When I took over as president of my fraternity in college, one of my goals was to get some of the older guys more active. It became tradition for leadership to beg the seniors and grad students to participate in more activities. We even discounted their social and meal dues, and subsidized the expense with higher dues from the younger members. The typical reaction was one of: “Sure, I’ll bless you with my presence at parties … maybe.” They still wouldn’t show up. It became a vicious cycle that I wanted to stop.
So, I reached out to some key seniors and asked them to take on leadership roles. Not “we’re giving you a discount and really want you to come eat our food and have fun at our parties”. No, I wanted them to do something for me. My sales pitch went something like this: “I know you haven’t been around much the last year or so, but we’re doing some great things and I think you’d be a perfect part of our leadership team. I know you’ll enjoy it, and we’ll benefit from having you engaged.”
It was a success! I didn’t beg, plead, or roll over and give them whatever they wanted … I put them to work. They appreciated me asking them, and got back involved. Which brings me to Strategy #1 this week…
Strategy #1 to waking up a dormant customer: Put them to work.
How many times have you left a voicemail or email requesting time to meet to meet with a dormant account or learn why they’re not buying from you? Have you used the words: “I’d like to understand where we failed?” Well, now’s the time to get back in front of them with a different request – asking for a favor. It sounds ridiculous, but it works. Your request can sound like this…
“I know we haven’t done much work together lately, but I’d like to ask a favor of you. We’re creating a new service and since I respect your organization’s opinion in this area, I’d like for you to help us test it. We’ll gain some valuable feedback; and if we’re right about our service, then you’d be able to have access to it for a few months at no charge – before anyone else. If we’re a little off, then you’ll be part of the development and will be able to custom design the service to meet your needs.”
The favor can be anything – help interviewing new sales person, advice on new quoting process, input of new line that you’re considering - as long as your wording follows the model above:
- Acknowledge that you haven’t done much work together lately.
- Tell them the favor.
- Let them know why you’re asking them for the favor, and not someone else.
- Use the “We’ll gain this, and you’ll gain that” statement. Don’t sell it, just state it.
Try it. You’ll be surprised how many are happy to help, and will actually feel good about doing you a favor. Believe it or not, they probably have some guilt about not doing much business with you lately.
