It ain't over 'til it's over: Evaluating reacquisition opportunities in business-to-business markets

Using a qualitative critical incident research technique, this paper examines how sales firms evaluate defected customers in order to determine their worthiness for reacquisition. Findings from interviews with fifty professional salespeople suggest that, when sales firms assess reacquisition opportunities, these opportunities are evaluated based on the likelihood of reacquisition and the value of the customer (i.e., ease of reacquisition and value of the customer). Salespeople report that the barriers to reacquisition, leveraging remaining customer relationship and investigating their own value-adding capabilities are critical in determining the ease of reacquisition. In addition, salespeople report that account size, profitability, market influence and cross-selling potential are fundamental in determining the value of a customer. Furthermore, the importance of ease and value in reacquisition assessments varies with (1) the reason for the customer defection, (2) the formalization of a firm's reacquisition process, and (3) market opportunities. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed. •Critical Incident interviews with 50 B2B salespeople show how they evaluate defected customers for potential reacquisition.•Findings suggest that their assessment centers on the ease of reacquisition and the value of the customer.•The defected customer's value include: account size, profitability, market influence, and potential for cross-selling.•Ease factors include: remaining relationships, adding value, customer defection attribution, and organizational support.•These assessments vary with the reasons for customer defection, policies for win-back efforts, and market factors.