Why customer success is more important than the close
The strategy of customer success in sales involves ensuring that your clients are getting the benefits they deserve from your company. Customer success is vital since it directly impacts the bottom line of your business as it improves your business profitability by minimizing client churn and increasing client value of a lifetime. Customer success management in sales should always be inclusive of Always Be Closing (ABC). Consider how customers interact with your team, how proactive your team is in helping them succeed with your services and products. Here we will explore the importance of customer success by looking at different angles of the business that affect the customer impression of the company.
Post-sale journey
Since customers are vital to your business, focusing on them and their success with your services or products helps retain them. After completing the sale, there is a need to make sure that the client has achieved their objectives and goals. Your job doesn’t end with sales but should be transferred to a manager dealing with customer success and making sure that the customer’s strategic objectives are achieved using your product or service. After closing a huge deal, customer success managers step in to provide tailored onboarding following the customer’s specific objectives and goals. Boarding a new client is as important as closing a deal.
Referrals
When clients are succeeding and happy, thanks to your company, they will often refer other customers to your business because they are guaranteed customer satisfaction. The power of customer referrals in business is extreme and should not be overlooked. Not only are referred clients inexpensive to acquire but also more likely and easy to close a deal with, than a cold client. Ensuring customer success improves customer loyalty and satisfaction and increases the chances of receiving referrals from happy clients that you served well. Happy and satisfied clients are often the best and enthusiastic advocates of your business.
Reputation
Customer success is significant for your business or company’s reputation. By following up on your customers’ satisfaction and achieving their objectives through your products and services, you genuinely improve their perceptions about your business. Most leave a positive review which others generally use while deciding whether to use your products and services. You also help ensure that the information and feedback they find is positive, which in turn increases their likelihood of becoming a returning customer. Remember that business reputation is something that you cannot buy with money, or if you initially do, it is barely easy to maintain.
Internal impact
Another ignored aspect of why customer success is of great significance than Always Be Closing ABC is how the impact is on your internal sales team. Nobody wants to work with a company that most people dislike, or they have lost trust in their products and services, or where clients are always dissatisfied or complaining about the benefits. Increasing employee engagement and satisfaction improves the customer experience and empowering employees to enhance a positive change that impacts clients.
Conclusion
Customer success decreases costs related to customer acquisition. These are generally the sales expenses, marketing, and time and efforts of bringing a new customer on board. Therefore customer success continues way after the sale itself and the teams and business need to adapt their practices to enhance the customer success post sale.