Does your customer really care?

Better Sales Approaches & Selling in Today's Economy

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Working with many organizations I have often observed that they tend to believe that their market offerings are more differentiated from alternative suppliers than they actually are. At the same time, these organizations tend to over-value their products and/or services and under-value their competitors’ offerings. I have seen this again, and again. In some ways it is only natural - human nature, as it were. After all, who wants to work for a company where their products are just the same as everyone else’s and who wants to think that those offerings do not bring immense value to their customers?

Also, not surprisingly, the further you move away from the front-line sales force, the worse the situation becomes. Not to say that sales professionals are immune from the phenomena, but they tend to deal with the hard reality of customer feedback, each and every day.

I am of the belief that, in today’s world, very few products and services are really unique in ways that customers truly care about. I have witnessed far too many sales and marketing people devote way too much energy presenting attributes of their offerings that the customer really doesn’t care about. What a waste!

When it comes to selling and marketing in today’s economy, companies need to adopt more focused and precise methods. They need better sales approaches geared for today's recessionary economy. To gain results in this challenging world, selling activities and marketing investments have to be “right on target” – totally aligned to their market’s buying process. Even a few degrees off target will fail to get results. If an organization lacks reality, when it comes to what customers really care about, or does not know how they are (in the minds of their customers) differentiated from alternative approaches, they are operating at a severe disadvantage – a disadvantage that often obscures the target and relies far too much on luck.

I believe that most organizations could really benefit financially from a good dose of reality. I strongly recommend careful questioning and critical listening to help organizations better understand what their market cares about. This approach also helps sales professionals better understand what their specific customers care about. You may not hear what you expect to hear, or what you want to hear, but you will hear what you need to hear.

Live Virtual Sales Training: sign-up for a 3g Selling™ Mini-Module on the topic The Value of Value. Mini-Modules are 30 minute live interactive web-workshops where topics will be explored in a manner that allows participants to immediately apply new approaches or tools to their own situations while interacting with subject matter experts. Mini-modules are offered free, but require registration, and participation is limited.

The Mini-Module on The Value of Value will be web cast live at 9.00am (Pacific) on Thursday 30th April. To register, click here.