People are losing sales with much talking and not listening
Sales and marketing go hand in hand, marketing informs and reminds people you exist while sales, is the customer care process of understanding the customer need and then offer the best solution that will benefit the customer. And sometimes you are not always the best solution for the customer. Are you willing to let go of a customer if you are not able to give them the service they need? Are you willing to let go of a customer if you are unable to help them further.
I love working with people to help them understand their brands and the tools that are out there that they can use to either make life easier, save costs or to make improvements which is part of the lead generation process.
Listen, Listen and Listen some more and increase sales
People are too busy talking and not listening. People are too busy wanting the sale, instead of listening to what it is their customer is asking, known and unknown. This happens a lot in the tech space. The tech guy is too technical while the client is tech-challenged. Often tech guys sell stuff to clients they don’t essentially need which results in losing money that could be well spent focusing on what the client essentially is asking for and needs.
Clients who have been burnt will often invite me into meetings or they will forward me stuff people are wanting to sell them that looks like it has all the bells and whistles but often come at a cost. I recently experienced this where a supplier was far more interested in getting what it is they wanted insisting on their products rather than listening to exactly what it is the clients are asking and then looking at workable solutions to benefit the client.
Are you listening to what it is your clients or customers are asking of you or are you too busy wanting to get the sale?
Information is a valuable commodity, Google and Facebook see us as their product, why are you as a business not doing the same? There is nothing wrong with you seeing your customers as the product so that it can help you find solutions that meet their needs and desires. People get themselves all twisted when it comes to privacy but their entire lives are on the internet. The internet is a great tool to help you understand people at a deeper level. The next time you get stuck and not sure how to generate new business, put on your customer investigation cap and do a bit of investigating.
Join groups that are active in having valuable engagement. Pay attention to what people are posting in the comments. I get better insights as to what people are thinking and feeling when I read comments on posts on certain subject matters. You can pick up the mood people are in as well as what is currently trending. If you were active online before lockdown, you could’ve picked up the need for hygiene services and products to sell for example. One group I belong to is very good for giving me ideas for content I can create that would be relevant to my audience.
The fashion industry designs fashion based on what the public is posting on social media and with AI, tech is becoming the fashion designer. How can you use social media as a research listening tool?
Attend networking events to create awareness of your existence, to learn about others and for content creation. Listen to what people are saying or not saying when they introduce themselves. Listen to the questions being asked.
Ask questions, don’t sell! Find out what is going on in your customers’ lives. At the start of lockdown being in a more fortunate position than most, I was able to reduce client fees and also assisted many people to keep their doors open by giving them options. By asking questions, engaging in conversations and attending online events helped me create products and services that would benefit the customer by creating additional income streams for themselves.
To protect, lobby, promote and develop ethical franchising across all sectors in South Africa with specific focus on transformation.
