Customer Engagement
Avoid the commodity corridor and get inside the C-suite
"Our mobile phones are better than those of our competitors because they come with a high resolution camera and an excellent MP3 player at a relatively small premium to comparable models"
The salesman sat back with a satisfied look on his face, a look which soon changed when the customer said "Son, I have a top of the range Nikon camera which never leaves my side and I hate music"
What continues to surprise us is that conversations such as these take place with depressing regularity and sales people the world over continue trying to sell customers products and services they do not need. The result? Another potential customer lost because the sales person did not bother to find out what they really wanted
Customer Engagement offers a new approach to "selling" which, if mastered, involves no selling at all!
Customer Engagement describes the state beyond loyalty which a customer can reach only when she sees the Account Manager/Salesman as a "trusted advisor". To achieve this a sales person must move his focus from his own internal agenda to the agenda of his customer and from a mode of "sell" to one of "creating and adding value"
Most sales people fall into the trap of believing that all of the power in the customer/supplier relationship lies with the customer who has the ability to say "yes" or "no". This leads him to ultimately focus on products features and benefits which, often, differ very little from the competitor offering. This lack of differentiation leads inevitably to the discussions being distilled down to a focus on price alone. It is usually at this point where customers win and suppliers lose
Customer Engagement shows sales people that there is a viable alternative to this approach, one where they can both win business and satisfy the company's revenue and profit objectives
Our approach to Customer Engagement, as with all of our learning and development interventions, is firstly to spend time with our clients to understand their particular objectives and needs. Only then do we attempt to propose a solution. Once this is agreed with the client we stay closely in contact during the ensuing time to make sure that the material we develop is fully in line with the specific business of the company or organisation. Perhaps this is why most of our clients regard Pearson Consulting as a "trusted advisor" and why most of our work is either repeat business or referrals from existing clients!
