Sales Tips From One of the the Top Sports Training and Consulting Companies- 
Altitude Premium Consulting

BennettTIPS
Weekly Sales Training Tips From Greg Bennett of Altitude Premium Consulting  
a Kroenke Sports Enterprises 
Partner Organization 

Art of Renewing a Client

Segment 1: Mistakes Salespeople Make in Renewing a Client

Segment 2:
Renewal Strategies for Before the Initial Sale

Segment 3:
Renewal Strategies for During the Engagement

Segment 4:
Saving a Client Relationship After You Hear, "I Want Out"

Past Training Tips

Non-Verbal Communication

Negotiation Strategies That Win

Merged Selling

The Art of Renewing a Client 

Time Maximization Strategies

The Art of Renewing a Client

How to Get Clients to Stay Engaged With
Your Organization Year After Year

-By Greg Bennett

Introduction

Whether your client engagements last one week, one year or five years, in order to reach a level of excellence in sales, you (and your entire organization) must become proficient at the art of renewing a client.  The reason I mention "your entire organization", is because the renewal process is usually not a one-person responsibility...it can involve several areas within a business beyond the salesperson -- administration, the service department, and of course the actual delivery of the product to the client.  In reality, everyone within an organization plays a part in the renewal process.

Unfortunately many salespeople, and their surrounding organizations, don't adequately focus on renewals, assuming they'll "just happen" on their own.  It's a dangerous assumption, especially in this day and age when customers have no shortage of options from which to choose and long-term loyalty isn't something that can be counted on without real hard work and focus.

So why don't we adequately focus on the renewal process?   Don't we know that a renewed piece of business is normally about 100 times easier to find and close than a new prospect?  Are we not aware that a renewed client usually requires less hand-holding and stress than a brand new client?  Do we forget about the nice, steady billing that a long-term client brings to our budget?  Well if we know all that, why don't we improve our renewal skill sets?

I haven't found any real good answers for this one, just some educated guesses.  You would think that with the problems most people have with Call Reluctance and prospecting, they'd be super-focused on improving their ability to renew existing clients, but that's not the case.  In my opinion, I think we just get lazy and complacent.  We assume that once the initial sale is done everything will be fine and the client will renew on their own.  I also think we, as individuals and organizations, don't really understand that renewing a client is a process that we can't afford to just "let happen" on its own.  We have to develop a strategy with tangible steps and tools, and we need a step-by-step plan to make sure it all happens on a more consistent basis.

Over the four segments in this series, I'm going to be addressing how to set up a "renewal strategy" within any type of organization.  Whether you're in sports, entertainment, consulting or general business, you need to develop a concrete plan for how you intend to renew clients, starting way back in the prospecting process, moving through the initial engagement, and how you then follow-up after the sale.

Along with all these exciting ideas and concepts, we'll also be addressing some of the mistakes people make in the renewal process and this "lazy and complacent" attitude I mentioned earlier.  For no matter how many good ideas and intentions we have, if we don't change this mindset - that the renewals will "just happen" on their own -  we won't make major improvement.

Here are the focus areas we'll address:
 

Segment One (this one):  Mistakes Salespeople Make In Renewing Clients

Segment Two:  Renewal Strategies for Before the Initial Sale

Segment Three: Renewal Strategies for During and After the Initial Client Engagement

Segment Four:  Saving a Client That Doesn't Want to Renew

Segment One:  Mistakes Salespeople Make in Renewing Clients

If we think about how hard we normally have to work to GET a client in the first place...the digging...the calling and calling and calling...the rejection...the stalls...etc. etc. etc....you'd think we'd pay much more attention to the entire renewal process.  But for a variety of reasons we'll be discussing in this segment, we just don't pay adequate attention to this important area.

Even though renewing a client is a company-wide responsibility, the salesperson must take the lead and take ownership of the process.  So let's start by looking at some mistakes sellers make in renewing clients.

• We assume that the renewal will "just happen" on it's own

  • It's understandable why some people relax once the initial sale is done -- we've worked hard, convinced the client to move forward, signed the deal...now we want to "back off" and focus on the next deal. We just close our eyes and assume that everything will be okay, the client will be satisfied and they'll just sign up again.
     

  • In reality, the second and third sale can be harder to close than the first one.  There are several things that can happen behind the scenes with the client...they get buyer's remorse...they run into money issues...they don't get the results they thought they were going to get (chances are we haven't talked about expectations with the client).  Clients typically don't like to be sold and they'll look for problems or excuses for investing again.
     

  • We must never become complacent and just take anyone's continued business for granted. We have to take "ownership" of making this renewal happen and become committed to taking the lead, not just sitting back and hoping for the best.
     

• We don't talk about renewal and a long-term relationship before the first engagement even begins

  • If you sell in a one-buy-at-a-time fashion, that's exactly what you're going to get...you'll sell the client once, then have to go back again and again for more one-time buys.  Plus, when you sell only one engagement at a time it appears that you don't believe whatever you're selling will work to meet the client's needs. 
     

  • If you wait to talk about your renewal process until after the initial sale, clients will be very defensive and nervous about being sold again. When you talk about renewal after the initial sale, it sounds like it's all about YOU...and not about the client and why it's good for him to renew.
     

  • We must start talking "long-term" from the very beginning, sharing with clients what will happen after this initial engagement is completed, and how we constantly work to make sure our relationship is working for their best interests.
     

• We don't have a well-defined program for renewing a client after the initial sale

  • Because we are so focused on one-buy-at-a-time process, we don't even bother to set up a "renewal strategy", or a set of processes we implement with clients between the first engagement and the second.
     

  • We need to develop a renewal strategy that lays out specific steps in specific order vs  just "letting it happen"...basically our renewal and servicing processes need to be PRO-ACTIVE, not just RE-ACTIVE
     

• We don't have enough contact during the engagement to find out about problems before they become too big to solve

  • This goes hand-in-hand with the previous points about having no set processes in place for strategically renewing the client.  If we don't have regular contact DURING the engagement, we don't get the chance to even hear about the issues and problems the client may be having, let alone solving them....this allows small things to fester and grow over time to the point where the client starts to convince himself that this is a bad investment.
     

  •  We need to have set times during the engagement for client interviews and problem solving.  When we hear issues we can address them and actually end up strengthening the relationship.
     

• We don't ask the tough questions and we refuse to hear the tough answers (the bad news) when we're getting it

  • As we converse with clients during the engagement, we tend to ask very generic, "visiting-type" questions...thinks like:

    • "So how is everything going?"

    • "Are you getting everything you need?"
       

  • Clients usually answer with, "Everything is fine"...or "It's okay"...they have a tendency to not bring up deeper, darker issues and concerns because they don't like conflict or may not want to be sold again...(though some clients LOVE to talk about issues and problems, and you should be grateful for those folks, because at least you know where they stand)
     

  • We need to ask more specific questions and pry beneath the surface, always understanding that client's may have hidden issues that aren't easy to talk about.
     

• We assume everything is fine and don't think about the competition always prowling around the perimeter

  • Because we relax after the initial sale is complete we can start to take the continued business of a client for granted.  We make some grave assumptions, like:

    • The client likes us and is enjoying the experience...

    • The client isn't entertaining calls from competitors who are all shooting at us in every sales call...

    • The client will remain loyal to us from engagement to engagement
       

  • We must become even more aware of the competition AFTER we win the initial deal...anticipating that they'll increase their intensity and come at us harder than ever.

     

• We don't go the extra mile on the second and third sale like we did on the first

  • Because we get a bit lazy after we close the deal, we don't put the same efforts into the second and third sale.  We don't do as much research...our presentations aren't as nice...we don't do as much wining and dining...we just get lazy.
     

  • This mistake is compounded by the fact that while we are getting lazy, the client is more defensive, more skeptical and may be listening to our competitors.
     

  • We must commit to making our renewal presentations as powerful, thorough and entertaining as our initial sale.

   

Over the next segments in this series we'll delve into greater detail on the "We musts" and "We need to's" mentioned above.  I'll discuss not only strategy, but also suggest some tools that need to be developed if we're to greatly improve our renewal percentages.

I encourage you to get everyone in your organization involved in this process since everyone plays a part in renewing the customer.

Some things to ask yourself before moving ahead:

• Do you have a tendency to relax and become less-diligent after the initial sale is done?  
   

• Do you notice that after the sale you contact the client less, spend less time and effort on knowing their needs and wants?
   

• Do you talk about the "after the sale" during the initial sales process?  Do you have a clearly-defined contact strategy for when you'll make contact, and for what you'll be discussing?
   

• Do you ask more "visiting questions" vs deeper "probing questions"?  Do you listen carefully and pay attention to any negative vibes that may be lurking beneath the surface with the client?

Next week we'll review how to set up the renewal strategy before the initial sale takes place, and we'll develop a laid out renewal process that you can customize for your particular situation.

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Greg Bennett, a partner in the innovative brand expansion and consulting organization, Altitude Premium Consulting,  LLC, has been one of the top sales and sales management trainers in professional sports and entertainment since 1988.  He has created and delivered training programs for over 80+ professional sports teams and leagues, along with several Fortune 500 companies.   Altitude Premium Consulting provides training as well as the creation of premium-branded goods for pro sports teams, entertainment companies and corporate sponsors, and is in a partnership relationship with Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owners of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Pepsi Center, the Colorado Mammoth and several other sports and entertainment entities throughout the United States.  Bennett can be reached at (303) 405-6110, or you can email Greg directly at gbennett@pepsicenter.com .