Overcoming “Breakup Reluctance”

For most of us, acquiring new customers means that we have to take the business away from an incumbent source. Countless prospects are lost when potential new accounts get cold feet over the thought of the potentially uncomfortable conversation needed for parting company with their long time source. They simply can’t break their bad habit. Or to paraphrase the old Terryton cigarette ads, they’d rather avoid the fight than switch.

I once attended a sales seminar for CPAs that addressed this issue. Most incumbent CPAs have both years of sensitive records and have developed a long standing advisory role. Severing these ties can be particularly challenging. The recommendation to the seminar attendees was to coach their prospects on how to break the news to their old accountant. For those in need, perhaps you would even prepare their script and help them rehearse. Failure to do so effectively could cost a CPA a new client.

In another area of financial services, insurance, there is a new approach: outsourcing the breakup. In Allstate Insurance’s current TV ad campaign, they offer to do it for you and encourage you to delegate the task of having the potentially uncomfortable conversation. While this may be the coward’s way out, the reality is that Allstate has found a way to turn cowards into customers.

As the song goes, Breaking Up is Hard to Do. As you strive to gain someone else’s customers, what can you do to make make breaking up easy to do?

• Can you offer guidance to your prospects to make their breakup conversation easier?
• Might you provide a boiler plate letter they can print on their letterhead?
• Can you borrow a trick from Allstate and offer to make the call for them?
• Or, perhaps you can simply challenge them to be something other than a coward. Encourage them to bite the bullet, pick up the phone and wish their old source a successful future.

What are your suggestions for making the breakup easy to do? Add your comments below.