The Red Flags That Say Your Customer Is Leaving

Customers almost never announce that they're leaving. They signal it for months, and most sellers read those signals as a quiet quarter. Here are the warning signs worth watching on every account you own.

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If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

I have a question for you. Think about your current customers, the ones who are already buying from you or already have an installation with you, and ask yourself this. Can you spot the red flags early enough to stop a defection? Can you see what might be coming, that they're thinking about leaving, early enough that you spot it before they make the move?

So what are those red flags, typically?

• Your primary contacts, the people who bought from you, have left, and you've never done anything to nurture or develop new contacts.

• Your customers stop calling, or they stop returning your calls. There are long lags between an email or a call that didn't used to happen.

• They've stalled on their installation. Maybe they were ramping up, buying more and more seats if it's software, or buying more and more frequently, and now they seem to have bottomed out.

• They're not calling your help desk or your support desk with questions about their implementation.

• They don't seem to be using the software or the products or the services the way they used to.

• Orders are starting to trend down.

• They're asking you for a product list or a pricing list.

• They're asking you to review the agreements, or asking for a review of your program when they never had one before.

• All of a sudden they're interested in new demos, or in features and benefits.

These are all red flags that they're talking to somebody else, that they're considering an implementation somewhere else with someone else, and that your competition has maybe gotten in the door. You stand to lose that customer.