Your Customers' Customer?

Sometimes in sales something unique can happen - you view your customer through the same eyes that they view you.  
Do you think about this when you're talking with a prospect?  You should.
In large companies, your supplier list can be a great source of prospects - have you ever viewed this?  You should
As a relationship manager, do you know if your clients are suppliers to your business?  You should
As a relationship manager, do you know whether your clients views you as a prospect and wants to do business with your business?  You should
As a sales person, do you connect your prospects with your business where appropriate to discuss their products/services?  You should

You should remain open to the thought of whether you prospect/client could do business with you as much as you doing business with them.

Client/Supplier Relationships - Exploring the Client Side of the Supplier Equation

With experience, broadly speaking there are 5 types of client/supplier relationships:

1. We Love Each Other
2. We Love Them
3. We Don't Love Them, But You're All The Same
4. We Don't Love Them At All
5. We Don't Have One

Looking at what each means from a sales perspective:

We Love Each Other

This is a difficult sales road and you'll usually find your most desired prospects in this space (and your top existing clients should sit here as well).  These are customers whose supplier is a partnership - enscounced in their business providing more than just product/services - but helping the business proactively, supporting the business.

Of course, things change, here you spend time trying to get to know them, where they're going and endeavouring to add value on the way waiting for a catalyst to deepen your relationship. 

As this is the type of loyalty you wish to engender with your top clients, you need to respect that loyalty and be the top of the list in the event something changes.  Sales here tend to be long term - relationship and trust based.

Success here is getting to talk to them and regular contact.  A very good client won't even let you in the door - seeing you suggests they're open to maintaining a relationship but doesn't give you the right to hard sell.

We Don't Love Them At All

At the other end you have the entirely mobile clients - those who have signalled their desire to move.  Here you need to be careful.  A good client will seldom find themselves in this space unless something has seriously decoupled in their relationship with their supplier.

You need to determine if this is due to an issue with the supplier or the business.  You do run the risk of inheriting another suppliers problem if you don't scope what the dissatisfaction is about.  This process is often compounded by the fact that clients in this type of position typically wish to move quickly.

Sell cautiously here and make sure you understand what is driving the need for change or dissatisfaction.

We Don't Have One

Some sales people have a unique job - selling a process or service to a client where they don't have an incumbent supplier in this space or, while they do, what you offer is a seachange in process/product/service to them.

Here, sales becomes more about education.  People typically like what they know.  Cloud and SaaS are an example where, despite being around for a while now, some clients are only just accepting them as an option for their business. 

This becomes a strong conversation - not just about cost/time savings, but other internal issues and objections like fear of the unknown, business risks etc.  Testimonial clients are an invaluable source of influence here - especially if your testimonial is from a client who was similarly minded.

Now we're in to the last two types.  This client type and the next are by far and away the most enjoyable to work with when you're on the top of your sales game

We Don't Love Them, But You'll All The Same

'Ouch' says the sales person.  Unfortunately as a good sales person or company, you can be measured by a clients poor experience.  Industries where there is a 'neccessary evil' to the relationship (eg Accounting, Insurance, Banking/Finance) lend themselves to this.  A poor experience becomes normal for a client and they learn to accept it - worse, they assume ALL other providers of the same service/product are similar - so why change.

Selling here is about proving them wrong.  Demonstrating to them the relationship they should be getting.  This isn't about saying it - no doubts they're heard all the rhetoric before (which makes things worse!).  It is about doing it - showing them.  Show them your clients who have benefited from your relationship, show them what you can do for them.  Actions, in this case, certainly do speak louder than words.

We Love Them

The subtle difference from the last one and this one, is above the client knew the relationship wasn't special - here the client thinks they have a great relationship with their supplier, but you know it is less than optimal.

How do you tell them they're wrong?  Again, you show them.  For many clients here - the issue is their definition of a 'great relationship'.  Like the above, often this frame of reference is limited by prior experience. 

Take a PowerCo for example and ask a client.  Most people will have an ambivilent relationship with their company.  Good service to them is the power stays on and the bill isn't stupid.  Sound like you?  How many times in the past 5 years has your power company rung you to suggest they could optimise your bill as they think you're on the wrong plan - heck, this now sounds familiar.  Some have started doing this haven't they?

Selling here is about showing them what they don't know they should be getting.  Resetting their expectation of a great relationship - helping them realise the supplier equation was unbalanced and they were being under serviced. 

Questions To Ask Yourself

With Your Prospects - knowing how they think about their current supplier, how should I adapt my sales process?

There is no surprise, how well you like working with a client directly affects the above - so when prospecting ask yourself - will we love working together?

With Your Clients - what do they think about us and is this what we want them to think?

You Sold What? To Who?

Many years ago, I encountered this Dilbert cartoon:

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-01-11/

It constantly reminds us of the continual balancing act that is undertaken in sales.  There is a great need to show good value to a client to both justify their decision to work with you (and overcome inertia where change is needed) and the price you're charging them.  At the same time, you are making promises that set expectations (a rod) that you and/or your company/colleagues need to deliver at some point post sale (your back).

It is important to match a deep understanding of your own capabilities, those of your colleagues/company against a deep understanding of the client.

A deep understanding of the client is important as, whilst your product/service may actually do what you say it does, you client mightn't be in a position to actually use/benefit from it.  In which case, you've still oversold the client and they've potentially paid for value that they can't realise.  An example is providing customers with complex products/services that should benefit their business, but not actually teaching them how to use them properly (a smart competitor can often use this to their benefit!).

Never be fearful of indicating to a client that what they have now is a great offer or that 'we'd love to work with you, but there's certain aspects of your requirements we can't deliver on at the moment'. 

At least, if you didn't win them, but exited graciously, you have a chance to secure them when you can fulfil their needs and your promises.

There is only one thing worse than not winning that client - and that is having to face them every day knowing, as a sales professional, you let them down by over-promising what you could do or failing to deliver that promise.

 

You're The Audience...

A lot of effort goes in to a sales person convening a meeting with a client - in the prospecting space, it is the core function of business development.  Secure Time With A Prospect - a business development mantra.

Then, once secured, you spend further time planning and preparing for the meeting to maximise the time with the prospect.

At the meeting, you are so prepared with as litany of things to discuss - you run through everything, not missing a beat and in a heart beat the meeting is over.

Sound familiar?  Who did most of the talking? 

It is easy to over prepare for a prospect meeting in the excitement of securing it.  Yes, preparation is important but the purpose of a meeting should be to understand more about the client and determine can you and should you do business together.  It isn't to talk at the client about all the things you can do for them - more often than not, you don't know enough about them to tell them this yet.

It is easy in sales, when establishing a meeting with a client, to treat them as the audience.  Nothing is further from the truth however.  THEY should have YOUR attention - YOU ARE THE AUDIENCE.

A Meaningful Experience v A Sale

When you're in a restaurant, front of house can be fairly certain you're going to buy something as you've walked in the door (yes, some people do walk out).  When ordering, some staff will just listen to what the customer orders, others will impart their knowledge to help the customer make a suitable choice.  A some point you'll make it to the till and pay.

Some 'food' for thought:

• How does the owner know how many people DIDN'T choose to walk in the door?
• How does the owner know how many people DIDN'T know the restaurant existed?
• How many people ate their once but not again?
• How many people recommended or discourage their network from going to the restaurant after their experience?

Sure, it is important for the customer to order and pay for a meal.  The revenue from the sale is important.  However, if that client doesn't come back - the owner has to find another customer to keep revenue at the same level.  Worse still, if the client experience was poor, they may tell more people!

Another question to consider:  If the food was absolutely without peer - but the time between courses terrible - at what point would the poor service override the quality of the food and prevent you from going back?  

In sales, making a sale is important as this is what we're measured on.  Long term sales success comes from having a meaningful relationship with the client so that not only do they continue to use your products/services, but they become your advocates.  The sale is an outcome of a sales experience - not just a transaction.

As a sales person, it is more important to manage the relationship than the sale.  Sure, the sales process needs to be seamless (and, quite frankly, if you're a professional sales person, it should be anyway), but creating a meaningful client experience is the real process than needs to be focused on.

A final question - name 3 restaurants where you've had great nights out and, then, try to recall precisely what the meal cost you?

Clients remember how they feel long after any financial impact of a sale

Selling For Client Benefit

Marketing people swoon when we start talking our product/service features and benefits.  Glossy brochures, internet banners et al are all instantly imagined.  But as a sales person, in front of a customer, what are the core benefits of what you do?  Brochures often become meaningless in this situation - the client is interested in them and their position.

Benefits largely boil down to a few key categories:

1. They save money:  In short they reduce the costs for the client.  This is a pricing feature in one sense, but it can also be that you are actually more expensive in pricing - but your proposal is better structured so that the client actually still saves money from a more efficient structure.
2.  They make money:  Your products/servicess are produce income for the clients greater than that which they are currently receiving.  Some industries don't lend themselves to this - some do.
3. They save time:  Your products/services reduced the amount of time the clients would usually invest in the process that involves your product.
4. They provide convenience:  They make life easier for a client by making a process easier or taking away a stress for example. 
5. They provide security:  Some products and services are about making the client feel safer.  Insurance is an example, we don't really want it - but know we need it as it makes as feel safer in the event the unexpected happens
6. They feel good:  Some products and services are purchased just because they make us feel better about ourselves.  These could be status items or wellbeing items for example.   A good example is the company car - in reality, any old car will do, sometimes we make the choice based on a foundation of need, but also how the car makes us feel (or be percieved).

Of course, these benefits aren't mutually independant.  Something that saves you time, often saves you money.  Something that provides convenience, can also save you time, which can also save you money, which can also make you money as your staff can spend more time on revenue generating activities.

One of the issues here is a client sometimes doesn't know that they could receive one or all of these benefits.  And you won't until you have a chance to have a thorough discussion  with them and point out, through discovery, where some real benefit sits (a different topic altogether for a later day).

Often we sit back and analyse from our perspective, what our product/service benefits are...but this actually doesn't mean much.  What matters is what the CLIENT perceives are the benefits and at what point that benefit overrides intertia to justify a change/purchase.

Also, sometimes there are multiple potential benefits a client can receive - you need to determine which is/are most likely to be the most meaningful benefit to them at this point in time.

And, who you talk to changes the perceived benefits.  For example - talking to a CEO - you may find saving them money is a significant benefit to them as they're measured on the profit produced.  However, talking to the Office Manager within the same business, you may find saving them time is more significant.  All while discussing the same product/service within the same business

Some things to think about

• Most product/service benefits can be destilled to making money, saving money, saving time, providing convenience, providing security or feeling good (providing status/ego)
• Benefits differ by person and position.  You need to shape the discussion around benefits based on who you are talking to (decision maker, executive, product user etc) to successfully position your product/service
• Benefits differ by business/sector.  People will view your benefits relative to them, their business, their needs, their industry to name but a few.  
• Benefits differ over time.  The same product/service in to the same business will mean sometime different when that business is a start up, than when they are a mature business.  
• Benefits alter in relation to your competitors.  It may be a perceived benefit of your product - but if everyone has/does is, is it actually a benefit to the client?

When thinking benefits - think of them at a Macro rather than Micro level - benefits exist in a larger context than just the product/service.  They exist relative to many other factors which shape how the CUSTOMER sees your benefits.

Remember, the clients are buying the product/service for their perceived benefit - what you show them must be relative to them, where they are today and what they're trying to achieve. 

The Supplier Equation

To continue the previous relationship analogy....why do relationships form?  There are a variety of reasons....but it usually boils down to the mutual benefits received from being in one.

Social Exchange Theory suggests that in order for a relationship to be sustainable, the rewards of a relationship must be greater than (or at least equal to) the investment made in maintaining it.

Often in a personal situation, comfort sets in an it's not until someone comes in and shows us this equation is no longer balanced that we do something about it (certain match-making websites make this easy).

In a working relationship sense, the issues aren't that much different.   Let’s call it The Supplier Equation

People/Businesses are in relationships with many suppliers.  They probably formed them because at the time the supplier showed them that they could provide, in broad forms, one, some or all of the following core benefits:

-          Save them money

-          Make them money

-          Save them time

-          Provide them convenience

-          Provide them security

-          Provide them status

However, it is often that these benefits are only discussed and scrutinised at the outset of a relationship.  Like a personal relationship, things can steam along nicely until something causes the client to review their position. 

What disrupts this relationship then?  Well, in essence, three possible scenarios (amongst others):

1.      The client has a regular process to review the relationship (eg tender or RFP) forcing the re-assessment of this social exchange equation

2.      The client comes to their own realisation that the equation is unbalanced and acts on it

3.      A competitor shows the client that their offering provides a better result than their current offering

How do you stop this?  Quite simply; regularly review the difference between the investment in a relationship and benefits of the relationship – from your clients perspective.  And act on the results.  And, tell your client you’re doing it (in most situations you’ll need to have a chat with them anyway to review their position/thoughts).

People, businesses and everything changes - it is crucial to ensure your relationship is adjusted to be meaningful to a client today, not yesterday, as this is the clients perspective should they review it.

As a sales person attracting new business – it is your task to get a client to re-assess their Supplier Equation.  To unbalance this equation.

As a relationship manager, it is yours to continually review it.

Selling well is about both sides of the transaction/relationship perceiving that they are getting more out of it, than they are putting in to it - not unlike a personal relationship. Do you regularly review your client relationships for THEIR BENEFIT?

Question:

1. Have/Do you regularly reviewed your clients Supplier Equation - from THEIR perspective?