When most dealers host lunch-and-learn events, they bring in customers and provide a meal while sharing information about new products or services. These events can be valuable for maintaining relationships with clients, while offering greater opportunities to grow your business. But what If I told you that you should flip that process?
Why should you consider it?
You’re probably thinking I’m the one who has flipped. But there is massive value in lunch-and-learn meetings that allow customers to teach you about what’s important to them. In his book “Customers For Life” by Carl Sewell, he explains how a reverse lunch and learn benefited his company and cemented relationships with his customers.
Sewell would invite customers in and ask them about their experiences with his company, as well as what his company could do better. He excluded customers who were already happy with the company, because they might not have much to share. Instead, he invited those he thought would have helpful insight, including some negative feedback. The reason: those customers would show him how he could improve the service he provided and make customers even more satisfied.
In describing the process, Sewell noted that he met with customers on his own, with none of his employees in the room. Why? He wanted clients to feel free to talk without worrying about one of his managers becoming defensive.
In this article, I’m going to share some suggestions on how you can create a similar process and a strategy to gain equally valuable information.
Who should you include?
Get a variety of your customers to participate—I suggest starting with those who have been most affected by the pandemic. This group can explain what their pain points have been, and by asking questions, you can start to see opportunities to expand your business.
Please understand, this is not a meeting for you to do anything but ask questions. If you start to sell, you will most likely lose your audience. Instead, ask them what your company can do better.
How should you go about it?
Start by selecting the 20 most-helpful prospects and send them an invitation letting them know that you would be providing lunch, maybe even offering options for the meal. Select a date far enough in the future to allow them to plan for it. Be sure you receive an RSVP from them, so you know who will attend and what to order.
Next, set up a virtual meeting for the scheduled time and reconfirm who will attend and what their food choice is. Give your customers an idea of what you want them to talk about so they can think about it and prepare.
When conducting the meeting, have some open-discussion time and make sure everyone introduces themselves. Then move toward a moderated discussion so everyone can hear and people aren’t talking over each other. Offer everyone a chance to speak, starting with a person most likely to have complaints. Once you get someone talking, the others will typically jump into the conversation.
Either record the session, take notes yourself or have someone else take notes so you don’t forget any suggestions and ideas. Not everything you hear will make you happy, but what you hear will give you a better understanding of what you need to change.
What should you ask about?
These are some suggested topics and questions to get you started:
- How has our service been?
- What challenges have you had with contract billing?
- How well are problems resolved?
- How can we better serve you?
- What’s been your biggest challenge in keeping your business functioning during this pandemic?
- Are your sales representatives reaching out to to leasing companies to see what programs they have that could benefit your customers?
- What do you wish we did differently than our current process?
- What other products and services could we offer that would make your life easier?
- What do you like about our current sales and billing model?
- How could we change it and make it better for you?
I’m sure you can see the value of understanding your clients’ answers. In the current situation, most people are not in the right place mentally or financially to have someone sell to them. But in many cases, they will be glad to tell you what’s wrong and how you could be better. And knowing how you can be better will help you fix what the customers think is deficient. It doesn’t matter how attached you are to your current method of doing things; if your customers aren’t happy with it, you need to fix it.
Some of those questions could also open up new business opportunities. By carefully listening to what customers say, you can start to map out future changes for your business—changes your customers are telling you they want.
After you conduct your first meeting using this method, you can refine it and polish it for future opportunities to hold similar sessions. By showing customers that you’re interested in what they have to say and that you care about how they feel, you win. Remember, customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
