HOW YOU SELL HAS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT YOU SELL

Point of Sale

If your company sells to other businesses, this is especially relevant for you. Customers have choices and this is expected to grow. Normally choice is a good thing, but customers and end users are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by this and want a trusted adviser to guide them. Conversely, they are suspicious of companies that want to push product or use primitive needs/solutions selling techniques. 

Customers are often surveyed. They provide good insight – Telling us how they are feeling. Net Promoter Scores also guide us to know how likely they be to recommend. The challenge is to find out what pieces they value most and how the order goes. Then adjust the resources of your organization to match the order. We find that there are some surprises here.

In a study done by the Corporate Executive Board, the sales experience at 53% has the highest contribution to business customer loyalty. The slide above has found its way into more board rooms than any other research done by CEB. In this study, the business decision maker and decision influencer prioritized what is most important within the “sales experience”. By the way, we highly recommend the CEB and the many sectors they represent. All are excellent. For more information or for a membership go to: www.executiveboard.com/

The optimal sales experience:

  • Proactively contacts customers at times beneficial to them
  • Offers unique valuable perspective on the market.
  • Helps the customer navigate alternatives.
  • Provides on-going advice or consultation.
  • Helps the customer avoid potential land mines.
  • Educates the customer on new issues and outcomes.
  • Is easy to buy from.
  • Has widespread support from sources the customer listens to. (these influencers could be spouses, co-workers, friends, suppliers, other customers, publications, websites, blogs, etc)

Do a quick assessment for your company. There are eight factors above. Did you give your company a checkmark for 6? 5? 4? Your organization will grow revenue when the focus is on sales approaches that ADD value, not just extract revenue.

 

John KleinComment