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Customer Service Tip:
Connecting With Customers
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine.
Business is up he said, but he didn't know why. I asked him a
few questions, but the more we spoke about it the more concerned
I became.
"What do you mean, you don't know why they're buying?" "We never
know why they buy," he told me.
"Never?"
"Nope. They just do."
My friend thinks he knows what is great about his product. They
believe they understand it's applications, they just don't
understand what drives sales.
And there's something else - it has to do with pricing and profits.
Since they don't really know why customers buy from them, it
follows that they don't understand the full value customers get
from their products. So they don't know what to charge! They
discount to make sales - since they don't fully understand the
customer's pain points - and that means - they always leave lots
of money on the table.
When times are tough - and many people are feeling squeezed these
days - there is tendency to panic. Who wouldn't? The economy,
the financial markets, and now - terrorism. I read where a group
of psychiatrists saying the country was on the brink of a
nervous breakdown!
That's certainly not what I want for my customers! Is that what you
want for yours?
I think this question can be a profitable one. What do you want for
your customers? I started thinking about this and came up with a
few others for you to ask yourself.
Why do you want to serve your customers? What do you love about
your particular customers? Are they perfect customers? If not,
who would be? Describe them.
Case Studies and the Value Proposition
So I began thinking about my friend's sales problem - which brought
me to thinking about a favorite topic of mine - the value
proposition. Not in the sense of your USP, but in the sense of -
what is the value of your product (or service) to your customer?
In other words, what is your product worth? How much - in money
terms - does your customer save or earn when they use whatever
it is you sell? Can you quantify that?
If you can't, well - you need to. It will make it much easier to
sell.
But it's too complicated - we can't really say what they get from
it.
No wonder you have trouble selling when times get tough. If you
knew what it was worth, and it was worth more than you were
selling it for, you'd have customers lining up pounding on your
door for it.
You have to go out and do case studies. Exactly why did they buy.
Exactly what is the application. Exactly how much more did they
earn because of it and how did they earn it. Or, exactly how
much did they save because of it and how did they save it. Get
five or six of those and you'll be able to build a
return-on-investment case for any prospect, and damn the
economy. Which brings me to one last thing - the holy trinity of
repeat sales.
Up-sell, Re-sell and Cross-sell What is your best possible source
of revenue right now, bar none?
Your existing customers, right? Of course - they always are. Which
means you should have a regular program to stay in contact.
What are you doing about repeat customer sales? When was the last
time you contacted each customer, and made them an offer of some
kind? What - you're waiting for them to call you?
Conclusion: You've got to contact your customers. Under any
pretext, for any reason.
Why?
To solidify and maintain your relationships, and reconfirm why you
want to do business with them. To understand your value from
their perspective. And lastly, to make sure they are being
served properly and to sell them everything they need.
Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the
world’s only fully systemized
business coaching
program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More
Profits and More Life™. Read more of Paul's articles at his
business coaching
website.
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