GeneralFriend

Account Manager

Fire Starter

Contributor

Good Citizen

First Churned Account

how do you deal with lost accounts / churned clients?

Editted for more context:

I am an AM, had a renewal conversation with a client a few weeks back and was told they are getting quotes demos from competitors. Cited not being able to justify costs as a big driver ( our software is premium, but not outrageously more expensive than the competition)

This client no-showed our follow-up meeting a week later and sent an email to our general email saying they are not going to continue to use our service.

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27 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Need more info...

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

Added more context!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

What do you mean? Can you provide more details please?

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

Added more context!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Outside of their reference to cost as a factor, have you been able to get more details about the decision? <br><br>You’re going to need to connect with all of your other accounts, if you haven’t been already, to make sure that you are providing value to them and not leaving them vulnerable to the competition.<br><br>You’re going to need to keep on top of this with all your customers to avoid attrition, and finding out why this customer was willing to leave will help you keep the rest of your customer base.

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

At this point I haven’t been able to get in touch with them. Hoping to get them on the phone tomorrow morning and see what went wrong

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yes, an honest conversation is a great idea.

Sorry about the weird formatting in my response. I edited it to correct a typo and I’m seeing tags I didn’t put there.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I'm getting tired of folks not upvoting you when you answer them. Rude. Take my butler upvote 🐇

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Maybe they don't like my answers. :)

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

This sounds like something was done or not done to make this happen and at this point you can't reverse it unless it turns out that they weren't using your product correctly and you can prove ROI to them - but still slim chance.

I would ask them for feedback on what went wrong and how you can improve so you can make sure other customers don't do the same as them.

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

I was going to say, this one is long gone. Getting feedback is the only win you can get out of this at this point.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'd use whatever is learned to protect the other accounts. The competition for sure will be after the rest.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

What do you mean? Is the customer already lost or you looking at options to save them? First thing will be to know the ‘why’. Once you add more info we can help.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

If you are an AE, just keep getting more. If you are in an AM/CS role, you need to find out why and make those points known to leadership. This will make you better, and hopefully won’t put a dent in your comp.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

What’s your teams policy when someone brings up a competitor? Play chicken and potentially lose like this case or offer a good faith discount for them in exchange for a commitment?

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

You will ALWAYS lose business, and to no fault of your own sometimes. Markets change, decision makers leave companies, businesses close, budgets get revised. In the end you should plan on this happening. Driving for new business must be a part of your market plan. It’s the only way to offset loses like this.

Still sucks though, always a punch in the gut. Good luck.

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Ask for feedback

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

how was your relationship with this account before they left?

was this a shock to you?

as an AM, idk how much you can do at this point. But I would try and look back and see where you really lost them.
At SOME point, they decided they were not getting enough value for what they were paying. I would try to undertstanding why they felt that way so you cant stop other accounts from feeling that way.

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

Recently took over this territory after the last AM basically did nothing. Most renewal calls are my first conversation with a client. Have been trying to get ahead of these as much as possible though. Nothing indicated they had a bad experience in implementation/otherwise really

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

ahh that is super hard. Yeah I would say something like

"I understand you are deciding to leave which I understand. I was not involved during your whole relationship with us so Im really curious what is causing you to leave and if there was anything else we could have done to keep you as a customer"

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

I like this a lot! Thank you

RandyLahey

Politicker

Account Executive

Have you been able to connect with them since?

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

Left a VM this morning! Hopefully they’ll follow-up soon

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

What was the follow up meeting about?
Are they fully utilizing the product?

Hottubtimemachine

Good Citizen

Director of Business Development

This was clearly a case of more than price. Something went really wrong in the previous experience. See if you can do some quality control by asking about their unment expectations. It could be service, it could product, or it could be a competitor making up stories about your company. It is likely NOT price!

Maximas

Tycoon

-1

Senior Sales Executive

More context please for a better response, thanks.

GeneralFriend

Fire Starter

Account Manager

Added more context!

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GeneralFriend

First Churned Account

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