Build A Stairway to your Customers
11:15 AM
Business Management
This morning I received a sales call from
someone offering me a CRM solution – “the best in the market”, which I could
use freely and without any strings attached for 90 days. I was given the usual
pitch about how this offer was exclusive and available only to select people.
Now, we badly need a better CRM solution, but I am not sure which one would be
right for us as there are so many available. I don’t want to start using one
only to discover later that something better exists. It would be difficult to
make the switch later. So essentially, I did not need to be persuaded very hard
to buy a CRM solution. What I needed was an assurance that the solution I
bought was going to be the best for my requirements.
I
Needed Education
I began discussing other CRM solutions
available in the market with this sales guy, but in effect, he did not go
beyond stating that his product was the best. He could go on an on about his
product, but had no clue about the market and competition that would make me
trust his judgment. To be fair, he did
answer a few of my questions but they were not enough to establish trust, and
project “I am here to help you succeed”.
He was singularly focused on getting me to buy his product. It did not seem to me he had any interest
beyond that. I have had similar
experiences looking for video conferencing solutions that sell anywhere from $10,000
to $65,000. These are frustrating
experiences.
Contrast this with another experience I had
while looking for a direct marketing copywriter. I started by consulting this
hot-shot copywriter whose name is thrown up by Google whenever you search for
copywriters. I contacted him with my requirements and he mailed me his rates.
He is quite expensive, but money was not that big an issue, he is definitely
good at his work and I wanted results.
So I kept him under consideration, but decided to shop around a bit more
just for my own satisfaction. I came upon another copywriter who appeared to be
a good candidate for the kind of work I wanted to get done, and contacted her.
I was in for a pleasant surprise when she took the time to go over my
requirements, discuss them in detail with me over a couple of long phone
conversations, only to tell me eventually that I didn’t really require her
services. That it would be an unnecessary expense for me, and pointed me to the
alternate solution of direct marketing.
To cut a long story short, the second copywriter impressed me as she
enlightened me about my own requirements. She focused on providing value rather
than just making money. Even though I did not work with her, or any other
copywriter, convinced by her argument, she is there in my mind and I make it a
point to refer her to people who require copywriting services. And recently I did
use her services for another project without checking out if anyone else could
do the job better. The funny thing is this project was not about direct
marketing messaging, her specialty, and logically, she should not have been the
first choice for that kind of work.
Customers
Don’t Have Time, Not Even To Test Products Offered Freely
What I learnt from these experiences is
that customer relationships, like other human relationships, need to be built
gradually, one-step at a time, and Freemium is not necessarily the best
solution. Your customers do not have the time, and maybe the experience, to
test out your products. You need to help them make educated choices, which they
feel satisfied with in the long run. You need to EDUCATE them, and you need to
do it in a way that is convenient for them. Rather than going for the pat
solution of offering a product/service free for a limited period.
Build
A Stairway To Your Customers By Deconstructing And Reconstructing Your
Product/Service
A bird will not feed right out of your
hands until you have slowly established trust by way of multiple increasingly
positive interactions. Think about deconstructing your product/services into
multiple components, and then reconstructing in such a way that you can offer
it to your customers one-step at a time. Let them nibble at it first, if they
like it offer a bigger bite and so on. This has two benefits - you build a
relationship with your customer and expose them to your product without
overwhelming them. As you build your relationship with your customers, help
them discover your solution's benefits, educate them, or even better, assist
them in experiencing the solutions offered by competing products and show them
why you have a superior product. You might need to spend more time and money on
such a strategy, but it will pay in the long run rather than the hit and miss
strategies used by most sales people which would probably turn out to be as
expensive if not more.
We
live in hectic times, and the information explosion has overwhelmed most people
rather than help them. Earlier customers used to welcome the idea of trying out
various products before buying them, they still do; you would prefer trying out
the new suit to ensure that it fits you well before purchasing it. However,
trying out a new suit does not take much effort or time. Trying out software or
service does, so traditional sales techniques won’t work, sales people need to
go the extra mile to land up with customers who not only buy from them, but
also refer them to others like I refer the copywriter I mentioned above. By the
way, she is Susan Fantle at www.thecopyworks.com.