So you’ve secured the sale and turned your prospect into a customer. Congratulations! That’s something worth celebrating, but it’s important to remember that winning the customer isn’t the end of the relationship.

In many ways, it’s the beginning of the next one.

The work you’ve put into your PRM process shouldn’t stop as soon as someone buys from you. If anything, this is when you have the opportunity to build on everything you’ve done so far, keep the customer happy, encourage them to buy from you again and, eventually, turn them into an advocate for your business.

Future Plans

A successful conversion doesn’t mean you can forget about the customer and move on to the next prospect.

Your existing customers already know your business, they’ve experienced your product or service and they’ve made the decision to trust you. That gives you a valuable relationship to build on.

The challenge is making sure you continue to give them reasons to stay interested.

Good customer service is obviously a big part of this. If something goes wrong, how quickly do you respond? If they have a question, can they easily get an answer? If they need help, do they know where to go?

These things can make a huge difference to how a customer feels about your business.

The same applies when things are going well. Don’t only contact customers when you want to sell something. Keep them informed, share useful content, ask for their feedback and show that you still value their business.

Turn Customers into Advocates

One of the biggest opportunities you have after winning a customer is turning them into an advocate.

A happy customer can be one of the most valuable marketing tools you have. People are naturally more likely to trust a recommendation from another customer than a business telling them how good it is.

This can happen through reviews, referrals, recommendations, testimonials or simply by customers talking about your business to other people.

In fact, someone who comes to you through a recommendation has already skipped much of the early work involved in winning a new customer. They’ve already heard about your business from someone they trust, so the relationship starts from a very different place.

However, you can’t simply expect customers to become advocates automatically. You have to give them a reason to want to recommend you.

That starts with providing a good experience and continuing to look after them after the sale.

Feedback for the Future

One of the best ways to understand whether you’re doing this successfully is to ask your customers.

Feedback can tell you what you’re doing well, where you’re falling short and what your customers actually want from you. It also gives customers the opportunity to feel that their opinion matters.

Don’t only ask for feedback when something has gone wrong. Regularly finding out what your customers think can help you identify problems before they become bigger issues and can also give you ideas for improving your products, services and customer experience.

If a customer tells you something isn’t working, take it seriously. Respond to it and, where possible, show them what you’re doing about it.

That kind of response can turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one.

You can also use feedback to identify opportunities. A customer might tell you that they need something you already offer, but didn’t realise was available. Another might highlight a problem that could be solved by one of your other products or services.

Listening properly can therefore help you with both retention and future sales.

Keep the Relationship Going

Your customers shouldn’t disappear from your CRM once the deal has been marked as won.

You already have useful information about them, including what they bought, what they’ve been interested in and the conversations you’ve had with them. That information can help you decide what to do next.

For example, if a customer has a service that needs renewing, you can make sure they receive a reminder at the right time. If they’ve bought one product and there is another service that genuinely complements it, you can introduce it when it makes sense.

You can also keep in touch through relevant email campaigns, useful content, customer updates and other communications.

The important thing is that the contact remains relevant. Don’t use everything you know about a customer simply because you can. Use it to make your communication more useful to them.

This is where the PRM approach continues after the sale.

Using Your CRM

Your CRM should help you keep track of the customer relationship just as it helped you manage the prospect.

You can record conversations, set reminders, organise contacts and use the information you’ve collected to make future communication more relevant. You can also use your sales pipeline and automation to make sure important actions don’t get forgotten.

For example, if a customer is approaching the end of their contract or subscription, you can set a reminder to contact them. If they’ve previously shown interest in another service, you can make a note of it and revisit the conversation at the right time.

You can also use your CRM to identify customers who may need attention. If someone hasn’t engaged with your business for a long time or has recently contacted your support team with a problem, that could be a sign that you need to check in with them.

The aim isn’t to treat customers as another sales list. It’s to make sure you have enough information to understand the relationship and know when you need to take action.

Individuals, Not Numbers

This brings us back to the most important part of PRM.

Your customers are individuals, not numbers in a database.

The same principle that helped you turn a social media contact into a prospect should continue after they’ve become a customer. Listen to them, understand what they need and pay attention to how they interact with your business.

Some customers will be ready to buy again. Others may need more support. Some may be happy to recommend you, while others may need a little more attention before they’re willing to do so.

Your CRM can help you see these differences, but the relationship itself still comes down to how you treat the person.

PRM NOW

You’ve now worked through the full PRM NOW process.

You started by creating content that attracts the right people. You then Reacted to their engagement, Managed the relationships you created and Nurtured those prospects until they were ready.

You then identified the Opportunity and acted at the right time to turn that prospect into a customer.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Once you’ve Won the customer, the same approach continues. Look after them, listen to them, understand what they need and give them reasons to stay with you. If you do that successfully, they may buy from you again and could even become one of your biggest advocates.

This is where popcorn can bring the whole process together. With your contacts, sales pipeline, marketing, notes, reminders and automation all working together, you can keep your sales process visible while continuing to manage the relationships behind it.

PRM isn’t about finding a clever way to sell to more people. It’s about understanding the people you are dealing with and building better relationships with them.

Post. React. Manage. Nurture. Opportunity. Won.

That’s PRM NOW.

Discover all the steps to PRM NOW