3-Step Approach to Reaching Out to Past Customers Today

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Most companies obsess over new business opportunities, new potential accounts, new leads, new this, new that.

Just because you have new opportunities in the pipeline, doesn’t mean they are going to close anytime soon.

The sales cycles can be incredibly long, and building the relationship takes time with new customers. I’m talking long, really, realllllllllyyyyy long.

Still have to hit numbers this year right? What are your other avenues to build shorter sales cycles?

One that is often overlooked, is your past clients and accounts.

Many would be happy to hear from you. Here’s how to do it.

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Let’s not underestimate the power that past clients are as another revenue source for bringing in sales. But also marketing, branding, and even being a strong champion for you and your business.

Let’s look at a few statistics on why customer retention, sales, marketing, existing clients, and referrals can be extremely powerful sources for you to find revenue for your company

• 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your current customers

• It costs up to 16x more to bring a new customer up to the same level as a current one

• Getting traffic and sales leads is the biggest pain of 63% of all businesses

• Up to 50% or fewer of initial prospects turn out to be a good fit

You’ve got a list of past customers who were thrilled with your work, but somehow, you’ve lost touch with them or they moved in a different direction.

You’re connected with them already, whether through LinkedIn, email, golf, or company functions, they might just be sitting in your phone collection dust.

I have a 3-touch approach that you can pack a lot of punch with value and reconnect with them today.

Let’s dance.

First Touch - Identify Your Past Clients

Not every past customer is going to be the right one to connect with, so leverage all the data you have to your advantage and get targeted with your approach.

Dive deep into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool to find past customers. If you can only access the current year, ask for past years from your Admin.

Within the data, look for customers you want to target, this can be based on any information you want to segment.

Look for contact information, purchase history, and communication logs.

Other factors to consider are:

• Financial Records - Prior purchases, transactions, etc.

• Sales team insights - 1st hand knowledge of the customer, connections, etc.

• Industry Events and Associations - Run in the same circles? Who are they talking with, are they also talking with you?

Keep in mind that the best course of action is frequently to combine these tactics. Make sure to keep accurate records as you find past customers for re-engagement and tailor your efforts to your particular industry and business.

Second Touch - Past vs Present

There is a reason that they are a past customer, the reason can be from a salesperson never followed up, you lost a bid to a competitor, to something much more complex, or something else.

Whatever the reason (or reasons) might have been, the past is the past, let’s focus on the present. How to re-engage.

Most importantly, get personalized, and be relevant.

Whether the last time you worked with a specific customer was a few years ago, we are in 2024 now, so the problems are 2024, and the solutions need to be 2024 and beyond.

Don’t be using yesterday’s solutions to solve tomorrow’s problems. Your past customers need to know how you can help them today, tomorrow, and the future. Education is critical.

Your past customers have bought from you, so there is an existing level of comfort with them that they know you can execute the work, and there is a level of trust.

Trust and execution are two of the hardest hurdles to develop in building a professional relationship. You just need to bring yourself back up to speed with the customer and rebuild what might have been lost.

Sales cycle can significantly shrink if there is an opportunity with a past customer.

You’ve done step 1 (above), now we reach out. Here’s a snippet from my eBook on this:

Email is just one method of reaching out. If you’re also connected with past customers on LinkedIn, find the relevant points of contact that you want to reach out to.

On LinkedIn, messages need to be short, sweet, and to the point.

But that shouldn’t stop you from engaging with their existing content that they are posting.

Show them some love first before you ask for something.

If you have started to engage with a past customer and you see them continuing to post, add a comment under their most recent post that is positive. You can also DM them on a recent article your company published that is relevant to them.

A past customer might take a minute to get back on the phone with you, but start it back up!

Third Touch - Actually Reaching Out

Reconnecting with former customers calls for a methodical and well-thought-out strategy. Create a clear plan with accountable team members, deadlines, and specific objectives to start things. Think about:

• Determining what you want your objectives to be

• Personalize your reach out, what’s the relevance, Call to Action, being relevant to the past customer

• Send that email. Make that call. Send that LinkedIn DM

• Leveraging technology to your advantage - From email marketing to your CRM to personalization software, have technology help you reach back out

• In-person events - Going to be at a show that you know a past customer would be at - let them know. Low friction and personalized

• Grab Coffee - Spend $5 and grab coffee to catch up with your past customer

Each interaction should convey your genuine interest in their well-being and your commitment to adding value to their business.

It’s not about forcing your offerings onto your past customers; it's about rebuilding strong relationships with them.

Shift your mindset from selling to reconnecting, and watch how it transforms your interactions and, ultimately, your results.

Build your past customer list, break out your approach to reach out, and execute on it. You have past customers deep in your CRM that would love to hear from you.

You also have customers in your CRM that have moved on to new jobs (and probably more responsibility) that you should also talk to as well.

That’s all this week. Go out and have a great week.

Pack Some Additional Punch

I have an ebook on how to reach out to past customers called “Unlocking Hidden Potential - Reconnecting with Past Clients for Explosive Sales Growth.” It’s free to download on my website, just click the link below.

*I’m working on a more detailed step-by-step approach, so stay tuned.

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Unlocking Hidden Potential - Reconnecting with Past Clients for Explosive Growth - Check out my free eBook on how you can find hidden gems in your past clients and help you crush your sales goals.

2. Build your Sales CRM - Download our free Sales eBook on How Your Sales Team Can Maximize Your CRM Tool. Whether it’s Hubspot, Salesforce, or another CRM tool, make sure you leverage it to your advantage.

3. Awesome Sales Resources - Transform your sales engagement and capabilities across Social Selling, CRM, Lead Generation, Enablement, and more.