Why it matters personally for a marketer and salesperson in today’s markets.
Hello from the trenches! We are now well halfway into 2023, and if you are now reading this right now, I want to congratulate you and give you a pat on the back for surviving what is one of the roughest H1 for the technology sector. The war, inflation, and post covid recovery haven’t been the fantastic rebound that everyone expected to see, but glimpses of it have been granted from time to time.
So my fellow reader, HANG IN THERE!
Okay, today I want to share my opinion on customer service and why it matters to me personally.
Years ago, before the internet, you could abuse customers and hold them at gunpoint (figuratively), and they had no choice but to go along with it. Today, one wrong move and your company would be fed with negative reviews on Google reviews, Glassdoor, and other sites out there. The competition is so immense that there is always another player waiting, ready, and willing to service your customers.
Adding to the mix is the need for a competitive advantage. But it is not about the quality of your product or service. It is also not about price as someone can always undercut your price. What you need is a fair price for all. The real competitive advantage is how you treat your customers. Your relationship with them is the one thing the competition cannot seize away from you.
“Put your personal signature on the job.”
I want you to take a moment and think about something you can do for your customers to make them feel special, a memory that will make them want to come back and engage in your services again. My moment has always been telling my customers “that I am one of the most expensive lead generation providers in this region.” Usually, this signifies two things:
- An open transparency that I do know my competitors in this market and their options excluding me.
- Helping them to make sound decisions on their next steps.
Gee Dex…how does that work for the latter? Think of it this way, in the psychology aspect of your customers, they would have gone through a warren of deep decision-making across a wide spectrum of factors such as price, positioning, promotion, and place to engage your services. At the end of the contract delivered, good or bad outcome, there is a certain expectation that they have come to appreciate or expect after working with you. It is only natural to put yourself in their shoes and figure out what could have been done better.
🡪 Was it the delivery of services? On time? Late? Inconsistent?
🡪 Quality of goods?
🡪 Customer support? On time? On demand? Too slow? Unable to address the actual concerns?
and the list goes on.
So naturally, whatever the red flags in your transaction are experienced by the customers, there are usually the next warning signs they will look out for in their next purchase.
As a salesperson, this is where you shine best with an analytical approach. Although 7/10 salespeople that I have come across will simply give out discounts or freebies for subsequent purchases. Not that it is wrong, but it does hurt the competition and yet also restrict your customer’s perspective of you as a business.
One great example I can provide is an executive roundtable event in Singapore that I sold. It was a typical setup for 8–12 C-level executives, moderated by key leaders in the industries over a 3-course lunch in a fancy restaurant for 2.5 hours. The event ran pretty well, in my opinion, but the quality of the venue selected and the seating arrangement was not up to the client’s expectations.
Post-event, the clients were being pressured by their stakeholders to run another roundtable with us but at a cheaper cost. I responded back that my price couldn’t be augmented for a repeat sale, but the two major red flags highlighted I would be more careful in the selection of venue and seating arrangement in the future. Even suggesting some other restaurants that might be better for the roundtable setup.
The time taken to do this research has accumulated into a hidden cost that the client will not list in their P&L, but it has become a solid currency in convincing them to re-sign another deal with us that I have truly addressed their concerns with solutions and save the hassle of starting the whole process with another vendor. Probably a cheaper vendor also!
Disclaimer note:
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ThinkLogic Media Group or any company and their associates.
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