Using Your Existing Customers to Flourish in Q2

In Q1, you probably focused on acquiring new customers and setting the foundation for a successful year. 

So, by April, you've got a pipeline full of new opportunities, and your outbound team is hustling to bring more in. 

You’re also in a time crunch — you need to get the ball rolling before decision-makers take summer vacations and companies spend their budgets elsewhere.

In other words, Q2 is all about momentum.

To accelerate the already-spinning wheel, you have two things on the to-do list:

• Get those open deals from Q1 across the finish line
• Steadily bring more leads into the pipeline

There's one group that can help you in both of those areas: your existing customers.

Existing customer relationships support revenue growth in more ways than one.

Buyers don't immediately trust salespeople. 92% of them trust referrals from people they know over your company's marketing content. 75% prefer not to interact with reps at all, which creates a huge barrier for new business.

Plus, everyone wants social proof. According to research from Gartner, three-quarters of today's B2B buyers look at at least three forms of advocacy before making a purchase decision.

By delivering the best possible experience, engaging customers through advocacy and product/feature testing, and turning their feedback into your strongest marketing asset, you're building a legion of brand champions who will bring you new customers for years. Since they also validate your product, new leads that fit your ICP become more likely to convert.

Advocacy is especially a competitive advantage when business is slow.

Maybe your 3 best reps are on vacay for 2 weeks. Maybe your highest-value prospect just paused their decision-making process. Maybe your latest campaign was a flop.

Things happen.

There are two ways having an advocacy program hedges you against slow business:

• It provides a level of consistency when you don't have any (within your control). Plus, referral leads convert at a 30% higher rate on average.
• It's a continuous source of reviews, referrals, case studies, quotes, and other materials that support sales and marketing. By integrating customer-generated content into the sales process, you'll build trust faster, and gain the edge in decision-makers' minds.

The stakes are higher when you have fewer deals in the pipeline. During those periods, a higher conversion rate and shorter sales cycle are particularly important.

How can you make the most out of your customer base?

There are three bases you have to cover:

• Foster loyalty
• Refine products or services 
• Drive new sales
• Encourage upsells and cross-sells

Let's dive into strategies for each. 

Foster loyalty with a customer advocacy program.

One of the best ways to reinforce customer loyalty is to engage them through advocacy. Here are a few program components you can consider: 

• Exclusive events for advocates
• VIP access to beta releases and product roadmap discussions
• Monetary rewards for referrals, references, etc.
• UGC features throughout your web and social media content

A well-designed customer advocacy program has to be (a) flexible for each customer, (b) easy to participate in, and (c) value-adding for the participant. Some customers are happy to hop on reference calls, others are more into product testing, and a few will just want to leave a quick testimonial.

You need to make it simple for them to participate in your program by providing them with an easy way to submit feedback, reviews, referrals, and other content.

Leverage customer feedback to refine products and services.

Activating your customers goes beyond advocacy. Your ability to retain them and future-proof your business also depends on how well you implement their feedback.

• What do customers love about your product?
• What do they find frustrating?
• What do they want to use it for, but can't?

By proactively seeking this information, you'll identify and fill these gaps before they cause a retention issue. And your sales team can sell new customers on these features.

Here are a few ways to gather feedback:

• Customer surveys (e.g. NPS)
• Social listening
• User testing
• Direct customer communication (e.g. emails, calls)
• Feedback forms on your website/product

Drive new sales through personalized UGC and customer references.

Of all the ways to accelerate the sales cycle with your current customers, this is by far the best. And with Deeto's smart-matching feature, it's remarkably simple.

Deeto's smart-matching algorithm shows your sales reps which of your existing customers have similar use cases to the deals they're currently working on, plus all the content they've left in the system.

Reps can then select the most appropriate references and content to showcase, which results in more relevant social proof, reference calls, sales demos, and proof of concepts.

Encourage upsells and cross-sells by offering personalized solutions.

There are dozens of ways to personalize the customer experience. That's a topic that spans just about every facet of your business strategy.

In the context of your current customers, one of the best ways to expand your accounts is to market to them as soon as you implement feedback they've left about your product.

Let's say you're a CRM software vendor, and 100 customers have mentioned they want a plugin tool to help them automate their email marketing.

After determining there's a market for it and it makes sense to include it in your product suite, those 100 people should be the first to know. Your CS team can send them personalized messaging, letting them know you specifically listened to their feedback.

Some of those customers might buy it on the spot.

You have to use your customers in a way that empowers them and your business.

There are a few reasons companies struggle to accomplish this:

• A poorly structured approach to customer engagement
• Too little flexibility for each customer's contribution preferences
• An uninteresting or unrewarding experience for customers

And all these things stem from a lack of technology to manage advocacy activities and resources. With Deeto, it's simple:

1. Customers receive a unique link to join your program.
2. They join the platform by submitting content and setting their preferences.
3. Deeto's generative AI repurposes the content into case studies, testimonials, quotes, and more.
4. Sales reps can use the content to speed up their deals.

It's easier than making an Insta post. Request a demo to see how it works.