Effective selling is often about understanding what it is that the customer really wants. It’s very easy to get lost in promoting your product, focusing on its features and design, or it’s potential to change lifestyles and dramatically shift a market. However, what any potential customer for your brand is really looking for isn’t a product description but a solution. Switching to a true customer-centric view means appreciating that solving problems for customers is the context in which your products can really shine. With this truth at the heart of your marketing you can start to build in more opportunities to get your employees to see through customers’ eyes and understand what it is they really need from your brand.
Refocus the customer experience
The crucial shift here is to move from product marketing to looking for ways to help your customers – this is the true customer-centric view. That inevitably means giving customers as much information about your product as possible so that they can see where it will solve their problems and what its features are. Such an open approach is something that many sales teams have tried to avoid in the past, as providing information was seen as a way to allow customers to shop around and then buy from another brand. However, research has found that the more information you provide the more customers are likely to trust your brand and to shop with you. There are many different ways to make this part of the experience, from using social channels to vlogs and blogs that focus on specific pain points.
Share your intelligence business-wide
Many different teams can have an impact on sales today. While the sales team might be the direct point of contact with customers, many other departments’ efforts influence eventual outcomes. Data from customer service, legal and accounting teams might be crucial in helping to deliver a more personalised, customer-centric experience that encourages a customer to buy, for example. Plus, sales information could be key for the work of others across the business too. It’s essential to ensure that your business is sharing data and that internal communication barriers and silos are being broken down.
Achieve balance between sales and marketing
It’s difficult for your employees to really see through their customers’ eyes if they are focused purely on either sales or marketing. The two should be symbiotic and work together to help achieve your overall business goals. The sales team, for example, has access to customer views, which can be shared with marketing. This insight is essential knowledge for the marketing team to craft messaging that directly addresses customer needs when setting out your brand’s solutions. Both teams will be focused more on how the customer thinks and feels and what they need from the business, which will make both functions more effective as a result.
It’s not that difficult to get your employees to start seeing your business from a customer perspective – and this is a shift that could be transformative when it comes to driving growth and reaching new audiences.
Find out more by booking onto our
Through The Customers Eyes Training Course…