Maintaining Client Engagement After the Sale

Acquiring Customers Is Hard. Losing Them Is Easy. Most businesses—whether eCommerce or SaaS—spend a fortune on ads, influencers, and outreach to get new customers.  But what happens after the first sale or sign-up?  For many, the answer is… nothing. And that’s why they struggle with retention.  Retention isn’t just about keeping customers—it’s about keeping them engaged, happy, and spending more over time. After 20 years in marketing, I’ve seen what works.  For Product-Based Businesses (eCommerce, DTC, Retail) 🔹 Personalized Post-Purchase Sequences – A simple “thank you” email isn’t enough. Instead:   ✅ Follow up with product care tips, how-tos, and customer stories.   ✅ Offer exclusive discounts or early access to new products.   ✅ Gather feedback to show customers their opinions matter.  🔹 Loyalty & Rewards Programs – Customers love to feel appreciated. The best programs:   ✅ Offer points not just for purchases, but also for referrals, reviews, and social shares.   ✅ Provide VIP perks—early access, limited-edition drops, or surprise gifts.   ✅ Focus on emotional loyalty, not just transactional rewards.  🔹 Subscription & Replenishment Offers – Make repeat purchases effortless.   ✅ Automate reminders for products they may be running low on.   ✅ Offer a subscribe-and-save model for recurring purchases.   ✅ Create exclusive subscriber-only benefits.  For SaaS Companies:  🔹 Onboarding That Reduces Drop-off – First impressions make or break retention.   ✅ Guide new users with interactive tutorials and milestone-based check-ins.   ✅ Provide immediate value—don’t overwhelm them with features they don’t need yet.   ✅ Use behavioral emails and in-app nudges to keep engagement high.  🔹 Community & Education – People stay when they feel invested.   ✅ Build an engaged user community (private groups, webinars, AMAs).   ✅ Offer ongoing education (courses, use cases, best practices).   ✅ Showcase real customer success stories to inspire further usage.  🔹 Proactive Customer Support – Don’t wait for churn to happen.   ✅ Identify users at risk (e.g., those who haven’t logged in for weeks).   ✅ Send personalized re-engagement campaigns before they cancel.   ✅ Provide live chat or dedicated support for power users.  Retention isn’t a one-time effort—it’s a strategy.  If your business is struggling with repeat purchases or high churn, it’s not just about your product. It’s about how you engage your customers after the sale.  How is your retention strategy working right now?  #digitalmarketing #technology #management #entreprenuership #marketing

Lots of reps run away after the deal is closed. Some managers tell their team to move on. "That’s not your job anymore” they say. How do you think the customer feels? The person they have been working with regularly, for several months or years, just splits town leaving a “Dear John” letter. “Please meet your new Account Manager …” It’s not a world class white glove experience. I get it, sales is a coin operated machine. But don’t let the pursuit for loot, create a mess and stress for YOUR customer. Stay involved during the transition period. 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞-𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟. -      Key stakeholders -      Personalities and priorities -      Requirements -      Success criteria 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬. Let the customer success team drive the conversations but be there for support. You will gain a deeper level understanding of their process, technology, use case, and value stories. This is gold for sellers. Having deep domain knowledge at this level is very powerful when talking to other companies in the same industry. 𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬. Set the expectation up front with the project team that you would like to use them for referrals and references (once they experience value from your service). Go back to the exec sponsor with the customer success team so they can establish their own relationship. Get their permission to use them as a references, referral, or potential speaker at an upcoming event. If you spend a little more time during the transition, You will have greater insight and stronger relationships. Which helps you sell bigger deals faster in other accounts.

Please don't waste the DM relationship you've just built.  Here 's what's worked with fortune 1000 execs ⬇. So many people preach about getting to a DM in a deal. But what about once the deal closes? It's almost just as important to keep that relationship going. And it really isn't that hard. Here were some of the strategies I've executed on to make this happen. 1️⃣ 𝗔 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 Please please please set up a transition call if you are moving the relationship over from a pre sale to a post sale team. Do it within 48 hours, this is table stakes. 2️⃣ 𝗦𝗶𝘅-𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸-𝗜𝗻 Proactively schedule a check-in call during onboarding to update them on progress. They’ve put their reputation on the line to get this big deal across, so they’ll want to ensure everything is going smoothly. 3️⃣ 𝗤𝗕𝗥 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Set the expectation that you're coming on site every quarter. You can even put this in contracts as part of the scope. 4️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸-𝗜𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿 If you’re doing enterprise sales the right way, you should have executive sponsors on all your key clients. Use them. Have your exec sponsor set up a recurring 15-minute check-in every quarter to ensure everything is on track. 5️⃣ 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 This is one of my favorite strategies. Not only does it keep the decision maker engaged, but it also allows them to advocate on your behalf. If you have a conference, invite them to speak. Again, I’ve included this in contracts when negotiating the deal—it’s a great ask in return. 6️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 Ping them ad hoc throughout the lifecycle. This could be for various reasons: something good happened at their company, you have interesting content to share, or you want to praise their team for a job well done. All of this may seem intuitive and simple. And it is. The challenge lies in execution. Time and time again, people don’t follow through—myself included. However, if you lay the groundwork upfront, set expectations, and plan ahead (actually scheduling the calls and meetings), it becomes much easier to execute. Doing this will pay dividends. This is the easy stuff where you shouldn’t cut corners.

One of the biggest points of failure in all of sales is the transition between sales and service, delivery, or customer success. This handoff sets the tone for the entire relationship. But requires some key elements to get right. Let's start with the areas that cause the biggest problems: 1. These feel like separate processes to your clients instead of a continuation 2. You don't follow through on the business case that was created 3. You don't align with the executive sponsor on success criteria 4. The problems that you wanted to solve need to be reshared If any of these things are happening, it looks like your team doesn't communicate. The client feels like they need to go backward, and that the success of the engagement is now at risk. Even worse, you aren't going to carry through on the metrics and problems they bought to solve, and you miss the key person from the jump (the executive sponsor) whom you need a relationship with. So if this looks like your process, here is a fast way to get your renewal and expansion rates up: 1. Renewals and expansion happen when business value is achieved -Out of the gate, pick up the business case sales built and align quickly on a plan to drive those outcomes. Your adoption plan is literally making the business case come to life. It should be measured monthly. 2. No executive sponsor, no renewal, no expansion. -As an executive sponsor myself, I can tell you I will spend money and take risks. But if I am not consistently engaged afterward, and if I don't see the business case play out, this is the first place I look to pull dollars. It is also much harder to get to executives if you wait because you get ingrained into the day-to-day team, and they have feelings when you now try to go up. You need to create a cadence out of the gate. 3. Establish a MTM/QBR cadence early with a tight executive summary that gets shared. (MTM = 12 Month Agreement & QBR = >12 Month) -Review what is working, what is not, the business case metrics, and related achievements. Once there is success, include recommendations for growth. Share this with everyone afterward, especially the executive sponsor. 4. Seek success stories from end users and share those regularly with ALL users. This will help drive adoption. You always have people that refuse to change until they see others being successful with the change. Speed this curve. Do these behaviors so that when jobs change, competition comes knocking, budget cuts happen, renewal time comes around, etc...you are protected. Miss any of these steps and you likely lack the visibility, documented impact, adoption, and executive support to keep your solution on the books. What did I miss? What are some of your favorite ways to protect your accounts?