If you’re reading this for great last-minute ideas of what kind of cookies or niceties to purchase in bulk to mail out to your customers, I confess my disappointing approach to your dilemma. However, if growing your customer base has been a challenge for you while you watch your competitor do it with ease, well deck the halls, my friends. Tis’ the season to be jolly because we know what your customers want but don’t know how to ask you for it. Customers’ wants and needs, in many ways, are like a child’s in the sense that it may seem complicated at first, it is actually simple once you figure it out. Yes, on the surface they want good prices, on-time delivery, great service, quality, and other baseline expectations, but they have even deeper desires that they struggle to communicate with you. If you can give them these 5 presents for Christmas, that box of peanut brittle you were going to send will seem more like a lump of coal.
- Value – We’ll start off with an easy one. Most of you will read this and suggest that you already give great prices. That’s not what we’re talking about. The value you bring improves a customer’s situation and that is something a price can’t do. In fact, special pricing is needed when you can’t provide value. If what you offer doesn’t make something better, chances are you wouldn’t make it in the first place. Show them the gift of the value that you offer and they will gladly kiss you under the mistletoe.
- Clarity – Can you tell customers clearly in 15 seconds what you do or do you believe that what you offer is really that complicated? No customer ever wants something that is complicated EVER. When is the last time you got a gift for Christmas and said, ‘Oh great, that looks complicated.” Nope. I’m not dismissing or marginalizing the complexities of your products and services, but if you can be simple and clear with your customers, they will give you the gift of sales.
- A Fresh Approach – Salespeople make a lot of noise. When you and your sales team approach customers, you like to think that you make the soothing sounds of Christmas Carolers. Nope. You are noisier than black Friday traffic because you use the same old (and non-effective I might add) sales tactics that customers have heard more than Jingle Bells. Come at them with a fresh approach that gets their attention. Having a hard time understanding how to do this, let Scorecard’s sales training give you some great ways to get the job done.
- New Solutions – Kids don’t want to get the same gifts for Christmas every year and your customers are no different. They encounter new problems all the time and constantly need new ideas. When was the last time you and your sales team looked for something new to sell? Perhaps it can be as simple as improving some of your services, but either way, show your customers that you are constantly innovating and staying current. Give them a new gift to open this year.
- Listening – This is the simplest gift of all to give. It is also the salesperson’s least favorite gift to give. Listen to your customers. They have very little interest in you talking at them. Your features and benefits may be interesting to you, but until you listen to your customers first, they are meaningless. Customers will not buy until they feel that they have been heard. Give this gift abundantly and it be will be returned in closed deals just as bountifully.
Give your company the gift of creating great salespeople. Give the gift of Scorecard Sales so we can help your sales team get the perfect gifts for your customers so you can get the gift you always want; more sales.
