What does your customer want?

How often do you hear of salespeople that walk into a meeting all pumped up about their new invention only to learn that their customer doesn’t think its the greatest thing since sliced bread? Where was the issue, the customer or the salesperson? Listen closely…ITS NEVER THE CUSTOMER!
If your salespeople have not conveyed to the customer the value, it’s either because they have not been armed with the tools to do so or they are not the right people for the right job. Many salespeople start a presentation with “this is my company” when they should actually be listening in the first meeting, rather than speaking. They should listen to what the customer wants to provide to their consumers. To what the customer believes are the missing ingredients of their current program, to know what their customer’s biggest frustrations are.
For without listening, how do you know what’s important? It’s called the “voice of the customer”, in marketing lingo. Now what happens when you solicit that voice from the customer’s customers but you don’t involve the middleman? They are in an education deficit that you must correct. For if they don’t get it, their consumers may not have access to it.
In creating our newest creations, we went far and deep into the consumer’s minds to see what was important to them. In parallel we engaged some of our more progressive partners in a development program which led us to understanding where even our program was failing. Watts? Watt the *&^% does that mean to a boater or RVer trying to fill their battery? Yet the industry is caught in a paradigm because its supply chain talks that way. “STOP!”, we said…listen to the customer.
Now some people are reticent to change because of the fear of failure. So now we come to the job of the salesperson in this link. Their job is to understand these fears and address them. To deny them will absolutely cost you the customer’s loyalty, as it should. The challenge therefore lies in showing that any changes being prescribed are for the good of the consumer and that the middleperson will be a leader, not a bleeder.
In essence, learn to be your customer. Put yourself in their shoes whether its a trade buyer or a consumer. Understand what gives them pleasure and what gives them angst. Is it about margin or contribution dollars? You can make 50% on a million or 45% on a million and a half..you do the math. Same effort, different program.
Never judge the customer. They may possibly be the “wrong” customer for what you have to offer. But never judge them for what they need.
Sass