Retain Your Existing Clients And Increase Profitability

Nineteenth-century Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto invented the now-famous 80-20 marketing principle which states that “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients”. Even if you check on your current list of clients, you will see that the few key clients you have let you earn as much as the rest of your clients put together.

It's a fact that finding new business leads and clients costs more (as much as 5-10 times more) than retaining your existing clients. This is the reason why a lot of marketers and marketing coaches tout the benefits of retaining your clients after the initial sale. While you can't possibly keep every single client you've sold to, you can identify a few key clients which could lead to long-term profitability. These customers and clients need not even be your biggest buyers, as long as they purchase a lot of your merchandise over a period of time, their value as a client greatly increases.

Retaining clients may not be an easy task, but doing so will not only ensure you of continuous profits, but also help you improve your company and business as a whole. To effectively keep your clients, you have to make sure that you always deliver on everything that you promise each of them, and the benefits from your products and services equal or exceed your prices. Otherwise they would end up with your competitors.
If you are doubtful about whether you can sell new or more products to your customers and clients, take note that you already have critical information about them. You know how much budget they have for a month or a year; you know who are the decision-makers in the corporation and how to contact them; you have information about their existing equipment and can easily figure out when they would need to purchase a new one; you might even have information about the direction of their company's future plans. You can use all these data about your clients and customers when you offer them a new product or service to get them to make a purchase. If you think you still need more information, you can always incentivize your approach and offer them something in return for the information that you need. Retaining clients also require that you continually add value to your business relationship, so new offerings are generally expected by your clients and customers. A company that doesn't have anything new to offer clients is a sure sign that it is not growing. Furthermore, your existing clients already trust your brand, so offering them a new product or service is all a matter of whether this new product or service is relevant to them.

However, there is a significant concern among marketers regarding this type of marketing principle. While the returns on client and customer retention is high, there is always the risk of losing such a valuable client. The more valuable a key client becomes, the higher the risk once that client is lost. There is also the issue of clients becoming unreasonably demanding over time, especially when they realize their own value to your company. This situation is easily avoidable, and if you build just the right relationship with each of your clients, you can safely expect a bright future for your company.

Three Tips To Make Your Sales Pitch Rock

When we hear the word sales pitch, one of the most important points to consider is how to make your pitch sell to prospects. Unfortunately, that is one point that companies still have a hard time in doing, especially if they are doing their lead generation campaign for the first time. Why does it seem to be hard to generate the sales leads that you need? There are plenty of reasons why. The most important to remember is that business leads are best generated through proper consideration of what the prospects want. More likely than not, this is the main reason why no sales leads are made. So how do you go about it? How can you make your sales pitch clinch the deal?


Just remember these three points: 

1. Do your research – time and time again, sales people are told to always research their business prospect first. Still, there are still those who are left hanging when they are asked questions by the prospects that they have no ready answer for. In the first place, you must need to know just what the prospect is looking for, what kind of solution they may need, and what your company can do to address that need. What is important here is that you cover everything when you are trying to generate B2B leads. And you can do that easily with good research work.
2. Define your prospects’ segments – it is possible that what you are offering will work with a lot of market segments. Lucky for you if you only need to market in one segment, but if you have to go into several, then you will need to research each one well. Each segment may have a different trigger or reason to do business with you, so you should define your segments well. You can get better sales leads this way since you now know how to grab your prospect’s attention.
3. Craft specific messages – this is where the two previous points merge. Once you know what your prospects want, and what trigger you can use to get their attention, you can then create the correct sales pitch. But the sales pitch itself should not be used in more than one prospect. Sure, this can save you more time, but if you really want to reach out to them, you will need to craft the message that is specifically tailored to them. They will appreciate that added thoughtfulness.

As a business owner, you will need to know how to best maximize your company’s ability to generate more sales leads for your business. There are so many factors that can either attract the attention of your business prospects or cause them to back away. It may also depend on what communication medium you used to reach them, whether through social media or telemarketing. Still, what is important is that you get to send your message across. This is the most important point that you need to reach if you want to get better B2B sales leads.

How To Find Investors According To Mark Cuban

Dan Schawbel’s Sharktank Roundtable interview series provides great tips for entrepreneurs and businessmen from the eight hosts of the hit show. From that latest and last interview, here are 3 helpful tips to find investors according to Mark Cuban, a serial entrepreneur `nd a “Shark” in ABC’s popular show. Starting entrepreneurship early in his life, Cuban’s first venture was Broadcast.com which he eventually sold to Yahoo. His other businesses include: HDNet, 2929 Entertainment, IceRocket, ownership of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, and a slew of other investments.

"Do everything you can to not have to seek outside money. Most companies don’t need more money, they need more brains." 

Asking other people for seed capital doesn't just mean that they will provide initial funding for your business that you will have to pay for in the future, they will also require other collaterals such a certain percentage of stocks, a position in the board of directors, or some other executive position. Before scouring the Silicon Valley for angel investors and venture capitalists to fund your business, try to fund your business by yourself first. This way, if the venture doesn't turn out to be as profitable as you initially perceived or your target business leads didn't see it as valuable enough to purchase, then you can stop the operations anytime without needing to worry about paying back any money you owe from someone else. Afterwards, you can easily start again with another idea that may bring in more business leads.

"If you do need money, know exactly how much you need, what you are going to do with it and how it will get you to profitability." 

If you really need outside financing, then you have to prepare a complete report of where you will be spending the seed capital that your investor will lend you. No one would lend you anything if you don't have any clear plans on where to spend them and how you will get the money back. Your report should include: how much you plan to spend on product R&D, your projected expenses for lead generation campaigns and marketing, the distribution expenses, employee salaries and office rent. There might be other things you need to consider as well, such as if you need to outsource certain operations to a BPO company or a call center. The point is that you have to make it as complete and accurate as possible so that you won't run out of money prematurely or borrow much more than you can afford to repay.

"Be ready to work your ass off. Raising money is not a destination, it’s a starting point. The minute you take money, you no longer are your own boss. You work for the people giving you money. Be prepared to work harder than you did before. Raising money doesn’t make things easier; it creates more pressure for success." 

Having an investor on board can be both a blessing and a burden. On one hand you can take more risks because you have someone backing your efforts, on the other, you have to choose the risks you take wisely because the same person backing you up is expecting a lot from you. You will have to work extra hard to make sure that you always have a steady flow of sales leads coming in.

There is little margin for error and failure when investors are involved so you have to think very carefully before you find one for your business.

How To Handle Customer Complaints

Customer complaints will forever be part of our business processes. That is why it is even more important for us to efficiently take care of it. You can say that it is one of the most important aspects of your business. After all, given the way people are connected to each other now, you will want to avoid bad publicity because you were unable to handle a customer’s concern. That can have an impact on your B2B leads generation. Who will want to have an appointment setting with you if they hear negative news about your business? That is why you have to offer a good customer service program. Your sales leads need it.

Customer Service

A bit lost? Then you can follow these eight points to guide your process. These are just a few things that you can add to your business culture. Simple enough, but with a great impact:

1. Begin with yourself – if you want to offer good customer service, you have to believe in it first. Your employees will follow whatever example you set, especially when you deal with customers.
2. Create a code of conduct to be followed – create a list of ideals to follow, and post them on your office walls or during training. This will guide for your employees when they do their work.
3. Treat your employees as customers – in this way, your employees will realize that they are an important part of the firm, and they will exert more effort to keep your business working.
4. Think of the long run – one reason why some firms have bad customer service. Thinking more about selling often translates into tactics that alienate or frustrate customers.
5. Build trust – this you can work with your telemarketing team, as this takes time to build. You need to be honest, reliable, and confident so that customers will feel confident in working with you.
6. Listen carefully – one reason why customers get frustrated is because no one seems to understand them. Take time to listen to what they have to say, and after that you can answer.
7. Go with the little things – providing a little extra for your customers can go a long way for your business leads. It builds goodwill, as well as the impression that you are the right partner.
8. Help them find another business – if you cannot provide them what they are looking for, recommend them another firm that can. It is good PR, and that customer will certainly return.
9. Provide relevant information – your firm must be able to answer what customers ask. If you do not know or is unfamiliar with your offer, then why offer them in the first place, right?


Customer service is not just about providing customers with the answer to their questions, it must also be able to create a relationship with them. These days, it can be hard to find new business, so it makes perfect sense for you to try keeping the current ones. A wise investment, as some pundits will say.

How to Win Back Old Customers

Have you realized that fresh sales leads are not always synonymous to new people or even new information? As a matter of fact, it could be as successful as in treating lost clients similarly as you would in your new business leads. Yes, despite some reasons why these customers left, here are some tips on winning back your previous clients.

•Divide your customer list depending on buying behavior so that you identify who you can send to the same way you would do lead qualification. Separate that list into two: those who have not bought in the last year and beyond, and those who have not bought in the last 6-12 months. This is done so that you can target these sets with a relatively dissimilar message to make them return.


•Refresh their memory in your subject line. Old clients were already familiar with you, unlike new sales leads. That’s why you have to make your subject line more unique and inform them that you want them back again. Make your subject lines catchy like “(First Name), where have you been?”


•Entice them with a genuine special offer. In order to win them back, make sure that you have an attractive offer in store for them. Begin by letting them know how grateful you are for whatever they bought from you, being specific in what and when they bought from you. Remind them of that good experience they had with your firm and convince them to communicate all over again.


Having loyal customers mean that they are happy and contented with your company. It is important to keep old customers interested.