Build a WIN-BACK LIST

THE GOLD MINE MOST SALES ORGANIZATIONS IGNOREStop hunting only for new customers. Start hunting for the customers you lost.‍Most sales organizations focus on two things:Taking care of existing customers.Winning new customers.Both are important. Both are right.‍But there is a third category — and in many companies, it is almost completely ignored.Customers who bought from you before.Customers who knew your products.Customers who knew your people.Customers who trusted your company.Customers who once gave you their business.And then they stopped.They haven't bought from you for two, three, maybe four years. Somewhere along the way, they made a different decision. They chose another supplier. They moved to a competitor.‍I call them NO CUSTOMERS or WHITE CUSTOMERS.And they are one of the biggest hidden gold mines in sales.Why?Because these are not cold prospects.They already know you. There was a relationship. There was trust. There was business.Something happened.Maybe you disappointed them.Maybe your competitor was faster.Maybe someone offered a better solution.Maybe your organization simply stopped paying attention.Whatever the reason: they left.:devider:And now comes the uncomfortable part:Winning them back is hard work.Much harder than sending another friendly email to an existing customer.You have to hunt.You have to understand why you lost them. You have to demonstrate why they should reconsider their decision. And above all, you have to be persistent.:devider:Here is one of my rules:THE 10-TOUCH RULEAssume that you need to approach a lost customer at least ten times before you have a realistic chance of getting them interested again.Not once.Not twice.TEN TIMES!Call them.Visit them.Talk to them.Listen to them.Show genuine interest.Understand what changed.Bring them something valuable.Come back again.And again.And again.:devider:Tell them clearly:WE WANT YOU BACK.This requires a different kind of salesperson.You need people with communication skills, persistence and resilience.You need people with a HUNTING SPIRIT.Salespeople who don't disappear after the second unanswered call. Salespeople who don't interpret the first "no" as the end of the conversation. Salespeople who have the ambition to win back business that was lost.Because lost customers are not dead customers!They are customers currently buying from somebody else.‍And every order they place with your competitor is a reminder that there is market share waiting to be won back.‍So go into your CRM.Look back three or four years.Identify every customer who used to buy from you and no longer does.Give every one of them an owner.Build a WIN-BACK LIST.Track the contacts. Track the visits. Track the opportunities. Track the orders.And then execute relentlessly.DON’T MOURN THE MARKET SHARE YOU HAVE LOST. GO AND WIN IT BACK.The gold is already there.You just have to dig for it.

Die Kunst, sich nichts vorzumachen – Radikale Ehrlichkeit für Menschen, die mehr wollen als Ausreden Motivation gibt es genug, Wahrheit ist seltener. In diesem Podcast sprechen Ulvi I. Aydin, preisgekrönter Premium Executive Interim Manager, Beirat, Autor, Unternehmens- und Unternehmer-Entwickler, und sein Sohn Vincent U. Aydin über die unbequemen Wahrheiten hinter Erfolg, Führung, Entscheidungen und persönlicher Entwicklung. Hier stellen sie die Fragen, die viele lieber vermeiden: – Warum scheitern Menschen trotz guter Absichten? – Weshalb halten wir an Gewohnheiten fest, die uns schaden? – Und woran erkennen wir, dass wir uns selbst etwas vormachen? In dem Podcast zum neuen gleichnamigen Sachbuch „Die Kunst, sich nichts vorzumachen – Wie radikale Ehrlichkeit dein Leben verändert“ diskutieren Vater und Sohn über Führung, Vertrieb, Unternehmertum, Verantwortung, Leistungsbereitschaft und die Kunst, den eigenen moralischen Kompass nicht zu verlieren. Dabei treffen jahrzehntelange Management-Erfahrung und eine jüngere Perspektive aufeinander – direkt, kontrovers und ohne Weichspüler. Dieser Podcast richtet sich an Menschen, die sich selbst hinterfragen wollen. An Führungskräfte, Unternehmer, Vertriebsprofis, Macherinnen und Macher. An alle, die lieber Klarheit als Ausreden suchen. Denn Veränderung beginnt dort, wo Ehrlichkeit unbequem wird. Hier vorbestellen!
Das Sachbuch „Die Kunst, sich nichts vorzumachen – Wie radikale Ehrlichkeit dein Leben verändert“ von Ulvi I. Aydin und Vincent U. Aydin erscheint im Oktober 2026: https://amzlink.to/az0bs53yAiW0V Abonniere gerne diesen Podcast, um keine Folge zu verpassen. Fragen, Themenwünsche, Feedback an die Hosts: Anastasia.kabitzsch@aycon.biz Infos & Links: https://www.aycon.biz/ Moderation: Birgit Eschbach https://www.linkedin.com/in/studiovenezia/ Der Podcast ist eine Produktion von Studio Venezia – The Podcast Company
http://www.studiovenezia.de

A CLEAR MANDATE. A CLEAR TARGET. EVERYTHING ELSE IS SECONDARY.Whenever I accept a mandate, I start with one fundamental question:What exactly am I here to achieve?Because a clear mandate must lead to a clear target.And once that target is clear, I believe we have to subordinate almost everything else to achieving it.Not politics.Not traditions.Not “this is how we have always done it.”Not processes that have become an end in themselves.Not endless explanations about why something cannot be done.:devider:If a process does not help us reach the target, challenge it.If a process step does not create value, eliminate it.If a meeting does not move us forward, question it. Leave it! Don't waste your time! Nor the other's time!If an activity does not contribute to winning, stop doing it.That is what execution means to me.:devider:And the same principle applies to leadership and teams.I don't need people who are brilliant at explaining yesterday.I can tell you last week's lottery numbers myself.I can also tell you what yesterday's weather was.Both statements may be perfectly accurate.And both are completely useless for deciding what we do tomorrow.The rear-view mirror is small for a reason. It helps us understand where we came from. But you cannot drive a company forward by staring into it.:devider:We need people who look through the windshield.People who say:This is our target. This is my responsibility. This is what I am going to do. And this is when I will deliver it.That is the mindset I want around me.Of course, people should challenge assumptions. They should debate the best route. They should bring better ideas. I expect that.But once the direction and target are clear, we cannot endlessly renegotiate the destination.Discuss the HOW. Improve the HOW. Challenge the HOW.But execute relentlessly against the WHAT.I once worked with an entrepreneur who expressed this philosophy very clearly. His message was essentially:This company has a defined ambition and direction. If you want to pursue an entirely different ambition according to entirely different rules, you are free to build your own company and do exactly that.It sounds tough.But there is an important truth behind it.A company is not an academic discussion club.We have responsibilities.To our shareholders.To our customers.To our staff.To the people whose jobs depend on the competitiveness and long-term success of the business.And leadership means accepting that responsibility.Owners give us a mandate. Customers expect us to perform. Employees expect us to create a company with a future.That requires choices.It requires saying NO to activities that consume energy without creating progress.It requires saying NO to complexity that protects the past instead of building the future.And sometimes it requires saying NO to comfortable explanations and asking instead:What are YOU going to do about it?For me, this is one of the central principles of any serious transformation or battle plan:CLEAR MANDATE.CLEAR TARGET.CLEAR PRIORITIES.FULL COMMITMENT.RELENTLESS EXECUTION.Everything we do must ultimately answer one question:Does this help us achieve our target?If yes: ‍Do it. Accelerate it. Scale it.If no:Stop it.‍

Die Kunst, sich nichts vorzumachen. Dieses Buch wird nicht jedem gefallen. Das soll es auch nicht. Es ist kein Wohlfühlbuch. Kein Ratgeber voller Hoffnung, Motivation und schöner Absichten. Es geht um eine unangenehm einfache Erkenntnis: Am Ende zählt nicht, was du wolltest. Es zählt, was du getan hast. Die Tabelle lügt nicht. Erfolg kann gefährlicher sein als Misserfolg. Hoffnung ist keine Strategie. Kontakte sind noch kein Netzwerk. Stillstand ist keine Stabilität. Und niemand von uns ist unersetzbar. Wir machen uns erstaunlich viel vor – über unsere Leistung, unsere Beziehungen, unsere Karriere, unseren Erfolg und vor allem über uns selbst. Dieses Buch hält dagegen. Mit Klarheit. Mit Wissenschaft. Mit Erfahrungen aus dem echten Leben. Und manchmal mit einer Sprache, die wehtut. Denn Veränderung beginnt nicht mit Motivation. Sie beginnt in dem Moment, in dem du aufhörst, dir selbst Bullshit zu erzählen. „Die Kunst, sich nichts vorzumachen“ von Ulvi & Vincent Aydin Coming soon. Keine Ausreden. Keine Selbsttäuschung. Nur Klarheit.