How often have you bought something and thought afterwards “I’m never going back to them again”?
Unfortunately, that reaction is all too familiar to most of us. It is a sad fact that despite today’s consumer-orientated society, when a buying experience exceeds your expectations it comes as a pleasant surprise rather than being the norm.
But when it does happen, stop for a second and think how it makes you feel. What emotions are evoked and how does it change your purchasing behaviour? Price becomes less of a motivator; you are happy to be ‘sold’ to because you do not mind buying and you would happily recommend the experience to someone else.
Think of the organistations that are building a name for themselves in delivering exceptional service and look at their performance.
Yet when it comes to a business-to-business transaction, salespeople tend to forget their own personal experience as a purchaser, and less than exceptional service is the norm. It is often because the buyer is seen as ‘an organisation’ rather than an individual. This makes the transaction less personal and lowers the stakes – how much better does service tend to be if it is between people who know each other, their agendas and their respective organisations?
Individual choice
It is also important to remember the second front. Whatever the size of the organisation, it is still an individual you are dealing with (and quite often, the final decision to buy also rests with an individual).
So, the first step to improving your success rate in sales is to ensure that you are addressing the needs of the organisation to whom you are selling. Part of the reason why many organisations are investing heavily in customer relationship management (or key account management) programmes is to ensure that rational needs are met. These programmes develop a detailed understanding of the customers, key individuals, and industry then manage the relationship using a multi-disciplinary team. This should ensure that all the needs of the customer are clearly understood and a plan is in place to ensure they’re met.
Understand your audience
The next step is to remember that – no matter the size of the organisation – you are always dealing with an individual. If you know, or can work out, what is important to the individuals you are dealing with as well as the organisation they serve, it is much easier to develop an offering or solution that suits both purposes. How can you help them enhance their own performance?
Having a good idea of what is on the buyer’s and organisation’s agenda is part of the answer. An additional tip for success is to recognise that different individuals have different personalities and styles. Although this may seem obvious, it is still commonplace for salespeople to ignore this fact and treat all potential customers in the same way. You do not need to know the technical details of the different personality styles (though having a basic idea can be useful and there are a few tricks of the trade which help).
It is enough to recognise different personalities when you are facing them across the desk and more importantly what sort of selling style gets the best reaction. Is your customer is a ‘details’ person who wants to know the fine print of the service contract, or are they simply interested in knowing you can sort out their problem? If you give the latter chapter and verse on the technical details, it is unlikely that they will be impressed!
Get comfortable
Once you know the person you are selling to, make it easy for them. Faced with two suppliers offering very similar products and prices, the purchaser is highly likely to use the one with whom they feel more comfortable. This not only includes the sale itself, but the after-sales service, too – how many times has poor customer care spoilt a good buying experience? A key issue for organisations is how to ensure that their customers receive a consistent ‘message’ or ‘experience’ at all interactions during the buying process. Just as a pleasant experience will encourage customers to return, so a poor post-sale experience will keep them away.
Be flexible in how you approach the sale and be responsive to what the customer is telling you about the process. Bear in mind that long-term relationships are built on trust: this takes time to establish. Building trust is the ‘little things between the big deals’ as much as the big sales themselves.
Finally, put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Imagine what improves the buying experience from their point of view, and what makes it worse. If you can make buying from you a more positive experience and easier than the competition, you will be a long way down the road to developing lasting, profitable relationships with your customers.
