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Scale Your SaaS
Scale Your SaaS
315: Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Customers for Life - with Richard Weylman
EPISODE SUMMARY
In the ever-evolving world of SaaS, where personal touch and customer satisfaction are critical, it's essential to grasp the nuances of customer experience and relationship management. I was thrilled to chat with Richard Weylman, a distinguished business consultant and Hall of Fame keynote speaker this week. Richard offered invaluable insights from his upcoming book, "100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life."
PODCAST-AT-A-GLANCE
Podcast: Scale Your SaaS with Matt Wolach
Episode: Episode No. 315, “Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Customers for Life - with Richard Weylman”
Guest: Richard Weylman, Coach, Speaker, and Author
Host: Matt Wolach, a B2B SaaS Sales Coach, Entrepreneur, and Investor
Sponsored by: Leadfeeder
TOP TIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
- Understanding the Customer's Perspective
- Evaluating Customer Reevaluation
- Cultivating Deeper Connections
- Innovative Follow-up Techniques
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
- The Four Core Attributes of Customer Interaction
- The Impact of Authentic Communication
- Conclusion: The Art of Customer Experience
TOP QUOTES
Richard Weylman
[17:14] “You have a CRM, but what you really need to build out is a CXM, Customer Experience Manager.”
[22:55] “You’re not in the software business. You’re in the people business.”
Matt Wolach
[16:57] “There are specific words within a software sales process that if you say them, it’s going to kill the deal, and specific things you can do that actually accelerate the deal.”
LEARN MORE
To learn more about Richard, visit: https://richardweylman.com/
You can also find Richard Weylman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-weylman-keynotespeaker/
For more about how Matt Wolach helps software companies achieve maximum growth, visit https://mattwolach.com.
Head over to leadfeeder.com and sign up for a 14-day (no strings attached) free trial: https://www.leadfeeder.com/
Get even more tips by following Matt elsewhere:
Hello, and welcome to Scale Your SaaS very excited to have you along with us. Thank you very much. And by the way, if this is your first time joining us, what we do here is we're here to help you understand how to gain new customers, generate some leads, let's close those leads let's know how we do that. Let's make sure we understand how to scale our team. And we know how to keep them so that they actually don't leave us, those customers. If you want to know those things, definitely hit the subscribe button right now. That way you'll be notified of all of our upcoming episodes where I talk to some of the best people in the world and how to grow your business. And one of those best people certainly lives up to that name. His name's Richard Weylman. And I've got him with me. I am so delighted, Richard, thanks for being here.
Richard Weylman:My pleasure, Matt. Thanks for the invitation. It's a privilege.
Matt Wolach:Privilege is mine. Let me make sure everybody knows who you are. Richard. Richard is a coach, a speaker and an author. Richard, he is an award winning business consultant. He's a Hall of Fame keynote speaker. He's a customer experience Hall of Fame inductee, and two time international best selling author who delivers personalized prescriptive strategies and tactics to audiences around the world, regardless of their role, so that they can create delighted brand advocates. He's also the author of the upcoming book, 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life. He was just telling me this thing is already flying off the shelves, I cannot wait to read it myself. And we're going to be able to get an advanced understanding of some of these things, how you can do those you can acquire and keep clients for life for your business. So Richard, thank you so much for coming on and being here.
Richard Weylman:Well, thanks, Matt. And I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to take your questions, but most importantly, to really plant some ideas, some tactics and prescriptions into your constituents so that they can grow their business and have a business of distinction. Thank
Matt Wolach:I love that. So tell me what's been going on you. with you lately. And what do you have coming up?
Richard Weylman:Well, very briefly, okay. My new book is coming, you know, 100 proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life. I mean, I've been speaking for many years, I've done over 4000 keynote presentations, all over the world, flown almost 8 million miles. So what happens beginning of the year, companies getting started, so I just finished a 19 city tour in North America, I'm speaking at conferences, kickoff meetings, all types, all different types of companies, from fast food to NFL team, to financial services, real estate, etc. So that's one. And then we've got several big consulting projects, I'm very blessed to have a great consulting team and business. And so my consultant and my coaches, we're working on several major projects. And then of course, I've got the book 100 Proven Ways. And as I mentioned to you, before it even got released to the public, they had to do a second printing to keep up with orders. So I'm just, I'm just grateful. And of course, doing podcasts have the privilege of being with somebody like yourself, who really has set the bar for a lot of people and helped a great number of people in the software business. That in and of itself is a real blessing for me. So we've got a lot going on. But we're really, we're grateful. Thank you.
Matt Wolach:Thank you very much for the kind words that's so awesome that you have that and it's it's really cool. I know a lot of people are interested in the book, I want to talk about that in a sec. But you know, before I get into that, you're going all over the place. You're helping these people you're spending a lot of your time. What made you realize at some point that you wanted to help others that you wanted to help people get to their success.
Richard Weylman:Well, I think it probably started. I think the trigger. Well, I was an orphan. My mother died and I was five my dad died and I was six. I lived in 19 foster homes, I went to 11 different schools. So I really learned how to relate to people survival and all those things. And then I sold encyclopedias, cemetery plots, cookware, all types of things door to door. I worked in some in corporate America for Xerox, but I went to work for Rolls Royce and how I got there is an odd story. But I went to work for a dealer in the Rolls Royce business, we built the third largest Rolls Royce dealership network in the world. And he really, he kept coming to me and he said, you have the gift of understanding the consumers point of view, you should share that with others. And I think that and the fact that I really feel as though that I do have a desire to break complex things down into actionable tactics. I had a client of mine say to me, you know, Richard thing when you come on stage, you take this really complicated topic, and you break it into prescriptive tactics and everybody walks in together and goes, I can do that. And it's hard to explain and it's not really me, it's just a gift that I have. And I think part of it's based on life experience, that's all but that's what motivated me. When Howard his name was Howard Vanborlin built a massive organization, he's passed away now but he said, Richard, you know, you just need to share how you see the consumers point of view. And it's not something you can you can say, well, here's how I do it. But I can teach people to see it from the consumers point of view. It's an odd thing, Matt.
Matt Wolach:Yeah, I totally agree. And I love it, because that's what I try and coach as well is, so many times I talk with salespeople, and the salespeople are saying things like, Well, "I would love to", and "you need to do this". And"it'd be good for you to do that". And they're always thinking it would be good for them. If that person did that, it would be good for the company are good for the sales rep themselves. But if we can get into their head and understand from their perspective, what's best for them, and I love it from their point of view, it's so much more powerful for them in terms of taking action and making a decision. And in more ways than than not, they're going to sign up more often.
Richard Weylman:atichattThat's right, actually, right. My previous book before this, the 100 Proven Ways was the power of wide breaking out in a competitive marketplace in seven languages now. And that that book really speaks to how do you get the consumers point of view into your business? Just to give you an illustration, lots of times people say, Richard, what do you think? And I often say, it doesn't matter what I think, when I when I wrote this current book, people say, Well, what are you going to write about what you think? No, I'm going to talk to the people in the stucco house and find out what they're thinking. And if we can find out what they're thinking, and we can convert that into an actionable step, we're going to all win. So to your point, that's exactly what if, as a software developer, as a leader, as a visionary, we have to think, what is the outcome? What do these people want? How can we deliver it in such a way that it's, I don't want to make it sound too simplistic, it's pretty much point and click that we can get them from where they are to where they need to be, and they get great value out of that experience.
Matt Wolach:I love it. And that is you do make it very simple. You take down something complex and make it simple. But that really is what it's about. If we can get them to realize that it is in their best interest, then that's what it's all about. They're trying to solve a problem, let's help them understand that this solution that we're selling, is the way to do that. So I just love how you make it easy, Richard. I do want to talk about the book, I mean, 100 proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life. Obviously, these are things that a lot of people want to do. We want to be able to acquire clients, we want to make sure they don't leave, they stay with us. So what are some of these best tips that you've been able to learn over the years that you've put into this book?
Richard Weylman:Well, first, let me suggest this, that there's a lot of people running around the world and says, the customer is on a journey, you know, we have to take out the bumps in the journey. My view is and as a consultant and having worked with all different types of industries to as I mentioned, I don't want them to be on any journey. I want them to come here and stay here. That's it. We don't want a customer on a journey. Now people say, Well, you're being simplistic Richard, we meet on a journey through our company. Well, they're not on a journey through the company, they're going through an experience with your company, and you're in charge of that experience. And we know now know that one out of three people will leave a company if they have one bad experience. So consistency is pretty important. So that really got me thinking about it. So the second thing, I realized that people today are going after the pandemic. I did a lot of tremendous amount of interviewing people calling people talking to people in my network and many outside and clients. And what I realized is people are going through a great reevaluation, they're evaluating Am I with the right doctor? Am I with the right drycleaner? Am I with the right car? Have I got the right financial advisor, or real estate agent? Am I listening to the right TV? Am I on the right station? All of these things. Do I have the right software platform, whatever it might be. And so as a result of that, people are moving, and there's a lot of money in motion, a lot of people in motion. And it occurred to me what's going to keep people to stay? What are they looking for? And that's when I began to do the investigation, if you will. And I went back to all my experiences and all the different industries and I said, what is really going on? And what it turned out there are four things people are looking for Matt, they're looking for somebody that's kind. Somebody that's thoughtful, somebody that's caring, and somebody that's empathetic. And if a company and an individual demonstrates those four things, no amount of competitive dollars are going to dislodge them. So we began I had interns I made a lot of phone calls. Talk to people I mean, we're talking about hundreds of people. We just said what do you really look for? Well, we expect that the air conditioning guy is going to be competent. We expect that to software supposed to work. Well. We want to know if I call customer service. Are you going to be kind and thoughtful, and caring? Are they going to be empathetic? Are they going to talk down to me? "Does that make sense?" "Are you with me?". Don't be so condescending. I don't know if I'm with you. But when you make a point, just simply stop and say, "Have I explained that in a way that's helpful?" As opposed to "Does that make sense?" Or "are you with me?". "I know this is complicated. Are you able to keep up there, Mrs. Wilson, I know you know I'm very smart on this side of the teleprompter." So you have to begin to realize the impact of your words and your actions. So a couple of tips stop sending your emails"best" people I can't even say on air unbelievable some of the comments that even in my interview with boy these people are really mad about that word and I suppose I mean and I was like golly that stay here when somebody signs their email best like best Richard people would say best what best for them best for me? What what does that mean? That's just a throwaway line. They don't really mean it. They're not being sincere. I mean, you get all this and you're like, Whoa, people are touchy. But then you realize, no, what people are looking for is a relationship they don't want to be a transaction. So we began to ask them what do you like do you like sincerely yours to institutional they want Warm regards kind regards even Best regards is better. But they want to feel as though they have a relationship. Another one, stop keep telling people to feel welcome to call. Once everybody has a cell phone, it's free. For the most part, you just pay your monthly feel welcome to call this far more gracious. And we said to people, how do you feel about feel free? I don't like it. What would you like what they ought to be more welcoming? About feel welcome to go, Oh, wonderful. We pull 1000 People 91% said, That is wonderful. But I guess my feeling is if we can change two words and come up with wonderful I'm in. so you know, feel welcome to call another thing know their name. You know, Dr. Donna Wilson may not want to be called Donna. She may want to be called Dr. Wilson. Sam may be Sam or Samuel. David might be Dave. But you need to know Elizabeth might be Elizabeth Beth Betty or my friend in Atlanta, who's 83 Wonderful gal, very wealthy, she won't work with a financial advisor, because they all insist on calling her Elizabeth and she says my name is lolly. Because when I was a little girl, my grandfather always gave me lollipops. When he came over. He called me lolly. And I've been Lolly my whole life. And she said I met with a financial advisor and I said I want you to call me lolly. He said, Oh, that's a that's a funny, goofy name. She said I walked out. So again, Words matter. But here's the point. Key Boone Pickens never went by T. My first initial Sis C, C Richard Weylman I get emails, dear C., I don't read them. Because I know there's no sense of connection. Another thing on your website, you know, like you my account, why don't you change it to something else. We worked with a major bank, we and they had my account. And so we did an audit for him. And I said, Well, why don't you change that to my Lumi, or my truest or my Bank of America, or my software, or, or maybe my representative, or my company login. But it shouldn't be my account. Because we pull people in, they said, we hate it when they call us an account. We don't want to be an account. We want to be an individual, we want to have a relationship with these people. So all of these little things that I've obviously put throughout the book, and I wrote the book, I just, I didn't want to write. I mean, it's you know, I've written 124 textbooks and video programs. And the you mentioned two international bestsellers. And now this one. It just, it's consuming. And so I kind of fought it for a long time. But when I finally sat down to read it, I wrote nonstop for weeks. And when I was done, I walked out the office, my wife looked at me and said, You done aren't you. She said, How many are there? I said I have no idea. She said, can I go count em? And I said sure. Of course you can. And she came out and she had tears in her eyes. She said, honey There's 100 and that's how the book became 100 Proven Ways. And everyone is what to do, why it's important how to do it with the actual antidote. And the outcome that you will receive it exactly step by step how to do it. So those are just a couple. I'll give you one a couple of now. Give me a couple of tips, Matt.
Matt Wolach:Yeah, yeah, first of all, I'm loving it. Because the thing were you say at the end of email best. I'm guilty of that. I put that because I had no idea that that was so bad, but I love learning how to make my process better. So you're gonna be seeing Warm regards from me much more often. Yeah, that's a great tip.
Richard Weylman:But again, it's the people in the circle house that are saying we just don't like it best is such a throwaway. It's like sincerely yours. Yeah, well, what would you like it to be? Well, can't they say kind regards or warm regards? Or maybe even Best regards? It's better than just me. That's me. So it was me mean? Well, you know best is like I'm trying to get out of here. So that was interesting. A couple other things. A lot of salespeople like to "I'm calling to follow up with you, Matt. See what decision you've made." Stop, just stop. "I don't have anything else to offer you Matt but I'm really hoping you made a decision and you forgot to call me to tell me you did. That's why I'm following up". Well we figured it out and talking to people when I wrote my last book and now this one, I went back and we interviewed a lot of people, when I asked them specifically in our consulting work, why don't you move forward? You saw a great presentation, why don't you move forward? And their answer was,"oh, salespeople don't tell us what the next steps are."
Matt Wolach:It's amazing. I'm a big proponent of this.
Richard Weylman:then I realized, when people say, Let me follow up I'm following up, don't ever call to follow up."Hi, Matt. Richard Weylman, I'm just calling very quickly, I've identified two additional ways and steps we can take to help you get that software that you really need for your business, I'd like to meet with you again and take you through these two additional steps." In other words, use curiosity to your advantage, and it pulls people back into the conversation, perhaps uncovers some hidden agenda or objection, or whatever the case might be some, let's call it stumbling block that you can then overcome by doing what by getting on their side of the table, put your arm around and say I've identified some additional steps that I believe we can take on your behalf three most powerful words on your behalf. And how we can because we have people all the time. And interns of the people who've said I want to know what they're gonna do on my behalf, but they're going to do on my behalf, what they're gonna do on my behalf. So I'm looking at a scorecard. And I'm like, holy moly, you've made 100 calls and 28 people who said something like my behalf my behalf on my behalf did for me different. Let's put that into the coaching and consulting. But let's see how that works out. Well, I mean, the number it was startling, just starting, that it's almost a sense of subliminal obligation that people well, you did this on my behalf. Well, okay, let me get right over here. Find out about that.
Matt Wolach:I love it. And I'm a big believer in words as well. There are specific words within a software sales process that if you say them, it's going to kill the deal and specific things that you can do that actually accelerate the deal. And, and you're teaching me a lot of awesome stuff. I've never used that on my behalf before, but it definitely sounds like a good way. When you talk about following up one of the least favorite things I see that I see people following up with is I just wanted to check in. And you're and you're right, like what is that? First of all, they don't care what you want. It doesn't matter what you want you just saying that makes you sound stupid and salesy and to check in? Like, what is that? What does that what does that mean? You're right, like, why didn't you buy my thing yet? It's, it's ridiculous.
Richard Weylman:It's ridiculous. Well, I made it many, many years ago, I called the CEO and I said, I'm just calling to touch base. He said, Excuse me, I said, I'm calling to touch base. He said, Great, I'm on home plate and you're out, he hung up on me. That's when I realized, you know, chickened out and follow up and know what we're going to do is we always want to call with the idea that we're going to advance the relationship doesn't have to be advanced the sale, it's great answer relationship. That's why all of you out there, I'm sure have a CRM, customer relationship manager is something it's called. In our organization, and all the firms we work with around the world, the first thing we do is get them to understand it. Yeah, it's a CRM, maybe it's Salesforce, whatever it is. But you really need to build it out as a CXM. Customer Experience Manager, instead of fields for things like where do the kids go to school? And what do they do? And what are they interested in? Do they drink wine? If you do, if you're going to do take them to the ballgame and drink beer or wine? What's the case? Or maybe they don't drink at all. So don't invite them to a wine tasting as an example. This happens all the time in business so take your CRM and turn it into a CxM you'll get a lot more business that way. Is that helpful?
Matt Wolach:Yeah, oh, it's absolutely helpful. I think that's just that's kind of one of my big philosophies is instead of trying to sell try to help, and that's the thing, if you can get an understanding of their experience, and and when what I'm what I'm gleaning from this, Richard is, so much of what you teach, you've learned by asking the questions and learning from the people is, hey, what would you rather have on the email? How would this rather be and I teach this all the time, you have to know your market, understand the people you're selling to learn from them have as many conversations as you can so that, you know the best way to approach them and speak with them and the lingo and, and what's going to actually work instead of the things that people have tried before that don't work
Richard Weylman:exactly spot on the screws Matt. And then you can say, when you mention a feature or an attribute of your product or use, let's say you're selling a software program. Great. Well, people love to talk about the feature benefit feature benefit, people don't buy either one, but they buy is that in the middle what it means to them. So if you say, you know, the great thing about this particular software program is it's really maintenance free, we do updates overnight. And it really works for you on a long term basis. And the nice thing is you can have multiple users, and it's really great. But let me tell you what that means. That means you can have the same people on the same interface doing the same thing at the same time with no downtime on the server. And the benefit to you is that you're going to be able to scale efficiency and effectiveness in your business. But what did they buy there? No downtime. So I often speak for some nonprofits that you know, I try to help them when I can and they always want to raise money and I always ask them raising money so that you Like, what do you mean? I said, so that? What do you mean? I said, when you raise money, you raise money so that something happens. I had a church in Atlanta wanted to build a pay off their debt. And I kept asking him, so what do you wanna do? Well, we want to pay off the debt. So that what? So we're debt free. No. Why do you want to? Well, we want to raise, we want to pay off the debt so we can build another building. I said, so you want to have that so you can get some more debt? Is that kind of the plan here? They were like, Well, we hope not. I said, Why don't we change it? Why don't we have a plan called Let us rise up and build so that we can pay off the debt and build the school we want to build. Three and a half years raise $30 million. So that. so
Matt Wolach:It's the same philosophy, I actually call it the so what test. So when you're selling a software, just like you had said, when this happens all the time when I'm reviewing demos of sales reps, and they go through and they say, Oh, here's this really cool report that has this and this. And my thing is, it's a so what test if you can say, so what after that, then you're not done. You have to continue to get them to the results, just like you said, and so, so many times, they'll say something, and I think we're very similar, Richard, I'll just be like, so what? What do you mean, they're kind of thrown off? But so what does that mean? You have to get them to that final result.
Richard Weylman:Right? Here's the double down rollover feature that gives you a double reporting. So wonderful, fantastic comes up on your screen, and it's great. But so what? my question is, am I going to know how much I sold last month? Well, you can but you know, that's a little tricky. .
Matt Wolach:That's fantastic. Well, this is really awesome. Unfortunately, we're running out of time here, Richard, just one last parting shot. What advice would you have for software leaders who are trying to grow their business trying to make sure they build a strong foundation of great customers? What would you share with them?
Richard Weylman:Focus on the experience that people are going to have and really build a culture, where you care about people, when you're thoughtful, where you're kind and you're empathetic, and use curiosity, reach out to your customers find out what works for them, when they buy, if I buy software today, a year from now, I should get something from you, a thank you note for another year of satisfied or delighted advocate, your whole objective, your whole objective is to build a portfolio of great memories with your customer base. So they become ambassadors for your brand in the marketplace. And that starts with understanding that the experience they have starts with you, customers are going to have an experience. You're the one that decides what it's going to be. And then the rest of the organization is mobilized to make that, if you will, vision, a reality. Think about Amazon, I talked to Bezo's, way back when he sat in a little room in Seattle, but that pasted on the wall. And what did it say? I want to build the most customer centric company in the world on a piece of scrap paper. And guess what? They pretty much done a decent job of it. But he stayed true to the vision that matter whether you agree with it doesn't matter. It is whether it's Chick fil A same thing. Truett Kathy was a great friend of mine. And he always said to me Richard out that he was a founder, he died a couple of years ago skin cancer. He said Richard always wanted it for my team never to forget, we're not, we're not in a chicken sandwich business. We're in the people business. Folks, if you're in a software business, what you need to be is in the people business, the users experience business. And if you do that, you're gonna win market share. And more importantly, you're gonna build a business of distinction. Thank you.
Matt Wolach:That's brilliant. We're gonna make that a big time quote right there. You're not in the software business. You're in the people business. That's fantastic. And this has been a lot of fun. Richard, thank you for coming on and sharing this. I've learned a lot I'm sure the audience has as well. He's Richard Weylman, and he is the author of 100 proven ways to acquire and keep clients for life, Richard, where by the time this releases people, the book will be out. So where can people find the book?
Richard Weylman:They can find it on any of your best bookstores, from Barnes and Noble igloo, all of them. And of course, Amazon is carrying the book as well. You can go to my website, Richard Weylman, WEYLMAN. RichardWeylman.com. And you can order through there. There's also tools, when you buy the book, make sure you go to the website, it's referenced in the book, I put a whole set of tools in there to help you implement the entire book and they're all free. Just go in and just go and use it. I just want you to get better and I want you to win more business so you can impact the lives of people in a positive way. So RichardWeylman.com are on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Any other major book outlets carrying the book, thank you.
Matt Wolach:Fantastic. Okay, we'll put all that in the show notes. So if you're listening, go grab that right there. Grab the book. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait to read it myself. Richard, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing with us.
Richard Weylman:Thank you. It's been a real pleasure to be with you, Matt.
Matt Wolach:Absolutely. A pleasure is mine as well. So everybody out there. Thank you for being here. Also, again, make sure you're subscribed to the show. That was something incredible stuff that Richard just sharedatt with us absolute gold that he's given to some of his really high paying fortune 500 clients, you're gonna want to make sure that you subscribe so you don't miss out on anybody else coming up in the next few weeks. We've got other great guests, and then you'll be able to get all this gold all the time. Thank you for being here and we'll see you next time. Take care
