Win Back Past Clients
Your best past clients come back into your current program, and your product gets better from their advice on the way.
By James Schramko · Updated November 2026
You have been in business a while, so you have a list of past clients. It costs less to get one of them back than to find a new client, and most owners never ask.
The weekly news you already send does some of this work. Show updates, case studies, tips and new content will bring a few back on their own. This page is the dedicated campaign for when you want more than a few. I call it a Change Campaign, and it is built on some solid Cialdini influences. It wins clients back and gets their help improving your product at the same time. A genuine win on both sides.
Who to Ask Back
Segment your past client database so that you are not bringing back all past clients. Of the clients you had, some are more valuable than others. If you can segment by the reason they left or by lifetime value, you can make a more relevant win-back offer. Target the high value, nice-to-deal-with clients.
When you write to them, make it relevant. If you can mention when they were a client and what product they had, those fields add relevance and increase conversions.
Ask for Advice, Not Opinions
The first email asks for help. Nothing else.
Subject: Do you consider yourself a helpful person?
Hi there,
I was hoping I could ask your advice on something related to [your product]?
Click HERE to help
Regards,
Your name
Your business
It leads to a one-question Google form:
What is one thing about [your product] that you would change?
[Long answer box here]
Sort the Answers, Make the Changes
You should get plenty of answers. Filter out the crazy advice. Filter out the non-qualified advice. Focus on the advice that will be good to implement. Break it into three sections:
- S1: things you will not be changing (unreasonable or impractical requests)
- S2: things you already have but they did not know about, because they left before you added them
- S3: things you will change
Then make the S3 changes. Get the team to upload things, move things around, add and remove. It does not have to be a world-changing change. Think about fashion, motor vehicles or tech. Often new models are similar with a few small, subtle changes. Sometimes they are huge. Be guided by your needs.
Tell Them What Changed, Then Make One Offer
Write back to the same database you surveyed. Emphasise what has changed as a direct result of their advice, why it changed, and why it matters. That makes them a stakeholder in the new product.
Then make one offer. Why now is a good time to come back. Proof, in a case study. A clear call to action on how to get started. An incentive, and a real close date. The P.S. is a very good place to make the offer.
The close date has to be true. When it passes, the offer is gone. Nobody who did not buy gets a second campaign next month or a "just checking in" from you. They stay on your weekly news, which is where the organic re-sales come from. The next time they hear a pitch from you is the next time you have genuinely changed something.
What I Found When I Did It
When I ran my survey to 1,200 ex-members of my community, I got a combination of very good and very bad advice. The feedback on my new direction was excellent. It was the birth of what later became the migration to a new platform. It birthed the precursor to the mentor program. My membership became more useful and easier to use because of member advice.
I did not guess what people wanted. I asked, in writing, and read what came back.
Self-Diagnostic
How many past clients do you have, and when did you last ask them anything? If the answer is a sales email, you asked them for money without asking them for advice first.
Which of your past clients would you want back? If you cannot name them, you have not segmented, and a campaign to all of them will bring back the ones you least want.
What To Do This Week
Pull your past client list and tag the high value, nice-to-deal-with ones. Set up the one-question form. Send the advice email to the tagged segment. When the answers are in, sort them into S1, S2 and S3 and give the team the S3 list.
Quick Reference
- Segment first. Ask back the clients you want.
- Email one asks for advice, not money. One question, one form.
- Sort answers: will not change, already have, will change. Make the changes.
- Tell them what changed because of them. Then one offer with proof, an incentive and a real close date.
- When it closes, it closes. No second campaign, no checking in.
Running a Change Campaign against your own past client list, from the segment to the offer, is work I do with Mentor clients.