No Customer Retention Plan? Your B2B Company is Leaving Money on the Table

We’ve all heard that it’s easier and more cost effective to retain an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. We even know this to be fact—getting a new customer can cost 5-25x more than retaining a different one. Yet, time and time again, B2B businesses (especially SaaS providers) don’t have a plan in place to keep their customers bought-in for the long haul. This blog explores the reasons behind that, as well as easy retention tips to keep your customers coming back for more.

The Selling Mentality

If you’re a B2B SaaS provider without a retention plan, you’re not alone. This is an incredibly common situation. Too often, the focus is on generating new revenue and hitting sales goals, leaving retention on the back burner.

Yes, selling is crucial for your business. The problem with the selling mentality, however, is that companies sometimes forget about delighting customers once they sign on (oops!). This leads to customer churn and forces sales to worry about replacing customers instead of building on the growth they’ve had. Ultimately, this leads to:

• Unhappy ex-customers who may review you poorly, hurting your ability to sell
• A strained sales team feeling the constant pressure of having to replace customers
• Slower growth
• A negatively impacted bottom line

…not great. But(!), if we shift our selling mindset just slightly to include retention activities, we’ll see happy customers and better results.

Customer Retention Made Simple

B2B customer retention doesn’t have to be expensive. There are simple, time-effective ways to keep your customers happy. And, as time goes on, retention activities can nurture your customers into evangelists who start selling for you. This leads to less pressure on sales because your customers are doing the work for you, and the leads are much warmer.

Still not convinced? Here are some of the benefits we’ve helped our customers realize once they’ve started implementing retention services:

• Keep customers bought-in for the long-term to avoid the time-consuming and expensive process of replacing them
• Gain more customer referrals and avoid negative word-of-mouth reviews
• Continuously improve your business/product or service with engaged customers who are more likely to provide feedback
• Build a base of loyal customers who are more likely to spend additional dollars with you

It’s clear that customer retention is a no-brainer for B2B businesses. But how do you actually do it? Here are a few low-resource ways to get started:

• Send out a quarterly customer survey
• Create a 1-page customer onboarding doc
• Build an FAQ webpage
• Film a 30-90 second “Meet the Team” video
• Hold a quarterly webinar showcasing your industry knowledge
• Send a monthly or quarterly newsletter that includes your content and/or industry news
• Hold customer exit interviews to identify issues and fix them

There are so many ways to get started with retention activities. My recommendation: pick one or two to start with and see what works for you. If something doesn’t work, drop it. Soon you’ll find your stride with retention, and your customers will be happier for it!

Have questions on retention activities? We’re here to help (and kiiiiinda good at it #humblebrag). Contact us to request a consultation, or check out our retention services overview here.