“I just lost my biggest customer. What should I do now?”

Some companies survive month-to-month on the relationship of just a handful of customers. Worse, some businesses survive in great part because of only one customer.

Many sales reps live off of the once thought predictable business of a long time customer.

Losing even one customer can leave some businesses and sales professionals on the brink of failure and bankruptcy. It happens. I’ve witnessed it and seen the pain.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having lost your biggest customer, the impact of which is a devastating loss to your income and a serious reduction in cash flow, there are things you can do to survive. But you must act fast:

• Call the customer you just lost — First and foremost, you need to speak directly with the customer you just lost and find-out what happened. Why did they stop doing business with you and your company? You need to understand what happened for two reasons: 1) There may be a simple problem or misunderstanding that can be easily addressed to renew the business relationship — your customer may have stopped doing business with you because they thought there were no other options to solve a problem they are experiencing. 2) You need to know if something is wrong that may poke it’s ugly head in other accounts.
• Don’t get desperate — Assuming you’ve lost the customer, take a deep breath. Now is not the time to do something drastic like cutting staff or selling assets. That day may soon be coming, but resist the urge to do anything immediate. Now is the time to think and evaluate all options to survive.
• Map your sales cycle and overlay cash flow — You need to know how bad the problem is and how much time you have to work with. Pull-out your sales forecast and review how much time to cash you have for each account and how realistic each new opportunity is to close. List each customer order and payment you can realistically expect and determine when you will run out of money and by how much. If you’re a commissioned sales professional, know exactly how and when commissions will be paid.
• Cut back on expenses — List all of your business expenses and see if something obvious jumps out that you can eliminate. Don’t cut anything that inhibits your ability to serve other customers. Look for things you can do without for a while. If you’re a sales professional, dont buy the boat :)
• Look toward your other customers — Losing the customer you most rely on is bad. Losing several customers because something systemic is wrong with your company and you’re unaware of it is disastrous. Get in touch with your customers and talk to them about their business. Ask how your company is doing serving their account and solicit input on ways you could serve them better. Your discussion may uncover a new product or service you can sell them.
• Call colleagues — Now is not the time to begin looking-up old friends and colleagues, but you ought to if you’re not already involved in a network. Let people know you’re expanding your reach into your market, give them an update on the success you’ve enjoyed in your business, and let them know what your ideal customer looks like. Ask if there is someone they know you should speak to about the products and services you offer.

There are dangers to retiring quota from one or a small number of customers — it’s something you should monitor and work to avoid. You need to continually expand your customer-base and diversify revenue to protect your business and income from having a cash flow disaster due to a large customer no longer sending money your way.

Above in my list of 6 things to do immediately following news your largest customer has left your fold. What would you add to my list?

I received an offer in the mail a while ago that looked great! Maybe too great. That’s the problem, it’s too good be true.

Where’s the small print? I know somewhere in here there’s a catch.

Why do I feel this way?

Am I jaded?

• Blockbuster once announced a no late fees offer that included restocking fees and automatic charges for late returns
• I received an email that promises instant riches, but I have to spend $100 before I learn how
• I received an offer in the mail disguised as an invoice, instructing me to urgently reply with payment for a subscription of some sort
• An ad in the paper boldly shows the price of a new truck for $18,000, the fine print indicates it’s actually $18,000 including selected discounts offered on particular models to narrowly defined buyers
• A free offer costs $19 for handling and shipping

Are these honest marketing tactics?

I don’t believe so.

An opportunity

If I’m not the only one sick-n-tired of deceptive offers, the time is likely right for an honest offer – an offer that’s sincere, with no fine print, no catches, no exceptions, no cute marketing and no clever concealment of greater payments or term commitments. Just an offer that is what it is.

The challenge of such a sincere offer may be getting it believed.

What do you think?

With is post, I’m pleased and excited to announce Webkick! Webkick is a long time coming — here’s the background:

A few years ago a client was bemoaning their web presence — their website didn’t look right, they weren’t satisfied with the way they nurtured prospects, they felt invisible on the web, and they didn’t feel connected to their customers.

In short, they were in good company :) At one time or another, maybe you’ve felt the same.

I left that conversation with the idea of a simple solution. I shared those thoughts with a couple colleagues, but didn’t’ do much other than theorize solutions and discuss possibilities.

Enter Webkick

A year or so goes by and another client shares a similar set of feelings — feeling empty about their web presence and haunted by the belief something better was possible, but not knowing exactly what to do. This time, I talked to a colleague and decide to take a level of action.

That short story is how Webkick comes to life.

Webkick is a different kind of web design company — we don’t do design. Instead, we take all those principles of Saleskick and apply them to web presence.

We don’t do design

When I say Webkick doesn’t do design, that’s partially true. We do some design, but not much. We partner with people and firms who create great web themes and limit our design to personalizing them for our clients.

We focus our effort on web layout, giving attention to how a website is used to communicate and connect with prospective and existing customers. The idea being to tune your website to the visitors you’re serving and want to attract more of — presenting content and information that matches their worldview.

Beyond layout, we help our clients create and manage compelling content that attracts and nurtures qualified prospects. Again, putting creative energy and focus on how to communicate and connect with target audiences in a meaningful way, driven by their worldview. This helps your audience get it much faster and more quickly realize your value.

Tying web presence together with social media outlets, we integrate our client’s website with social media sites to reach more targeted prospective customers, manage their reputation, and better serve those interested in their expertise.

Saleskick on Webkick

Webkick services result in the application of Saleskick principles onto a company’s web presence. Concepts and ideas such as tailoring a website to its fit in a sales cycle and bringing forward the things a company does for its clients as opposed the things they do are Webkick’s driving principles.

Webkick is the web application of core stories and communication based on benefits, meaningful difference, and reason to believe.

Webkick services

Over the next few weeks, we’ll roll-out a number of services to help you get the most out of your web presence. Each service we’re preparing to announce is rooted in two principles — each is practical and cost effective.

Practical means we’re only offering services directly tied to helping you attract and nurture prospective customers or serve your existing customers better. No fluff, no nice to have…just real services to help you achieve real things in your business.

Cost effective means reasonable prices. We aren’t interested in getting rich on a one-time service. We value lifetime relationships and are pricing things as such. That’s not to say we’re going cheap — it means we’re shooting for great value. We’re sure you’ll find lesser priced services somewhere, but we’re equally confident you won’t find greater value no matter how far or long you search. That’s our goal in everything we do.

Here’s the offer — just for Saleskick readers

We’re at the infancy of Webkick’s launch. There’s a skeleton of content on its website and initial services are in their final review. I expect we’ll make a larger announcement in a couple weeks. That said, I wanted to share Webkick with you at this time.

And I want to make you a special offer.

Just for Saleskick readers, the first three people who act will receive a substantial discount on all Webkick services. When I say substantial, read at cost. And the only caveat on the substantial discount is it applies to initial services — ongoing services are offered at normal prices. Without knowing your particular need, it’s hard to mention a specific price for services, but I assure you the discount will be substantial.

The reason for this offer is simple. We’d like a few more projects to reference and several more testimonials to highlight. Plus, I favor the idea of pre-launch activities and extending special offers to those who are loyal to your cause.

To take advantage of this offer, all you need to do is contact me, request a no obligation conversation to see if Webkick can do something meaningful for you, and mention this post on Saleskick as the reason for your contact. That’s it.

Next

So, look for a lot more from Webkick. Please visit the site, subscribe to the blog, and join in the coming conversation of making websites help you sell more — faster.

Good things are on the way!

Advantages are often confused with benefits in marketing and sales communication — mucking-up a core story. As salespeople, we too often tout advantages as the reason to buy from us — a big mistake.

Advantages are the things you can do (advantage) with the things we do (features). People rarely, if ever, buy advantages. But they always buy what results from them (benefits).

Advantages are important to the extent they lead to a benefit worth buying — a trait they share with features and functionality, proof a benefit can exist. But benefits are the things we ought to sell, they’re the business we’re in, and they’re the things people want to buy from us. Benefits are how our prospects hope to gain from being our customer.

Advantages are merely things that enable benefits to exist from the features and functionality we offer. Advantages are groupings of features and functionality, not benefits.

Examples of features, functionality, and advantages — minus the benefit

Following are a couple examples of features and advantages, minus a benefit. Notice how the absence of the benefit prematurely ends the story — leaving a gap between the things we do and the things people buy.

Example: I can create greater open and read rates in direct mail (advantage) by using a particular writing process to create a sales letter (feature). The advantage is good, but only to the extent it results in something. No one wants to buy a letter that’s opened and read more, unless having it opened and read more results in something worth buying.

Another example: By using the universal port interface (feature) you can remotely change communication protocols (advantage). Again, the advantage is good, changing the interface remotely can save time, reduce cost, quicken deployment of new services, etc. But who inherently wants to make such changes remotely except to achieve something else in their business?

Advantages are important to note, but they aren’t compelling until you map them to a benefit worth buying.

Homework to improve your sales and marketing communication

Following is a simple two-step exercise to highlight advantages in your offer and map them to a benefit your prospective customer buys:

1. From your worldview, think about the things you do (features) and what you can do with them (advantages). List every advantage you can think of for the products and services you sell.
2. Now, from your prospect’s worldview, list a result next to each advantage (benefit).

Hold onto this list, it’s the key to creating marketing and sales communication that compels prospective customers to engage with your and your company — eventually becoming paying customers.

As a salesperson and marketer, you want to talk about the advantages you offer as proof the benefit is real.

What say you?

One of the common questions about core stories is how they are used in sales and marketing campaigns. This post will provide an example.

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I don’t define a core story as an end, such as a presentation, white paper or case study. Rather, a core story is a way of positioning your company and offer that creates an orange in your market that’s hard to compare to apples offered by competitors. Core stories are a means, not an end.

As such, core stories are how you talk about your company, how you present your offer, and the position you create in the mind of your prospective customer. It’s the story of your business that’s woven into your website, sales letters, and conversations you have with prospective buyers.

Core stories speak to the worldview of your target audience, highlight the benefits you offer, make your difference part of the value discussion, and create kitchen logic reason to believe to speak further.

Here is a link to a lead generation letter written from a core story perspective of a real company. I redacted the letter, removing the company and sales person’s name, but it’s the actual letter sent as part of a lead generation campaign to create more qualified sale opportunities and rely less on price to win. The reported results were positive:

• Sale staff found it easier to talk about their company and distinguish themselves from others
• Prospective customers were reported to understand the value of the company making the contact much faster and helped steer conversations away from price and availability to the value of a business relationship
• The number of sales opportunities increased in a short time
• New business was won as a direct result of the letter

It may not be a market or industry you’re familiar with, but I’m sure you can see the core story throughout the letter.

The point of this post is to change the mindset that a sore story is a thing you can hand someone. Core stories aren’t an end, they’re a means to the profitable end of increased sales.

Contact me if you’d like to discuss how a core story may help your business.

Leaving the post office not long ago, I picked-up a flyer from a local business — a party and event company that supplies everything for a celebration including balloons, tents, lighting, and catering services.

How do I know this? It says so on their one page flyer.

Their flyer lists service-by-service the things they do: balloons, gift baskets, tents, centerpieces, custom props, etc. This list of things includes four photos of party stuff and one paragraph of text. The text says they’re an event decorating company that decorates any type of event. They’ve been in business for over 7 years.

That’s it, with one exception — the closing words of this one paragraph read making your next event memorable!

Those five words are the things this company does for their customers — they make events memorable. That’s what they’re trying to sell. And that’s what they want their customers to buy. But those five words were the only thing on the flyer that spoke of the things they do for their customers. With exception to these five words, the entire flyer is about the company and the things they do.

What this company should do is change their flyer to highlight the things they do for their customers — making your next event memorable. They should define memorable events and talk about how their services make a party or event memorable. Their pictures should show memorable parties and events, not static displays of balloons and props. And they should include a testimonial from a customer praising their services, sharing how their event was memorable as a result of the things this company did for them.

There is a huge difference between the two messages

Think how different the two messages would be — the message they have is about their company and the things they do, the message they should have is how they make events memorable.

It’s a short lesson, but a great reminder: the things we do aren’t important. Our customers don’t want the things we have to offer, they want the things they can do or achieve with the things we offer. And that’s the message we should be telling.

Some may read the story above and think It’s balloons and party materials — what we do is different

Not really.

The example above is what we do all the time. As copywriters we talk to prospects about the style of copy we write, the number of projects we’ve written, and the years we’ve practiced our profession. As an IT services company we tell our prospects about the technologies we support, the tools we use, and the types of applications we build. As consultants we tell our prospects about the type of projects we perform, the workshops we host, and the books we’ve written. As hi-tech companies we talk about our backplane speed, number of transactions per second, and throughput.

We have a habit of talking about the things we do. But they rarely matter.

Features and functionality are important — to the extent they support a benefit worth investing it. But absent that, they’re worthless. Same for advantages (something I’ll address later).

There’s no exercise out of this post except to think and reflect on your own business and the message you give prospective customers through the sales letters, white papers, case studies, brochures, and web copy you offer.

Read your marketing and sales message again and look for the thing your customer is being asked to consider purchasing. What are you telling your prospect you have for sale?

Are you selling balloons and party favors -or- are you selling memorable events? If you’re selling memorable events, are you talking about what makes them memorable?

The image above is a pic I took of my whiteboard yesterday following a conversation with a colleague — we were discussing core stories and their affect on marketing and sales efforts. The board holds the notes I wrote while sharing my thoughts.

The thing to highlight is your core story sits at the center of your marketing message and sales position. As you become more versed speaking about your business from the perspective of your core story, good things are expected to result: attracting qualified buyers, shortening your sales cycle, relying less on price to win, etc.

Core stories aren’t silver bullets, but their ability to provide marketing and sales oomph is undisputed.

If you find talking about your business is more difficult than it should be and your prospective customers aren’t getting it as fast or well as they ought to, a core story is something you should investigate.

Here’s a link to more information on core stories. Contact me if you’d like to explore the potential of a core story helping your business.

Reason to believe is a huge part of a compelling core story, it’s the reason a prospect feels secure becoming a customer. Reason to believe is a form of proof the benefit you offer is real and the price is justified. And while there are a lot of things that serve as reasons to believe, including features and functionality, there are common points of belief to consistently highlight.

Here are 12 common reasons to believe the benefit you offer is real

Guarantee — The Granddaddy of all commonly thought reasons to believe is the guarantee you make with your offer. And the most common guarantees are satisfaction and refund. Both are good, both can be effective, and both are boring. Boring means they’re easy to overlook. Guarantees can be deal closers, but you have to use them in the right way and at the right time. This is a big subject worthy of it’s own time. So, I’m going to mention guarantees here and offer more in another item of content. Enough for now.

Testimonials – Testimonials are great reasons to believe — customers saying nice things about you and your company. They suggest a past success is possible in the future. A testimonial earns its greatest impact when it’s relevant to the reader and the benefit you offer. The title and company of the person offering the testimonial are important — the more like your prospect the better. And a testimonial related to the benefit is a must.

Don’t be afraid to ask clients for testimonials. They don’t have to be lengthy. A couple sentences are fine.

An easy way to get testimonials is to send an email at the end of a project or sale and ask the customer to describe the result of something you did. Tell them you’d appreciate some feedback from the experience of working with you and that you’d like to share it with others. Also, ask your customer if it’s alright to use their name and refer others to them who may have questions about working with you and your company. Almost every satisfied customer will agree.

Case studies — Like a long testimonial, case studies are awesome reason to believe. Case studies are stories of how you’ve successfully worked with others either solving a problem, addressing a challenge, or enabling an opportunity. Involve the client in the case study — ask them to make comments and share results of your work with them. You can use case studies in lead generation campaigns and offer them as handouts at sales meetings. They are far more useful in sales than white papers.

Degree — Does your company have a profile of degrees or education a prospective customer would find valuable to employ and have access to? If so, mention it.

Longevity — While years of experience isn’t a benefit, it’s nicer to have than not. If your team has a combined 100 years of experience (insert your own number) and it’s relevant to your offer, mention it. The same goes for your company and years of business. Be sure to quantify your years of experience — number of, volume of, etc. Tell your prospects why and how your years of experience matter to them.

Pedigree — Is your company the offspring of something greater? Maybe it was created by someone well known or the spinoff of something great. If so, it’s worth mentioning. A company or offering created from a previous success can be mentioned as part of your story.

Awards — Have you or your company be awarded something relevant to your offer? If so, mention it.

Certifications — Maybe you have a certification in something related to your offering that gives reason to believe in your ability to perform. Maybe the same can be said for your company — manufacturing process, quality, software development, etc. See Degree above.

News items — Has your company been featured in a newspaper, magazine, book or trade publication? If so, and it’s relevant to your offer, mention it.

Affiliations — We’re greatly defined by the people and organizations we associate with and belong. Let your prospects know who you hang around with that may matters to them.

Memberships — See Affiliations above. Don’t forget trade groups, committees, and organizations of every type. As long as it’s relevant, mention it. Here’s an example: If I or my company were a member of the B2B Marketing Excellence Group, some people would be impressed and give greater consideration to my advice than if I weren’t a member. Better would be if my company or I were a founding member and Charmian of a committee.

Customers — How many transactions have you processed? How many customers have you served? What is the dollar volume of goods or services you’ve provided? Quantify your success and let your prospects know how much, how many, how often, how long, etc. you’ve successfully done the things you do.

Here are some examples

Let’s say you represent a company involved in industrial engineering and your company has been in business for 100 years. Saying you’ve been in business for 100 years sounds good, but note how it takes on more meaning when you say that in 100 years you’ve served thousands of customers in support of hundreds of thousands of successful projects. And how that experience has led you to innovation upon innovation, resulting in numerous patents on cost reducing manufacturing processes.

If you are an attorney or law firm engaged in patent law of one type of another, the fact you have a number of attorneys on staff with engineering degrees would be relevant and a reason to believe your firm could provide better patent protection than another firm.

A testimonial from a county office of education is more relevant and appreciated by the superintendent of a school district than the CEO of a mid-size company. And the CEO of a software development company likely weighs a testimonial greater from an executive of a hi-tech company than the manager of a professional services firm.

Your company’s membership in a trade organization and being a founding member of a trade group means you understand the issue of the discipline you’re involved in, the latest trends, and the latest industry regulations. You appear to be a thought leader, an impression you’re honestly creating.

None of this stands alone

None of the things above alone are enough to compel a prospect to become a customer. Remember, they’re part of a greater story that includes your difference, other reasons to believe, and you that lead to and stand in support of the benefit you offer. We’re presenting reasons your prospective customer can and should choose you to have a business relationship with as opposed to your competitors.

Here’s the caveat

There are a number of things you need to mention, note, and reference as reason to believe in your ability to deliver your promise of a benefit. I’m sure you got the caveat: It has to be relevant.

Relevant means you can tie the reason to believe reference to the benefit you’re selling. This means you can’t merely mention you’ve been in business for 100 years and leave it at that. You need to translate it into something that makes kitchen logic sense you’ll do a great job for your new customers.

Here’s the homework

List all of the things you can think of about your business that give reason to believe your offer and promise of a benefit are real. Make the list as exhaustive as possible, you can weed-out the weaker items later as you test each in conversation and dialogue with prospective buyers.

What are your thoughts on reason to believe? Which reason to believe have you found most effective in your market? Which reasons to believe do you find most non-compelling?

Difference empowers your core story because it makes it uniquely yours. It ties the things you do directly to the benefit your customer purchases. It starts the process of creating an orange to compare to the apples your competitors offer. Difference is part of the compelling reason to talk to you about the benefit(s) you offer. And it’s part of the reason to believe in you and believe in your ability to deliver the benefits you promise.

Your difference is all the things related to your benefit that’s part of your core story.

Things such as:

• process
• work history
• tools
• equipment
• materials
• features
• functionality
• packaging
• support
• documentation
• options
• diversity
• terms
• partnerships
• joint ventures
• facilities
• guarantee

There is one caveat to the above list — your prospective customer has to care about it.

Difference your customer isn’t interested in is of no value. For example: The fact you offer widgets in 1000 colors is of no value to me if I only want to purchase black widgets. Conversely, the fact you offer 1000 configurable options on a product I want to employ numerous ways is relevant.

Difference is often related to the advantage you offer, which leads to benefits customers buy. And difference can be reasons to believe in the benefit you offer — more on this topic later.

To add oomph to your core story, create a list of things different about the things you do, the things you offer, and the benefits your customer’s purchase. Yo can refine the list later. For now, just go crazy listing everything you can that’s uniquely yours — things your prospective customer is likely to value. This points you in the direction of highlighting meaningful difference your customers value and prospects will consider buying.

Features and functionality have a key role in your core story, but you have to position them to realize their selling power. And there’s a cautionary piece when talking about them that can jeopardize your sales process. The danger is discussing features and functionality before you’ve established a benefit.

If not positioned, your customer will translate your features and functionality into benefits on their own. These translations will happen because customers don’t buy features or functionality, they buy the things they can do with them (benefits). So, while you’re talking about the wonders on your datasheet, your customer is translating these things into something they can do with them. You can’t let something as import as these translations happen on their own, this is when purchase decisions are shaped.

Discussing features and functionality before benefits reduces your value and subjects your offering to a battle of commodities. This commonly results in sales people complaining they need to offer more discount and require enhanced features to win a deal.

Features and functionality are merely things that allow you to deliver benefits. You create opportunities, solve problems, make money, and save money for your customers as a result of employing one or more features and functionality of your offering.Features and functionality are meaningless until they’re employed to do something. Your speeds-feeds-features-functionality only matter to the extent they prove your ability to deliver a benefit.

When you directly tie features and functionality to a benefit, they are highly relevant. The super-set is when you tout a feature or functionality that creates meaningful difference in support of delivering a benefit. In that case, you’ve offered powerful reason to believe.

What say you?