In this wide ranging conversation we discover why the strongest evidence is what your customers tell you...
Ask any salesperson or supplier what their customers truly value, and you’ll likely get a confident, polished answer. They’ll speak passionately about all the reasons they believe their customers find them indispensable.
But here’s the thing: they’re often wrong. Or, more accurately, they’re often only half-right, missing critical pieces of the puzzle...
Our experience is organisations consistently under estimate, and sometimes under value, the things they do right for their customers. The old saying about the value of "catching your people doing something right" is relevant here. But how do you do that unless you really know WHAT your customers think in the first place?
Great sales processes (by which we mean those designed to guide a prospect through complex decision making) can be very helpful. But in our experience, even the best sales processes can create friction and frustration when they don't align to a customer's buying process. The best sellers flex their approach but we often hear from buyers who say this can be too little, too late. Our experience is the best sales process can sometimes be your customer's buying process...
Which of your customers haven't told you what they really think lately? We often find the quietest voices can be the richest sources of valuable insight...but accessing this gold-dust needs a very skilled approach...
Even the most revealing, informative and exciting client insights are worthless unless they are the catalyst for action. The only thing worse that not seeking to see the world through your customers eyes is to then ignore what you learn...