This adage is not new. The saying has survived through thick and thin because it is true. However, acquiring a new customer is more expensive and challenging than keeping an old one. Why? Please think of the time and resources it took to build that partnership over the days, months, and years.
When acquiring a new customer, you succeed through marketing mechanisms like customer testimonials, awards, referrals, product reviews, etc. However, these marketing props and features don’t consider building a relationship and partnership that occurs after years of service, working with, and getting to know each other.
Trust is essential in any relationship; easy to lose, hard to achieve, and takes time to build and maintain between two parties. However, individuals with values, cultures, and perspectives tend to gravitate together and welcome those that think differently and contribute innovative ideas and new ways of viewing the world. Forming that bond between vendor and customers is critical to the success of both parties.
That is, in my opinion, the missing piece of the puzzle when soliciting new business and why it’s so hard to obtain the new customer. While vendors and potential customers know more about each other in a referral situation, no two people or organizations are the same. No two people or organizations can tell how they will develop that relationship until they do it.
That is why nurturing and developing a customer relationship works. Having a prospect feel that the relationship can work with the vendor is less tangible and more critical than the brochure award or testimonial!