WinBack and Incentivizing Reps

An Interview with Greg Brisco

In this article, Greg Brisco shares the story of winning back a large client while he was the National Sales Manager at Dove Print Solutions.

Greg shows us how incentivizing reps for winning back lost customers and having deep connections into customer accounts can really pave the way to successful winbacks.

Dan Pfister: Before we get into winback can you tell us a little about you and your company?

Greg Brisco: I’m the Vice President of Recruiting for SomethingNew. There are 3 business units at SomethingNew, there’s the recruiting side where we place candidates for clients. There’s also an advisory service that teaches companies how to build a talent strategy. And the third unit is a one-on-one career strategy advisory service. I’m also the host of the "Ripple in the Water" Podcast.

Dan: Greg, can you share the story of one of your winbacks?

Greg: A few years ago I was in sales leadership at Dove Print Solutions and we had a client, La Quinta Inn & Suites which was a hotel chain with about 1100 locations. They were with us for a number of years and we provided all of their IT solutions and printer-related supplies. 

Unfortunately, the account went up to bid and we lost the client to a low-cost competitor.

Dan: How did you win them back?

Greg: We were quite unique in that we financially incentivized our sales reps to win back clients and that meant they devoted time to keeping in touch with lost clients and maintaining relationships.

The rep for this account met with La Quinta every quarter to stay top of mind and to be kept up-to-date on how the new vendor was working out. The rep would ask questions like “How are things going with the new vendor? How’s the experience? How’s the service?"

We believed that this low-cost provider would fall short in terms of service and once that occurred, we’d have a good winback opportunity.

And that’s exactly what happened. They saw that the experience and service for their 1100 properties was nothing like the way it was with us, and we ended up winning them back.

Dan: They could’ve easily gone with another vendor. How did you get them to return to you?

Greg: I think the number one thing was our relationships. We had multiple points of contact.

The strongest point of contact was with the CIO of the organization but we also went really deep. We actually had relationships with people at the individual locations.

We had those relationships because we did a show for all of their vendors every year and met the people who were literally at all the hotels, people like the GMs who managed each of the individual properties.

Having an incentivized rep along with relationships with people at the top and all of the individuals who were receiving the service was key. It allowed us to get back in, otherwise they could’ve just said, "There are 200 vendors in North America that we can choose from. Why you?"

Dan: What else do you see as critical to winning back lost customers?

Greg: I think you have to understand the reason why they left. You have to be honest and you have to be open, and you have to be self-aware.

Once you can actually answer the “Why did they leave?” question, the process is really seamless.

It's a matter of, "Okay, this is why you left. Now I understand it. What can I do to rectify it? What can I do to change it? What can I do to make your experience better so you’ll want to come back?"

Dan: How do you get the answer to the “Why did they leave?” question? Do you go to your own team and do it internally, or do you go to the customer and get direct feedback?

Greg: I think it's both, but losing a client shouldn't be a surprise. If you're doing it right you should know why they left.

Is it pricing? Is it better service? Whatever it is, you should know those things.

You should have someone on your team who’s responsible for the customer experience. Someone who’s asking questions like “How are things going? Are there ways we can do things better? Are there ways that we can do things differently?”

That person could be a sales rep or someone on the operational side, but someone should be responsible for having those conversations.

The second point is you definitely need to have an exit interview.

You need to be able to say, "Okay, you've made the decision to change. I obviously respect your decision and I want to do business with you in the future. What is it that I've done? Or what could I have done better?".

Both of those things are super, super important.

Dan: If you compare the length of the sales cycle for acquiring a new customer with the length of the sale cycle for winning back an old one, which would you say is faster?

Greg: I would say winback is absolutely faster. 

In that world the sales cycle could be anywhere from 30 days to several years because you have contracts that are four, five or six years and to winback someone was significantly shorter.

If I had to put a number on it, it's probably four or five times as fast.

Dan: What’s the biggest mistake a company can make when they're trying to reactivate a lost customer?

Greg: Not listening, and I know that sounds very, very basic.

I think a lot of times leaders, and sales leaders specifically, don't hear the feedback or we don't even ask for feedback from the client.

It’s the failure to ask the questions and really listen to the answers. We need to understand what they want, what they need, and to have the nimbleness and flexibility to change as needed.

Dan: When customers come back, do you find that they’re more loyal?

Greg: Absolutely. They thought that the grass was greener on the other side and now they’ve seen the other side and see that grass isn't greener. So absolutely, they're more loyal.

Dan: Is there anything else you'd like to mention before we go?

Greg: I am a 100% proponent of the winback strategy.

I think that every organization in the world should have a strategy to winback customers because it's a lot easier to winback than it is to win the first time around.

If you already have a pool of organizations that you can go after who have agreed to do business with you in the past, why would you not focus on trying to reacquire that business?

It's just so much easier. Even at 1% it works. You don't have to bat a thousand, you don't have to win them all back, but the ROI is through the roof for every one that you do win back.

So I totally applaud you, everything that you're doing, everything that you're teaching and it's definitely needed. Not a lot of organizations do it, but I think all should.

You can find Greg Brisco on LinkedIn, his "Ripple in the Water" Podcast is here and SomethingNew is here.