GLUTTONY: For new customers
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| Delicious, delicious new customers. |
I once was told by someone that we should mail everyone in our database because even though many segments had never demonstrated any interest in a particular set of products, they might want it someday.
What we do or sell is just so incredibly awesome, it'll make everybody's life better, right? Only a crazy person would refuse to buy our stuff at such incredible prices.
So we go after those new customers, chasing them down, finding the new markets, growing the new customer base. All we have to do is get customers to buy our product or service once, and they are our customer for life.
Heck, many, if not most, marketers are measured and directly rewarded on this key metric - growth of new customer bases - and they spend a majority of their time chasing after them as a result. So we go further afield to grow our customer base, sometimes at diminishing returns (but that's okay - new customers are new customers and growth is growth, and that's all that matters).
We get so wrapped up in this - new customer bonuses and rewards and the like - that we end up completely ignoring them once they are captured as existing customers.
Our rewards, our focus, and our metrics all say that new customer acquisition is the single most important part of marketing.
Hey, if existing customers are locked out of the best deals and offers only available to new customers... what's the harm? They love us, they would never switch or abandon us, because we're just so awesome. And if they do, well, we'll just replace them with new customers! Problem solved!
Our rewards, our focus, and our metrics all say that new customer acquisition is the single most important part of marketing.
Hey, if existing customers are locked out of the best deals and offers only available to new customers... what's the harm? They love us, they would never switch or abandon us, because we're just so awesome. And if they do, well, we'll just replace them with new customers! Problem solved!
Well... let's ask the cable and dish companies about that, shall we? Goodbye Cable TV
Great job, guys - continuously raising rates for existing customers, only offering deals for newbies, and poor customer service allowed services like Roku, Apple TV and others allow folks to just quit your business outright.
I know someone well who works for a small company with this attitude - once they close the deal with a new customer, the idea of treating customers well, offering rewards, and the like, are completely out the window. The only real rewards in that organization is to close the deal with new customers.
They don't even measure the loss of existing customers (and they're bleeding in that regard) because nobody in the organization, especially not sales or marketing, is rewarded for keeping or growing existing customer business. Do you think this company is going to be around long, or grow big?
So look at your own organization. Do you reserve your very best deals ONLY for new customers? Is that an industry standard, like the cell phone industry? Are you teaching your customers that loyalty means nothing because you'll always get a better deal as a newbie somewhere else?
Gluttony for new business will KILL your business in the long run. The solution, of course, is moderation - you need new business, and you need to retain and grow existing business. Do both, and make sure both are measured in your metrics and sales/marketers are rewarded for both.
For more deadly sins, see LUST.
I know someone well who works for a small company with this attitude - once they close the deal with a new customer, the idea of treating customers well, offering rewards, and the like, are completely out the window. The only real rewards in that organization is to close the deal with new customers.
They don't even measure the loss of existing customers (and they're bleeding in that regard) because nobody in the organization, especially not sales or marketing, is rewarded for keeping or growing existing customer business. Do you think this company is going to be around long, or grow big?
So look at your own organization. Do you reserve your very best deals ONLY for new customers? Is that an industry standard, like the cell phone industry? Are you teaching your customers that loyalty means nothing because you'll always get a better deal as a newbie somewhere else?
Gluttony for new business will KILL your business in the long run. The solution, of course, is moderation - you need new business, and you need to retain and grow existing business. Do both, and make sure both are measured in your metrics and sales/marketers are rewarded for both.
For more deadly sins, see LUST.
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