On a recent warm spring day I went to a restaurant for lunch. Before ordering, I overheard the head waiter tell another waiter to make sure to "recommend the soup" since they had tons of it left. When it came time for me to order a salad, the waiter told me not to miss out on the soup, describing the fresh ingredients, health benefits, and calorie content. Unfortunately for him, there was to be no soup for me...
Sound familiar? Sales organizations spend a lot of time crafting products that make sense for them and trying to find ways to talk the customer into buying. Im in a situation right now where Im expected to offer an insurance product to 80% of my new customers. But what if they dont want insurance or its not the right time?
Relevance is a key element to successful sales. While a few exceptional salespeople can sell an icebox to an eskimo, the rest of the world purchases a product when it meets a specific need. The ability to understand the specific set of needs that a product fulfills and identify when those needs are relevant enough for a positive purchase decision is critical to successful sales that are profitable and enhance the customer relationship.
One way to acheive this is to create a numbered list of product benefits. In our soup example, taste, health, calories should be included. For our insurance example we could talk about peace of mind, renumeration when we need it the most, and a value story around the cost vs payout.
Next create a set of customer profiles that define core groups of behaviors and characteristics. For example: Timmy Travel is always on the road, is savy about travel products, but has experienced his share of issues when things go wrong. Rhonda Redemption is a loyalty program junkie who loves points, understands how to earn and redeem, and works situations to capture the most value for her money. Last we have Peter Premium who puts a high value on his time and seeks out unique experiences and is willing to pay more for them.
Finally the trick is to match the benefits with the profiles you have created. The cost vs payout may be very relevant for Timmy and Rhonda but not as valuable to Phil who is more interested in peace of mind. Gold star if you can also match life events or specific triggers on when a specific benefit may be more relevant than usual (examples include getting married, reaching a certain age, or volcanic ash grounding flights) and leverage the extra relevance that these personal or macro events create to meet a defined set of needs for each customer.
At the end of the day, the customer is king. These savy people know the difference between a sale and a snow job and will likely take their business elsewhere if they do not feel you understand and appreciate them.
Sound familiar? Sales organizations spend a lot of time crafting products that make sense for them and trying to find ways to talk the customer into buying. Im in a situation right now where Im expected to offer an insurance product to 80% of my new customers. But what if they dont want insurance or its not the right time?
Relevance is a key element to successful sales. While a few exceptional salespeople can sell an icebox to an eskimo, the rest of the world purchases a product when it meets a specific need. The ability to understand the specific set of needs that a product fulfills and identify when those needs are relevant enough for a positive purchase decision is critical to successful sales that are profitable and enhance the customer relationship.
One way to acheive this is to create a numbered list of product benefits. In our soup example, taste, health, calories should be included. For our insurance example we could talk about peace of mind, renumeration when we need it the most, and a value story around the cost vs payout.
Next create a set of customer profiles that define core groups of behaviors and characteristics. For example: Timmy Travel is always on the road, is savy about travel products, but has experienced his share of issues when things go wrong. Rhonda Redemption is a loyalty program junkie who loves points, understands how to earn and redeem, and works situations to capture the most value for her money. Last we have Peter Premium who puts a high value on his time and seeks out unique experiences and is willing to pay more for them.
Finally the trick is to match the benefits with the profiles you have created. The cost vs payout may be very relevant for Timmy and Rhonda but not as valuable to Phil who is more interested in peace of mind. Gold star if you can also match life events or specific triggers on when a specific benefit may be more relevant than usual (examples include getting married, reaching a certain age, or volcanic ash grounding flights) and leverage the extra relevance that these personal or macro events create to meet a defined set of needs for each customer.
At the end of the day, the customer is king. These savy people know the difference between a sale and a snow job and will likely take their business elsewhere if they do not feel you understand and appreciate them.
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