What do you want/need your customers to feel? Customer experience is all about feelings. It is the customer's feelings that will frame how they assess their experience, whether they buy or not, and whether they come back again. By understanding what we want customers to feel, we...
Effective sales is often taught as a process. Alternatively, it can be seen as a series of behaviours and mindset attributes by the salesperson. But what about the customer? Another way of seeing sales is as an effort to meet the emotional buying needs of the...
Are your team sales-people or order takers? Employing order takers over genuine salespeople will lead to lower sales. Many individuals and organisations do just fine without really 'selling'. Calls come in, many are converted to orders or sales. Job done? Many people in sales roles are really just...
At the weekend I had a disappointing customer experience involving a technical sale fail. After 9 years good service my car stereo effectively died. Radio still works, but the aux input and CD player died within a couple of months of each other. I needed something...
Business insights come from understanding the linkages between your knowledge and experience and the client's situation and challenges. Offering business insights in customer conversations is a great way to build trust and communicate value, but is this something you focus on? Or do you just...
The rules of referrals have changed a lot in recent years. Where referrals used to be reactive, informal, occasional, non-exclusive and personal, they are now proactive, formal, strategic, exclusive, and commercial/organisational, with organisations increasingly locking themselves into to strategic alliances with other professionals and providers...
Customer intimacy is key to gaining customer trust and loyalty. Do you ever feel uncomfortable in your client/customer conversations? If not, the chances are that you are staying in one or more of your safety zones. Many conversations start with the personal-personal zone the superficial chats about...
Customer experience and pricing Customer experience and pricing are closely linked - with the main link being customer emotions. With increasing competition - including price competition, organisations not only have to ensure customers feel good about their experience, they also have to ensure that customers feel...
Moving conversation away from either safe technical discussions or superficial personal chatter can help you build intimacy, trust and also help you better understand your customer's personal value triggers. Let's get personal professional! Do you ever feel uncomfortable in your client/customer conversations? If not, the chances...
The trusted advisor model has long been the established method for professionals to build deep, long lasting, value rich client relationships. But do clients (or customers as they might now be) really value that any more? Clients Customers Receive professional services Buy goods or services from a business Personalised solutions Generic...