Always Be Selling: 5 ways to proactively ensure customer retention

The famous mantra of those who work in sales is the ABC principle: Always Be Closing. But when the deal is done and a customer has subscribed to your SaaS service, your focus will no longer be on closing with that user, but on retaining them. Retention delivers the core revenue for SaaS companies, relying on users to stay with you month after month, and keep that subscription fee coming in.

While you can ease off the hard sell with existing customers, you’ll still need to be regularly promoting the benefits and features of your product to those who have already signed up. Continued selling to ongoing users will:

• Retain a customer who is otherwise prone to cancel at anytime
• Encourage decision making individuals to roll your product out across a wider group or department
• Generate more income through the upselling of additional features or membership packages

So how can SaaS businesses produce and target sales messages to those who’ve already converted?

1. Encourage use

Many cancellations will be pre-empted by a period of non-use, so you need to discourage dormancy. No SaaS business can afford to assume that a new subscriber is merrily using the product at every given opportunity, so you need to monitor usage, prompt exploration of the features and point out things that have yet to be tried. This can be managed through the use of intelligent metrics, in-app messages based on behaviour and motivational sales communications. Undertake regular surveys to monitor user satisfaction, request and gather feedback using in-app prompts and regularly inform customers of new features and upgrades.

2. The surprise factor

Offering customers a seemingly random discount or incentive to upgrade or renew is an effective strategy when upselling to existing customers. You know they like your product, and nudging them to increase their expenditure with an offer they weren’t expecting generates goodwill, makes them feel valued and encourages a spontaneous buying response.

3. Top notch customer service

You may not think of customer service as a sales tool, but poor technical or product support, and slow or disinterested interaction from personnel can easily act as a disincentive to stay with your business. A positive and proactive customer experience will generate brand loyalty and keep that subscription payment flowing in the right direction.

4. Proactively monitor expirations

If your SaaS business takes payment through recurring billing, then expired credit and debit cards could be dramatically increasing your churn rate. Proactively assessing card expiration dates and contacting customers a set period of time before this occurs gives them the opportunity to correct the situation before they fall off your radar; it also gives you another chance to let them know the benefits of your service and ensure they’re making progress and seeing gains.

5. Be scalable

Charting the ongoing needs of your customer will allow you to adjust (and upgrade) the solution you’re offering them. If the demands of an individual or a company are growing, talk to them about how you can scale to match that expansion. If a customer feels they have simply outgrown the features that are available to them, they are likely to move elsewhere; by checking in and measuring customer requirements regularly, and promoting the flexibility of your service, you can spot opportunities for upselling.

Increase your opportunities to sell with Xander Marketing

Implementing sales strategies, meeting targets and driving your business forward can be helped with the backing of the right marketing support. Xander Marketing works with many SaaS businesses to improve their websites, create thought leadership content, and execute marketing campaigns that engage new and ongoing business prospects. If you’d like to put your marketing safely in someone else’s hands, get in touch.