Successful marketers have a strategy for customer retention and segmentation in place even before the first contact is made with a new customer. The key is to design different contact strategies based on how frequently and how much each customer spends.

The Strategic Account Management Association recently released survey results on the fifty most successful account management teams and found that 30% of the teams were using revenue to measure strategic accounts. 19% use margin or profit performance and 14% use customer loyalty, 19% use share of market and 19% use contracts as a measurement.

A major indicator of customer loyalty is referring a company to friends, family members or colleagues. There is a higher correlation between people saying they would refer a company and actually repurchasing from that company.

Strategic accounts can be divided into four groups: price motivated buyers, researchers, brand loyalists and feature motivated buyers.

Each will likely prefer a different communication medium. It is important to send all strategic accounts at least 5-10 value communications a year that promote a long-term relationship. It is very important to stay on top of customer’s preferred contact mediums to ensure their receipt.