Not every customer is forever. Especially if you’re in a highly competitive industry like SaaS, customers are prone to hop from vendor to vendor. But just because a contract with a customer comes to an end and they go off to explore other opportunities, that doesn’t mean you can’t get them to come back to […]
Not every customer is forever. Especially if you’re in a highly competitive industry like SaaS, customers are prone to hop from vendor to vendor.
But just because a contract with a customer comes to an end and they go off to explore other opportunities, that doesn’t mean you can’t get them to come back to you.
We’ll tell you how can you win back the one that got away – including a couple new ways to find the customers who might be willing to give you a second chance.
Why bother chasing ex-customers?
A good friend will tell you not to get back together with an ex. A great friend will tell you that rule doesn’t apply when you’re talking about churned customers.
You might think chasing after the one that got away is the road to heartbreak, but not so fast. You’ve got a higher chance of successfully selling to a previous customer than to a new one. Think 20-40% of a chance of success with a previous customer vs. 5-20% for a new one.
And it’s not just worth it because they have a higher chance of conversion. When you win back a customer, chances are things will be even better than they were before. In fact, a customer who has been won back has a higher average customer lifetime value (CLV) compared to their first conversion.
Not to mention, once you’ve lost them and won them back, you have a better understanding of their needs (and hopefully, they have a better understanding of your product).
So, now that you know it’s worth winning back those churning customers, how do you do it?
Understand why they left.
If you’re going to get a customer to come back, you need to understand what you’re up against. Patrick Horigan, the AM Manager at Lusha in Boston, has led his team through many winbacks.
“Step one to any winback strategy is to understand like who you lost to and why. Even if it’s painful to get that out of the customer, it’s a critical step because you ultimately need to understand what you’re up against. That way you’ll be able to speak towards the competitive differences.”
It’s also important to understand why a customer left so you can avoid (and fix) any recurring issues. Did their needs shift after the initial purchase of your product? Is there something you can do to better accommodate them? Knowing the reasons behind the breakup can help lay the foundation for how you win them back.
How to decide which customers to win back
Of course, not every customer who leaves is worth wooing a second time. After all, your sales team only has so much time and energy – they need to spend it where it counts. It’s important to differentiate between customers who left because of bad timing or internal issues and customers who weren’t a good fit for your product in the first place.
It’s all about how that customer fits into your profile, says Pat.
“If it’s a good fit and they left for the right kind of reasons, it’s a classic case of a company you should try to win back. It’s all about fit and if it’s worth pursuing. Sometimes it just doesn’t add up. But if they’ve been a good customer, had high use of the product, and have a use case that fits really well with what we offer, then that’s worthwhile.”
Let them miss you.
Not all winbacks work in the short term. Sometimes, when a customer has decided to leave, there’s no convincing them to come back when they first walk out the door.
Part of the winback strategy is giving customers the chance to miss you.
“Space is a critical part of winback,” according to Pat. “Businesses need to feel an actual burn. And if you go back to them after like two weeks and tell them they have a massive problem you can fix, you’re kind of making it a manufactured problem. Whereas if you go back out after a few months, maybe they missed a target and are running around wondering what’s not working anymore. Then they start thinking ‘wait a second.’”
Look for signals that they might reconsider.
If it’s been a really long time, you might need a little help to figure out which churned customers might be willing to bite and begin the sales cycle again. There are a few tools Lusha offers that can give you a little extra insight into what might be going on at your target company.
Use intent data to I.D. churned customers who are re-evaluating.
Intent data gives you a peek behind the curtains of a company’s research habits. Based on their web searches, bidstream data, and other signals that indicate sharp interest, we give companies an intent score for different topics. The higher the score, the more research a company is doing – which means that their likelihood to buy is trending upward.
So say you lost a customer several months ago. They’re well into a contract with your competitor and maybe coming up against time for contract renewal. Take a look at their company’s intent data and see if they’re showing spiking interest in topics related to the solution you offer. If they are, that’s a good indication that they might be reconsidering their decision.
Keep an eye on job changes for key roles.
Set up job change alerts for target companies you’d like to win back. That way, you’ll know right away when there’s a new decision-maker that you can get in front of.
And getting in front of them when they’re fresh in their role is a good idea: stakeholders plan how to spend up to 70% of the budget in just the first 100 days on the job. That means it’s a prime opportunity for you to come in, rally any previous champions, and mention how revisiting your solution might help them reach their goals.
Key Takeaways
- Winning back former customers is more cost-effective and successful than courting new ones.
- To win back a customer, you first need to understand why they left— and if necessary, give them the space to remember why your solution was such a great fit.
- Signals that a former customer might be ready to reconsider include spiking intent data and job changes in key decision-maker roles.
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