Written by: Vickie Sullivan | October 03, 2024
Customer Relationships vs. New Buyers: What’s Best?
B2B companies spend more time pursuing new buyers than investing in existing customer relationships, according to research conducted by LinkedIn and Ipsos. That makes me wonder: Should we follow suit?
Bringing in new customers seems like a no-brainer, considering budget cuts at current clients and advocates leaving. The problem with doing that is few opportunities materialize before market awareness turns into done deals, so people give up.
2 Questions to Ask Before Prioritizing New Customers Over Existing Customer Relationships
So, before putting money and energy into acquiring new customers, it’s essential to assess whether maintaining and strengthening customer relationships is the better strategy. Here are two questions to ask yourself before investing resources:
• What is going on outside my network? Without accurate information, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. To prevent that mistake, distinguish between what’s happening with your clients and referrals vs. the new segments. If the malaise is widespread, expanding into new territory won’t boost revenue.
• Has my network run dry? When talking shop with customers, you may get discouraged hearing their stories about cutbacks. Instead of assuming the opportunities with that client have dissipated, dig deeper into your customer relationships. Ask more questions: Is this a logistic delay (hiring new folks for you to advise) or a longer-term development (state regulators shut down the entire business)? The answers will provide you with an accurate assessment to determine whether to stay put or enter new markets.
Bad ideas look great on paper when you think there’s no other option. Before investing a lot of resources to expand your market, make sure the new effort will be worth it. That old saying of “jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire” has a lot of truth behind it.
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