Customer Portfolio Management: 8 Tips for Entrepreneurs
Customer portfolio management is an art that involves relationship and cost-benefit
When someone decides to be an entrepreneur, they often start with an innovative idea, turn a project into reality and go “hunting” for clients. With time and the business evolving, many other new responsibilities appear and the management of the customer base ends up being taken on by a manager or other trusted employee.
But to what extent should the entrepreneur leave this activity aside? How to continue managing the client portfolio “from a distance”, delegating this activity and still being on top of the facts?
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This is a dilemma that afflicts many entrepreneurs not only when it comes to managing their client portfolio, but in many other areas, from finance to operations. One thing is certain: a successful entrepreneur must learn to delegate tasks. And to help you control your company's customer base, we're going to give you a series of practical tips, enjoy!
An excellent tool to assist in managing a customer base is using a CRM system.
The entrepreneur must closely monitor the management of the customer portfolio
8 amazing tips for managing your customer base
For some, this first tip may seem strange. But it is very important to realize if certain customers are "worth it". Of course, no one is wasting customers, but if it's going to give you a loss...
1. Select the best clients in your portfolio
Banks do that, airlines do that, credit card brands do too. Because you cannot? By dividing customers into names like Premium, Special, Master, Privilege and the like, these companies are determined to pay more attention to the most profitable customers. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, sometimes it is necessary to “discard” problematic customers, even to be able to pay more attention to profitable ones. How to do this elegantly? Raise the price until it's worth it or until the customer gives up. But be careful: sometimes it pays to preserve a relationship with a strategic customer or one who is experiencing temporary difficulty.
2. Dividing the wallet by the sellers
There are many ways to do this: by region, by customer size, by type of products or services sold to those customers, and even by selecting a few vendors just to serve new customers. This is a delicate point in managing the client portfolio. When focusing by region, for example, your salesperson may not be able to specialize in a particular solution you offer. Likewise, when focusing on types of services or products, the opposite occurs: he has to ask another salesperson for help to sell to the same customer. It all depends on your company profile.
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It is necessary to define which customers go to which sellers!
See how it is possible to separate the customer base by salesperson or representative using the Agent and start working on this strategy now in your sales team! Check now which is the best plan for your company.
3. Vendor performance indicators
Number of total sales, total sales value, number of different products or services you sold, biggest sale of the month... There are many ways to measure the performance of your sales force. When you reward the full amount of sales, sometimes the salesperson becomes “addicted” to a single customer or product. On the other hand, the number of individual sales can lead to a lot of low-value sales, but it also encourages you to diversify the mix. An extra prize for the biggest sale of the month can be interesting, depending on your segment, but beware of discounts that increase the amount and end up needlessly reducing margins just to win this prize! One way out is to choose several indicators and analyze the general context of each one.
4. Keep an eye on customers who are decreasing or increasing purchases
In addition to monitoring the performance of your salespeople, managing your customer portfolio requires you to pay attention to sales fluctuations: why is a particular customer declining in purchases? A competitor has appeared, is he struggling? And also be aware of the sudden increase in purchases: will this customer be able to honor their commitments?
5. Defining the goals of portfolios and sellers
Goals should be challenging but not impossible to achieve. One way to do this is to first define how much you want or need to sell for each product or service and then divide by your salespeople, according to each customer base and individual performance. Over time you see which sellers are the most profitable and which ones need to be better targeted.
6. Growth of the customer base
As we said, one way to do this is to have salespeople who specialize in opening new sales opportunities, which many call the “new business area”. In practice, in many companies, it is the entrepreneur himself who goes after these customers. But that's not a rule. Clearly define the profile of your best customers (area of expertise, size, products or services they distribute, etc.) and go after similar customers!
7. Don't abandon former customers
Everyone knows that it is much more expensive to sell to a new customer for the first time than to continue selling to an existing customer. It is the famous customer acquisition cost. But what about that old customer, who was so good and disappeared? It won't be that expensive to sell to him again. Often, the change of the company's buyer led to the loss of the customer. Maybe he hasn't changed again?
Technology is a great ally in customer portfolio management
8. Use technology
We're not just talking about spreadsheets and email exchanges. This helps and should be used for customer portfolio management. But there is no longer any way to turn away from the advances in various CRM, customer control and even team management tools. In the beginning, you can even use some free apps available in the cloud.
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