May 17 2010
Integrity Is At The Heart Of Customer Focus
Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, the very best salespeople gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate.
They understand that:
• At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively. The best salespeople are masters at capturing information.
• Customer focus means taking the customer seriously. Today, the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground.
• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors that are customized to support specific goals.
• Another myth that can be exploded is that, while customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole, salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However, recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.
In order to maintain customer focus, the best salespeople become facilitators, creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong — it costs five times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!
Doing Business Is a Right To Be Earned
The right to do business has to be earned and never assumed.
Rather than doggedly asking for business, the very best salespeople work to keep the relationship moving toward a sale. They realize the need to identify how to turn their company’s products into real solutions, which must meet specific needs.
Unfortunately, our surveys confirm that the average salesperson drags the customer over old ground as much as 52 percent of the time. They are unable to provide continuous stimulation and never know when to treat an existing customer like a new one.
Conversely, exceptional salespeople make such “return” calls only 10 percent of the time.
Above all, earning the right to proceed requires gaining the customer’s trust, and top salespeople work diligently to establish a climate in which the customer is willing to share information and feels comfortable doing so.
The key here is integrity.
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That is very good comment you shared.Thank you so much that for you shared those things with us.Im wishing you to carry on with ur achivments.All the best.
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This is a nice post and I like how the basic necessities in building a business relationship is shown. Trust, integrity and commitment are the foundation of trade and should constantly be cared for. Successful sales professionals should not take these for granted just because they have a lot of other clients or are venturing into new businesses.
Read more sales related topics on Sales Training Course and share your thoughts. Thanks!
Successful sales professionals should not take these for granted just because they have a lot of other clients or are venturing into new businesses.
The part that struck me the most was “recent research shows that their (customers) primary concern is reliability.”I think that is VERY significant. So, the question becomes how do you show you and your company are reliable before you’ve made your first sale? By being on time for appointments, by making promises and keeping them and by being honest in everything you say to the prospect.
Greg