There is a funny phenomenon that happens when the going gets tough or the economy slows down.  Marketing teams get into high gear or seem to shut down when it comes to attacking their marketplace.  There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.  As I have talked to many of my customers about their thoughts in this area they seem to concur.  One of the biggest surprises that I have found is that many of these teams have universally chosen to attack new customer acquisition.

Thinking about this approach it is a natural tendency to go after attracting more leads and new customers.   The cost to land new customers, however, continues to climb higher and higher when there are fewer dollars flowing in the economy.  This is why I think those teams that really want to exceed their wildest expectations for this year need to take a different approach.

Lost customers or dormant customers are the quickest and fastest way to prime the proverbial revenue pump in a down economy.  There are lots of reasons why.  Let’s take a look at  why this approach may make the most sense for you and your teams.

1.       If you have had a CRM program for customer database for some time you probably have more intelligence about the likes/dislikes of lost customers or those that have been dormant for some time.

2.       If you lost a customer there are usually opportunities for you to take advantage of your competitor’s weaknesses or challenges they may be facing in times like this.

3.       Inside many organizations there are high turnover rates and the people that chose to sever a relationship or move in a direction may have already moved on and there is little or no history with the people who control the purse strings for that customer today.

4.       Access to the right people and the likelihood of reaching lost customers is usually a bigger bang for the buck as far as messaging from marketing initiatives and therefore likely to generate better opportunities.

5.       If you assess the opportunities and feedback from old customers you may also find new opportunities with intelligence about their needs that may be more effective in creating even more campaigns to revive lost revenue.

There is definite value in working smart over working hard in times like these and the best advice may be to look before you leap.