This post is about winning two of my top customers back. I figured that I would post my journey and find some motivation to actually win them back. My life at the moment is either not closing anything or working 6 or 7 figure deals and going through insane stress because of it... But I weirdly enjoy what I do still.
Background: I am losing my top 2 customers to the competitor. Both of them announced around the renewal last December that they are displacing us with competitor products. Both have been with my current org for 10 plus years. There's several reasons for this, mainly my org has been through some crazy changes. I looked after these accounts in 2019 and 2020 and did a lot of up-sell, cross-sell and had very good relationships. I left because I thought the grass would be greener on the other side and it wasn't. So I am back. I don't know what my predecessor did in the meantime but it seems like they did not talk to anyone on the customer side. They also dropped several products in my predecessors time for saving costs...
Customer 1, let's call them S. I have worked them since the beginning of the year. Lost my champion because he was defending us to his management for 2 years and got tired and burnt out. My second contact changed department. My C-Level contacts (2) went elsewhere. I have found that the people I need all started in the organization 6 months ago or less. Few have replied to me but they haven't been responding. I have called every single number on ZoomInfo. I repeat the call round every two weeks. Messaged on Teams. I have emailed them: first to introduce me, then about what might be the struggles they face, then dissing the competitor slightly (I don't usually but they are really bad so I just sent out)... offered to invite them to local events, tried organizing calls with the management (our CEO, sales directors...)...I have sent them vouchers. Nothing. It's like they have all been banned from talking to us or something.
Customer 2, let's call them P. I have started working with them since the beginning of the year as well. They have had some changes in the personnel but have been quite responsive and explained that it is something they all are trying to figure out which would be a better option: us or the competitor. I have stayed in touch with my main contacts (5) and multi-threading to their management. The main problem is that their technology partner is just terribly incompetent and doesn't understand our technology or value, uses extremely dirty tactics to get rid of us and just gets ridiculous low prices from everyone else and just constantly throws shit at us. Customer is not exactly happy with them but they are locked in a multi year contract with this customer. Again, I have called every single number on ZoomInfo. I repeat the call round every two weeks. I have emailed new contacts and invited them to events and to calls with leadership (even CEO). Not been great. I finally worked out a call with several participants from P's to join a call on Monday.
I am preparing a deck with some discovery on what happened and what is happening, competitor slides, leadership proposition and renewal details...
Any successful tricks or slides anyone has had? Figuring that they still are willing to talk to us and it will take longer to fully lose them.
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