A Critical Path Strategies colleague recently attended a seminar hosted by our friends at SAVO and the Corporate Executive Board (CEB). The CEB conducts research in several focus areas, one being sales.

At the SAVO event, the CEB speaker shared some research they had conducted regarding top sales performers. They made several intriguing points. But the one that caught by eye was about the key drivers of customer loyalty and their weighting in terms of effecting loyalty:  Take a look:

• Company and Brand Impact - 19%

Nothing is as frustrating to a business owner or executive than to hear that they lost a valued customer. Customers--especially loyal, profitable ones--are hard to win (that’s what we help selling organizations do). When we lose one, it is a huge hit to everything about the firm.

In their booklet, Listen Up! Customer Service: A Guide to Develop Customer Loyalty, David Cottrell and Mark Layton list their top ten sales and customer service requirements. Here you go: