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Aligning – Doing Business from the Customer’s Perspective

Guest post by: Patrick T. Malone

Article Overview: Customer-centric organizations and individuals have always been more successful in starting and growing a business. Almost every company has some reference to “our customers” in their mission or vision statement. But few actually follow through on those promises because they try to be interesting to the customers rather than INTERESTED IN their customers. Here is a quick little guide to help you align with your potential customer’s various points of view.

Aligning – Doing Business from the Customer’s Perspective

Customer-centric organizations and individuals have always been more successful in starting and growing a business. Almost every company has some reference to "our customers" in their mission or vision statement. But few actually follow through on those promises because they try to be interesting to the customers rather than INTERESTED IN their customers. Here is a quick little guide to help you align with your potential customer's various points of view.

Apathy - Find out what is important to the customer and determine if you can connect there. If not, accept the indifference and move on.

Complaint - This is a cry for help. Explain how your product or service might help. Go slow because customers seldom believe that you can instantly solve the problem...even if you actually can.

Avoidance - The customer sees your idea as risky so your job is to minimize or eliminate the perceived risk. Offer a trial, smaller quantity, a test, a guarantee or any other risk reduction method available.

Hostility - For most people "NO" is the most intimidating customer response and it causes them to sell harder. Risk that urge! There is something wrong here so stop selling and find out what the barrier is. You have no hope of making a sale if you do not know what's wrong. Once you understand it you might be able to "fix" it. If not, move on.

Skepticism - The challenge is finding the right kind of proof for each customer. For some it may be a testimonial. For others research studies are required. Some will require a pilot project to prove feasibility.

Open - Relax, your customer is just open, not positive yet. Explain your product or service in a relaxed, easy manner. This is your opportunity to provide information to help the customer reach a decision.

Studious - For some "let me think about it" is another way of avoiding a decision. Most do really want to think, analyze and consider all the information. So offer to help them study it or give them time to study it by themselves with a date to reconvene.

Interested - The customer is asking questions so you give them answers. Keep it up until all the questions are answered.

Play - The customer is enthused and we want to close. Hold on! Enjoy the moment. Play back by considering all the positive possibilities.

Committed - Draw a conclusion, and close with a positive statement.

This short guide will help you align and be interested in your customers. They, in turn, will see your products and/or services as interesting and helpful in assisting them to get where they want to go.

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Article Tags: doing business, growing a business, perspective, vision statement



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money - I've given this presentation to CEOs many times. Now i can share it with you. But I cannot because I do not yet have 20 posts. Jeff Ogden, President Find New Customers
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - [quote:140e27hj]Customers Pick Static Documents over Blog Entries 8 to 1 on Average[/quote:140e27hj] Interesting study. Just as a commenter said on your post... don't call it a blog. I agree.


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