{"id":12026,"date":"2019-11-26T11:49:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T11:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/retention-is-not-a-noun\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T23:00:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T23:00:03","slug":"retention-is-not-a-noun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/retention-is-not-a-noun\/","title":{"rendered":"In Major Account Relationships, Retention is not a Noun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve all heard the sobering statistics\nthat winning a new major account costs far more than keeping one \u2013 depending on\nthe study you read, perhaps twenty times as much. And we\u2019ve all heard how even\na small increase in a firm\u2019s overall major client retention rate has an\nexponentially positive effect on revenues and profits. We also know, of course,\nthat, on the flip side, decreases<\/em> in retention\nrates produce similarly negative impacts, often devastating and long-lasting. And\nwe know that the trauma that follows major account losses is something to avoid.\nGiven the crushing impact, it certainly makes strategic sense for selling\norganizations to focus intensely on retaining these valuable assets. The\nquestion is, what do we do<\/em> with what\nwe know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our first Sandler Research Center\nsurvey, we polled sales professionals globally regarding their organizations\u2019\ncommitment to client retention. We asked, \u201cHow committed is your organization to\nthe retention of existing client accounts?\u201d and received the survey\u2019s highest\npositive response \u2013 over 80%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet those same retention-focused\nrespondents also shared that only 50% of those respondents conduct regular\naccount reviews with clients, and 40% have no formal process to maintain\nregular contact with these treasured assets. It doesn\u2019t seem to make sense \u2026 until\nyou think about it. At which point you realize that, in serving their major\naccounts, most organizations simply aren\u2019t built on retention frameworks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider: Retention is typically\nviewed as a long-term initiative. The short-term, dominant mantra is chasing\nthe numbers: \u201cWhat have you sold today?\u201d Think of what most CRM systems track: opportunities,\nprobabilities and weighted values, which feed forecasts, quotas and budgets.\nThose informational command centers have little connection to retention; organizations\nare structured to quickly take advantage of known opportunities and fix known problems,\nand just as quickly get paid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, reacting swiftly is important.\nBut enterprise accounts are marketplaces in and of themselves, ecosystems\ndemanding a focus far beyond the reactive. Clearly understanding what matters\nmost to each major account is absolutely essential, and applying those insights\nto the critical factors that impact retention, customized to each account,\nearns us a much better chance of keeping the account for the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is, how do you establish\na retention framework, realistically integrating it into the \u201cWhat have you\nsold today?\u201d model? If that framework doesn\u2019t align seamlessly with the\neveryday touchpoints your team already has with major accounts, it\u2019s worthless.\nMany organizations include retention in the annual account plans, but these are\noften tucked away in binders that are read once and placed upon a shelf until next\nyear. For something as critical as major account retention, we must do better\nthan that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what \u201cbetter\u201d looks like. The\nretention framework must be built on the fundamental reasons major accounts\npartner with us for the long term, or part ways; in other words, why they stay\nor go. In Sandler Enterprise Selling, our Account Retention Tool provides that\nframework, by focusing closely on those \u201cstay or go\u201d reasons \u2013 the 16 \u201cCritical\nRetention Factors\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n