Take care of your customers or someone else will! How many times have you heard that one? Yet, how many times do we fail at taking care of our customers in the way they want to be taken care of?
Successful leaders know in order to grow sales you must take care of your customers. You must make a lasting impact on them. I have to ask, what’s the impression your team is making on your customers? Would you even know?
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Yet far too often, we forget just how important they are until it becomes too late.
You and your team may think you’re taking care of your customers, but in reality, are your actions measuring up to your intentions? Right now, at this very moment, would you even have a clue as to how anyone on your team is taking care of your customers?
“Merely satisfying customers will not be enough to earn their loyalty. Instead, they must experience exceptional service worthy of their repeat business and referral. Understand the factors that drive this customer revolution.”
— Rick Tate
Let that quote sink in for a moment, now ask yourself: Are my salespeople enhancing or neglecting the customer experience?
Do You Have Sales Babysitters?
How well can you answer the following…
- Would you truly know if your sales reps are delivering value?
- Would you know if your team is providing your customers what they value more effectively than your competitors?
- Would you know if your team is delivering value that your customers can’t find elsewhere?
- Would you know if your team fully appreciates your clients?
With the utmost of honesty, sit down and visualize your sales team as you read out loud:
- Sales reps who flip their base year over year, possibly earlier than needed, are nothing more than overpaid babysitters.
- Sales reps who fail to grow their business and the relationships within them are overpaid
babysitters . - Sales reps who fail to consistently prospect, fail to develop new business relationships, fail to enhance sales opportunities and lead by example are nothing more than overpaid babysitters.
Now, what are you personally doing to help coach your team to enhance the customer experience? If you find this hard to answer, then I submit to you right now, you’re fostering a babysitting culture.
Customers or Clients
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a customer is someone who buys goods or services from a store or business. The word client can also mean customer but it has a separate definition as someone who receives professional services.
In a business context, the two terms are often applied differently based on the types of relationships built. Customers are generally people who come to you mainly to buy products or services you supply. Clients buy your advice and solutions personalized to their particular needs.
Do you and your team personally view your customers as customers or are they viewed as clients? How many inside your team view them as clients but treat them as customers?
Would you even know?
Would you know when a customer becomes a client, or the other way around? When a client becomes a customer, this becomes a problem.
Think about this one for a moment. How are your sales reps being viewed? Are they viewed as sales reps of products and services or do they enlighten, add value, inform, advise, counsel, nurture and become an advocate on behalf of your clients?
Is it your personal preference to be sold or served? When you’re in the marketplace as a consumer, do you seek out professionals whom you can trust, or sleaze-balls selling you and then moving on?
Your personal commitment should be to coach your team to build sustainable relationships with your clients who value their professional advice rather than finding customers who make a one-time purchase.
A Servant Experience
Hug, strengthen, protect and serve your clients. How many of your sales reps are putting a big huge hug around your client base? What are they doing to ensure your clients continue doing business with your company?
Are your clients being well-served and taken care of? The more your sales reps can lead with a servant mindset, the better off you’ll be in the long run. The aim is for them to be seen as a trusted adviser.
To serve, this sets an entirely different standard and experience. Your clients are human beings and not pieces of equipment. In a personal relationship, the human and heartfelt aspect is of the utmost importance. I’m going to ask you and your team to do the same with your client relationships.
Serving is warm. Servicing is cold. Servicing is a defensive move while to serve is an offensive move.
A servant experience means:
- Understanding your clients’ needs at a deep level.
- Identifying and anticipating needs they may not yet have realized.
- Making your clients’
job easier. - Knowing something about the clients’ life and family.
Enhance the Experience
Creating an outstanding experience is one of the biggest opportunities your team will have to capture your clients’ interest, get them to act and have them continue to do business with you.
Your team must stop operating with the same mindset, delivering the same HO-HUM experiences as you expect different outcomes.
What could you be doing to give your clients the experience they deserve? What can your team be doing to give your clients the experience they deserve? There’s absolutely no excuse for ignoring this fact. I encourage you to start curating client memories. If you’re not providing outstanding experiences, then really, what are you doing?
