A Must For Successful Businesses!
One of the greatest ways for a business to impact and increase sales is to stop selling! Selling is nothing more than giving people a few techniques, and then sending them out on the floor to pitch various products and services and then hoping that the training pays off and some sales are closed. I have witnessed this over and over in many different environments – generic sales training with minimal results.
My philosophy is to forget “selling” and to give your people the training to enable them to help a customer buy from you. The challenge is not to sell products but to educate potential customers about the value they will receive from purchasing your products and services.If your staff or associates can’t explain and validate to your customers why they should buy from you, then why should they? Customers can go to a multitude of businesses to purchase cars, boats, copiers, clothing, appliances, even medical services, but where can they go to receive personalized service from specialists in the industry?
The first step in learning how to help a customer buy from you is to determine the makeup of your customer base. We have mentioned this numerous times before but it is such an important element that it bears review. Being able to identify your customer base is the foundation on which you will build the rest of your strategies. Studies have shown that the majority of customers don’t really know why they shop at a particular store, business or dealership. Hence the lack of customer loyalty in today’s competitive environment. It is our job to identify their characteristics and then appeal to them. There are three basic types of customers:
- Premium
- Low-Price
- Uninformed
Approximately seventeen percent of your customers are premium or “gold level”. They are loyal to you, you have had several sales experiences with them and they trust you. They typically don’t shop around because they know you are the industry specialist. Twenty-seven percent of your customers make up the low-price category. They don’t care about having a long-term relationship with you; their only concern is to find the lowest price. The remaining fifty-six percent is the majority that is basically uninformed. They simply do not know how to buy. They’re not sure what they want and don’t know what to expect from a premium value driven business because they have not been taught how to recognize one or the value provided. They shop around a lot and become confused with the proliferation of advertising.
I say the challenge is to reach the uninformed majority. By educating this group about why they need your products and services and the accompanying benefits, the more your business will grow and experience stronger success. So how do you reach this uninformed majority? Develop a buying model based on the benefits of your products and services that attract and keep your premium customers coming back to you. In addition, by defining your uniqueness to this market segment you will give them knowledge that will stimulate their interest in you. A key technique is to almost give them the right questions to ask – by finding out their level of need and then appealing to it.
To create a buying model you must be able to answer the following questions about your primary customers.
- Who are your best customers?
- What are your best customers’ highest needs?
- What is the most important value you bring to your best customers?
- How frequently do your best customers buy?
Who are your best customers? Use discretion here because the ones who spend the most money are not always your most premium customers. Often, the one who purchases the greatest amount has driven owners out of business by leveraging you to death on price. The “best” customer can be defined in a number of ways; frequency, total number of units, or their value in terms of profit margin.
What are your best customers’ highest needs? Define them and you can design a program that will generate more premium customers. The logic stands to reason – similar customers may have similar needs – design your program to them and to the uninformed majority. Remember:uninformed customers may not know they have a need for you until you educate them!
What is the most important value you bring to your best customers? Hopefully, it is more than just providing them with a product or service. Ideally, you should be able to define in twenty-four words or less what it is and how they benefit most from what you sell them. For example: Hertz brings to its customers a way to get out of the airport and to their final destinations faster than any other rental car agency. Its not cars they provide – its fast, dependable and convenient destination service! Remember that service-based value usually lasts far longer than product value. If customers remember your service – they will be buying more from you than just a suit, camera or a home comfort system. They will be building a long-term relationship with you.
How frequently do your best customers buy? A fatal mistake for independent business owners is to assume that frequency of contact should equal frequency of purchase. Just because customers don’t normally buy a new snowmobile every six weeks doesn’t mean your contact with them should diminish. You should be mailing your best customers several times a year on a regular basis. They should receive pre-season personal phone calls to remind them about service check ups, new models, etc. If you fail to contact your premium customer because you’re too busy meeting the demands of price shoppers, you will regret it.
By answering these and more questions unique to your business you can develop a buying model that will maintain your premium customers and educate the uninformed so that they will know why they need to purchase from you.
Thomas J. Winninger, CSP, CPAE, and member of the Speaker Hall of Fame is the president of Winninger Institute for Brand Strategy and over 70 major companies in North America depend on him to assist them in maintaining their market dominance. Thom is the author of best selling “Price Wars”, “Sell Easy”, and new in 2000, “Full Price!” Contact the Winninger Institute at (612) 896-1900; E-mail: thomas@winninger.com; or visit our webite!
