your service/product.  Discuss your value proposition and what sets you apart from the others.

Buying Cycle stage 5: Making a buying decision

Your role – By now you will have created a strong relationship with your potential customer, shown that you understand their needs and will have demonstrated how your product/service will solve their problems.  Now you need to make the purchase process as straightforward as possible and focus on the great experience they will have with you once the contract is signed!

Essentially, the buying cycle is the process your customers go through when they realise they have a problem and are looking for a solution.  For maximum success, take control of the process and get involved from the start.

UK schools spend around £85 billion EVERY YEAR!  The education market is a dynamic, innovative sector that loves new technology and ideas which have a genuine impact on young people’s lives.  So why are schools so difficult to sell to?   How many of these frustrations have you felt:

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• If there are 30,000+ schools in the UK alone, why aren’t more of them buying my product?
• The market’s completely saturated; there are tons of competitors with lower-priced products and the big companies take all the market share
• If schools only knew about my company they’d definitely buy – the product sells itself
• The schools who use my product think it’s good, why don’t the others understand?
• Why am I not further ahead by now?  What am I missing?

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My guess is you may have felt most of the above as almost everyone selling into education does!

The truth of it is, selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.

Add to that the fact that they are being sold to by everyone and receive literally hundreds of pieces of sales literature (emails, letters, brochures, phone calls) every week.  Your message will really need to resonate to cut through all the noise.

To successfully sell to schools you need to have the following:

• A value proposition which genuinely articulates what problem it is you’re going to help that school solve. No wishy-washy language here – get straight to the point.
• A good idea of exactly which schools, and which people within those schools, are your ideal customers. Trying a scattergun approach such as a national telesales or email campaign is unlikely to work – you’re simply throwing money away.
• A compelling reason for schools to talk to you. What are you providing them with which is of value to them?  Why should they give up their time to talk to you?

There are more tips in my blog 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools.  It’s not easy cracking the education market but it’s a genuinely innovative and rewarding market when you do  ?

Selling is difficult.  It’s not enough to talk about your product and hope your prospect will buy – there’s always a lot more going on than that.

Here are my top 3 painful truths you need to get your head around when it comes to selling:

Painful truth #1: Nothing is “too expensive”.   It’s more likely your potential customer doesn’t see your thing as having the value you think it does.

Have a look at your Value Proposition; it should be a clear statement of the value your product will deliver and should be the main reason your potential client will buy from you.  Is your Value Proposition clear?

Painful truth #2: When your customer tells you their reason for not buying, it’s not a good idea to believe it.  I’m not saying that people wilfully go all out to lie to you, it’s just that it’s always worth exploring further as there might be a win-win situation you’re both missing.  It’s up to you to find out the REAL reason and address it – don’t expect people to lay themselves bare.

Painful truth #3: “I’ll think about it” means ‘No’.  As does “Send me a proposal”. You need to get to the reasons behind the decision process to be able to influence that sale.  Walking away with a promise of either of the above puts it out of your hands completely.

This post is about the question I am undoubtedly asked the most by large and small businesses alike: how do I reach the right person?  Everyone wants to be able to get an audience with the elusive ‘decision maker’ and it still remains one of the most difficult challenges facing growing businesses.

The reality is that, within education, the actual name of whichever person you are trying to contact (be that an Assistant Head at the local secondary school or an Assistant Director of Children’s Services at a local authority) is usually quite easy to find.  The real question is not how to ‘reach’ them, but how to engage with them.  These are my top tips for engaging the right person to help drive your business.

Do your research

Due to the nature of the education landscape, contact names within schools, academies and local government can almost always be found either with a bit of online research or by putting in a phone call to the relevant organisation.  A lot of info can be gleaned from DfE lists (although I would double-check the details as this goes out of date quickly) and there are lots of companies who will provide data for you.  Spending time on getting the right contact details will not only increase your success rate, but also present a professional and credible image for your company.

Approach your contacts in the right way

Much as we would like it to, cold-calling and traditional telesales campaigns rarely work when it comes to reaching high-level decision makers in the education market.  Ultimately the people you are trying to contact are unlikely to ever be in a position to answer the phone to an unknown outside organisation.  They are more likely to be busy with teaching and pastoral duties, dealing with parents and working with the SLT.  However, our research shows that these decision makers do make time to go through their email and open their addressed post so it’s likely that first contact made in this way is likely to have a greater impact.

Say something that’s relevant to them

All too often I see letter and email campaigns based around how good a company’s product or service is which implores the decision maker to find out more.  In reality, the way in which your solution works is never going to create engagement with the high level contact you’re trying to reach as, while its important to you, it’s unlikely to be important to them.  Think about what is on their mind, what’s keeping them awake at night.  For example, a school may be having a particular issue with truancy; as a result the Assistant Head may be looking for something which helps ensure that school is safeguarding children.

Ultimately, if your campaign shows that you understand what’s important to them and, better still, articulates how your solution will help with the issue (the ‘value proposition’ which I will cover in another post) then you have a far better chance of engaging with the right person and creating a meaningful relationship.

Good luck and be patient; it is possible to reach the magical ‘decision makers’ but it takes a bit of planning and a lot of effort!

Sarah

So you’ve created a product, be it a piece of technology, clever software or an invaluable service, and you’re pretty sure it’s something schools need and would love to buy.  But when you start contacting schools to tell them about your fabulous product by post, phone and email you get no response.  Where are you going wrong?

Selling to schools is VERY different to business and consumer selling.  Schools are under enormous pressure to perform from the government and parents alike while, at the same time, managing a complex and usually dwindling budget.  Here are the top 3 mistakes nearly everyone makes when selling to schools:

1. Schools are buildings – they don’t buy.

Companies tend to try and sell to schools generically as if it is the actual school that’s going to buy.  But schools are buildings, bricks and mortar, it’s the people inside who will have a need for your product.  Have you thought about who it is you need to target?  Will your product support teaching and learning and, if so, do you know which teachers to try and contact?  Is your product designed to save time and money in the office and, if so, do you know who the business manager is?  Thinking about your end user will help you reach the right person.

2. Decisions take time because there are lots of people involved

Salespeople often wonder why a school hasn’t purchased because they don’t take into account the decision-making process for schools; they almost always forecast the sale to close way too soon (if at all!).  In schools, it’s not unusual for the vast majority of purchasing decisions to go to a Governors meeting for discussion and approval and this may only happen once a month.  In addition, if a purchase is over a certain threshold then they usually need to speak to other suppliers and get quotes to be absolutely sure they’re getting best value.  This means the sales cycle can be quite long and is very competitive – you need to make sure your product offers real value!   In the case of really large purchases a full competitive tender will be required which can take months so you need to forecast carefully.

3. Never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations

Teachers, school leaders and support staff respect the opinions of their peers within the education industry.  If you can build a relationship with a team at a school and prove the value of your product or service then the introductions they can make for you could be priceless.  However, it works both ways so not making good on a promise or delivering something of low quality could lead to a dent in your reputation.  Either way, never underestimate the power of peer-to-peer recommendations, education networks are vital when selling to schools.

These are my top 3 common mistakes but there are many, many more!  What’s your biggest challenge when selling to schools?

All too often businesses embark on sales and marketing activity, both inbound and outbound, with one single goal – to reach and engage with the elusive ‘decision maker’.  And if you are lucky enough to reach and engage with an actual decision maker then that is a wonderful thing, but it’s unlikely to result in much of the way of business if you haven’t engaged with other people in the process.  Here are two good reasons why you should never obsess with the decision maker when you’re creating your sales and marketing strategy:

They’re not the person with the need

The person who can place an order may not be the person who has the ‘need’ you are trying to fulfil with your solution . . . meaning your marketing efforts are likely to fall on deaf ears.  For example, if your product or service helps businesses close sales more quickly, target those people who have the greatest need for this (e.g. sales managers).  If they are sold on what your product does then they will become your biggest asset when it comes to influencing decision makers.

Making decisions does not necessarily equal placing orders

Within most businesses there is rarely a single point of decision-making or a single budget holder.  Of course there will be somebody who physically places orders but they will do so based on the consensus of key stakeholders – ignore these at your peril.

A successful sales and marketing strategy needs to be built on clever targeting based on the answers to a few very simple questions.  Who are my stakeholders?  Where are they?  What do they need?  Understanding the answers to these questions can create all sorts of new opportunities for your business to engage with your customers.

All too often I hear companies say that the thing they absolutely must to do overcome competition is beat them on price.  The logic being that if we’re the cheapest then we’re the ones the customer will choose, right?

Generally speaking, and unless everyone you are competing against is offering a 100% identical product to you, this simply isn’t the case.  People are looking for value as much as they are a good price.  In the public sector most large deals go through a formal procurement process but, even then, price will only make up a certain percentage of the score.   Customers tend to use the MEAT criteria (Most Economically Advantageous Tender) which also takes into account quality.

So instead of making price the thing you must beat them on and the focus of your efforts, why not try highlighting some of the other things that stand you apart instead.  For example:

• Are you greener or more ethical? Is your product/service locally based or locally made.  Equally, is your service UK-wide or international?
• Is your product of a higher quality, built to last, easier to use, safer to use or approved by a respected organisation?
• Are your staff experts in their field, do they come from industry, are they a large, happy and stable team offering fabulous service, do you offer longer more flexible opening hours and online help?

At the end of the day cheapest rarely means best.  Aim to price your product or service at a price-point that truly represents what you offer and then focus your attention on delivering all the added value your customers will love.

Now this is a dangerous phrase because when businesses say this they are often referring the fact that they feel they have a product that does something or has features that perhaps other products don’t have.  And, based on this, they feel no product compares to theirs and, therefore, they have no competition.  But the phrase “we don’t have any competitors” is a dangerous one for three main reasons:

1. That piece of unique functionality that your product has may seem like the most important thing in the world to you but your customers may think differently.

If they don’t see it as a deal breaker then they will look at all the similar products on the market – so you need to be conscious of the fact that you’re also competing with them.

2.  Even if your product or service is completely 100% unique, you are always still competing for budget.

It may be that your customer chooses to spend their budget on something completely different as they consider it more important to them at that moment.  The challenge is finding a way to ensure your potential customers consider what you’re offering as high priority.

3.  The belief that no competitors exist in your market can ultimately lead to complacency.  

If you feel that your product is the best out there then there’s a danger that the needs of the customer will stop being the priority and you’ll fall into the trap of believing that “the product sells itself”.  To successfully sell you must always be asking yourself ‘what’s important to the customer?’ and making sure your value proposition is based on this.

Ultimately knowing your competition is the key to creating a great marketing and sales strategy and, believe me, they definitely exist!

No matter what the question or situation my 4-year old niece will always, always ask “why?”  And she asks this because she genuinely wants to understand what’s going on, what is the reason behind it.  As grown-ups we become experienced in our field and come to know our customers and competitors well and, as a result, we stop asking why because we feel we know the answer – and to be fair there’s a good chance we do know the answer.  But the point at which you stop asking “why?” is the point when you start becoming a less effective sales person for two reasons:

1. Things change; you may be able to able to make a fairly good guess at what’s important to your client right now but never assume – you don’t know what’s around the corner for them so you should ask.
2. You may stop asking “why?” because your experience tells you the answer, but asking questions is so important as it shows your clients you are interested in understanding their specific needs. They may be different or similar to everyone else, but you need to take the time to let them explain what’s important.

So try it, keep asking “why?”  I’m not suggesting doing it in the manner my 4-year old niece does (e.g. relentlessly, and often accompanied by tantrums) but I would certainly be sure to ask the question as you’ll be surprised by the results – especially when you’re the only person to have taken the time to ask.