Who Is Your Customer?
Who Is Your Customer?
Twenty years ago, ninety per cent of the decisions to buy a product were made by the "buyer." A single decision could set everything in motion. Today, decisions are "customer" driven and more decisions are made by group consensus.
So, the question is: "How does the group decide who gets preferential treatment?" In most cases, it will be the supplier, in their view, who best meets their needs.
The next question, then, is: "How do you become best in the view of individuals from whom you want "Preferred Status?": By being perceived as better than their other choices. Because they are looking after their own needs, first and foremost, they will be continually evaluating the people in your capacity with which they do business.
One of their prime concerns will be to determine which supplier they can trust to meet their needs properly, every time and all the time.
You only have to be better (for them) than their other known choices to rank as "best" in their universe. In these complex relationships, you must be able to provide the right quality in product and service plus consistent preferential treatment of them.
"Sustained cooperation grows from only one condition — anticipated reciprocal cooperation." (Axelrod) This will require you to have:
• A clear criteria for deciding who you favor — what is your niche?
• A clear identification of who meets those criteria.
• A clear way to resolve all of the problems in a way which satisfies the needs of you and the customer.
• Your ability to influence the customer (especially to give you preferred status) is very much shaped by their perception of your willingness to help them meet their needs, especially their intermediate and longer term needs.
The customer is demanding higher quality and reliability so we must be able to market to each individual in our customer's team and to our own internal customer team.
Customer — Prospect Analysis
To effectively meet the needs of both internal and external customers, we will take an in-depth look at how you and others make decisions and take actions.
Customer Demand #1: Can I trust you?
Building Relationships —
Salespeople prosper and grow according to their effectiveness in helping prospects and customers improve the way they attain objectives important to them. Top performers gain a substantial competitive edge over their less proficient competitors by alerting their clients to opportunities they were unaware of and help them define problems they could not discern on their own. Such salespeople get the sale and the long term loyalty of their customers.
The purpose of this article is to help you develop a logical method and deeper insight for the analysis of your products, customers, and the creativity it takes to match them up.
In a business, where we essentially call on the same customers each week, it is important that we sell ourselves so that our customers will feel positively toward us and will want to buy from us. We know that friendly emotional feelings and trust on the part of the customer go a long way in making the sale and getting repeat business.
To get favorable attention from individuals, they have to feel they can trust us. For any relationship to grow, each party has to be able to trust the other.
Exercise #1 Based on your experience, list what you think has to be done to build trust with a prospect or customer.
Exercise #2 Now, list those behaviors that either interfere with building trust or destroy an existing, trusting relationship.
Interaction of Personality Styles and Trait Combinations
To be successful in business, you must be sensitive to the basic needs of others. In this article, you will develop a greater understanding of your own unique personality style and tendencies. You will also see how others have similar and/or different styles and tendencies.
The Drake/IPM system fosters a candid, open attitude between people. When used properly, mutual trust and respect are created. Trust and respect are the primary ingredients in successful relationships.
Your Profiles pinpoint where potential interpersonal conflicts may occur and the system provides the tools to manage or eliminate them and allow you to accentuate the positive elements in relationships between you and others while being sensitive to areas of potential conflict.
The following is a summary of potential conflicts and complementary relationships between people based on their High Traits. It illustrates how personality styles contribute to relationship building and/or conflict.
Understanding Trait Combinations and how to use that knowledge is very important to successful Managers and Supervisors. Understanding your own people and how to motivate them — that's what this system is all about!
Let's see how understanding Trait Combinations can help . . .
Selling to Different Personality Styles
In order to consistently be successful in sales, you should know how personality styles tend to interact with each other and how to influence all styles.
Selling to the High Dominant Style:
High Dominant people tend to be motivated by daily challenges, tangible results achieved, and respect as a leader. They insist on being in charge and want to make the final decisions. Following are suggestions to build trust with High Dominant customers.
Preparation: Be prepared and get down to business—do not waste time with small talk. Make sure you have several objectives dealing with their needs for achievement.
Opening: Make an opening statement which contains bottom-line results, or time efficiency.
Questioning: Have two or three general and specific questions ready—all relating to efficiency or tangible results. Be certain you take good notes and be able to translate the information into Benefits your service or product will produce.
Presentation: Focus on the specific Benefits from your product features that lead to their objective of increasing profitable sales, or improving efficiency.
Support: Have tangible evidence of how your product or plans have produced results for other customers with similar operations.
Action: Give the High Dominant the choice of several alternatives when asking for the order. Remember they have to be in charge. If they ask questions you can not answer, be honest with them and tell them you will get the information for them. Ask them for feedback on their thoughts.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Extrovert Style:
High Extroverts are motivated and productive by a lot of interaction with people, by praise and public recognition, by acceptance and being liked by others, by identifying with an organization or product that has a good public image, and by opportunities to make more money.
Preparation: Be prepared to visit about topics which interest the customer for a brief period and then have an introductory statement of purpose for the meeting which includes how their store or they can gain more wide-spread recognition or make them more money. Being recognized in the community as a leader is also important.
Opening: Focus your opening in terms of who else is using this produce/service/idea.
Questioning: Be prepared with two or three general and specific questions that force the customer to use his/her creative talents.
Presentation: Focus the Benefits of your product or plan so they show how easy it will be to use it.
Support: Focus on the positive feelings they will have by offering your product or plan to their customers.
Action: Just assume the High Extrovert has already decided to use your product or implement your plan. Talk as if the sale has already taken place. Remember the Feel-Felt-Found method for any objections.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Patient Style:
High Patient people are motivated and productive when there is a harmonious and cooperative work environment, with a minimum amount of conflict, resulting in a steady atmosphere. They resist when pushed or forced into decisions before they have had time to think things through.
Preparation: Prepare your presentation around primary and secondary objectives of meeting their need for acceptance and producing satisfied customers.
Opening: Spend a lot of time visiting with the High Patient person and showing them you accept them and want to work closely with them. Your opening statement should focus on how your product or service will make for better relationships.
Questioning: Your general and specific questions should concentrate on how they could help others do something. Friendly, help oriented questions. You should avoid putting them on the spot. High Patient people dislike taking risky positions by expressing opinions that could be controversial.
Presentation: Use fact statements with Benefits that demonstrate how your product/ service/plan will improve relationships and make people feel good.
Support: Share feelings, personalize how those using your product or plan have benefited. Be very sensitive to their objections. Ask enough questions that they feel free to express any reservations they may have. Many times High Patient people will not express how they really feel for fear of hurting someone's feelings. This can hinder the sale.
Action: Draw up a specific plan of action and get agreement to use it. With a High Patient style, a sale is not a sale until the product is delivered and paid for. You will need very specific and dated time lines for the final sale and be ready to re-sell if necessary. Be certain to protect the prestige of this person.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Conformity Style:
High Conformity people are motivated and productive in an environment where there are few abrupt changes, where there is basic job security with good benefits, where there is praise for tasks well done, and where criticism is carefully administered. High Conformity people want to provide a structured environment with few sudden changes and even fewer risks. They want standard procedures and well worked-out systems.
Preparation: Be prepared, be prepared, be prepared. Develop primary and secondary objectives for the High Conformity customer that deal with the need for security. Your information must be correct and timely and be related to their particular operation.
Opening: Spend a small amount of time in small talk and immediately state the purpose of the meeting in terms of proving how your product, service, or plan will work.
Questioning: Have general and specific questions ready that deal with the exact details of their operation. Be certain you have obtained verification of their situation and take notes to prove your attention to detail. Translate this information into Benefits that provide a secure return on their investment in your product or plan.
Presentation: The Benefits from your product or plan should lead to their objective of security and relieving his/her worries. Transfer his/her concerns to yourself. Be prepared to cover all the details and be prepared to give more than the average amount of back-up support. High Conformity people will not change easily and must see adequate Benefits and minimum risk.
Support: Have plenty of information of how your product or plan has produced the Benefits you have promised in other operations. Give more and more information and share your logic. Be very patient with the High Conformity person and never infer they are wrong or have made mistakes.
Action: Do not expect big or quick decisions for the High Conformity person. Offer choices, options, while helping to make the decision. They will be very deliberate in their decisions and will often check out any references before deciding on making a change or adding your product/plan. Offering training is a strong positive in moving the High Conformity to a decision.
Always keep in mind your own High Trait and how you interact with other individuals. Flexibility is the key to building a long lasting relationship with all styles.
Who Is Your Customer - To learn more about this author, visit Leo Bartlett's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Who Is Your Customer?
Twenty years ago, ninety per cent of the decisions to buy a product were made by the "buyer." A single decision could set everything in motion. Today, decisions are "customer" driven and more decisions are made by group consensus.
So, the question is: "How does the group decide who gets preferential treatment?" In most cases, it will be the supplier, in their view, who best meets their needs.
The next question, then, is: "How do you become best in the view of individuals from whom you want "Preferred Status?": By being perceived as better than their other choices. Because they are looking after their own needs, first and foremost, they will be continually evaluating the people in your capacity with which they do business.
One of their prime concerns will be to determine which supplier they can trust to meet their needs properly, every time and all the time.
You only have to be better (for them) than their other known choices to rank as "best" in their universe. In these complex relationships, you must be able to provide the right quality in product and service plus consistent preferential treatment of them.
"Sustained cooperation grows from only one condition — anticipated reciprocal cooperation." (Axelrod) This will require you to have:
• A clear criteria for deciding who you favor — what is your niche?
• A clear identification of who meets those criteria.
• A clear way to resolve all of the problems in a way which satisfies the needs of you and the customer.
• Your ability to influence the customer (especially to give you preferred status) is very much shaped by their perception of your willingness to help them meet their needs, especially their intermediate and longer term needs.
The customer is demanding higher quality and reliability so we must be able to market to each individual in our customer's team and to our own internal customer team.
Customer — Prospect Analysis
To effectively meet the needs of both internal and external customers, we will take an in-depth look at how you and others make decisions and take actions.
Customer Demand #1: Can I trust you?
Building Relationships —
Salespeople prosper and grow according to their effectiveness in helping prospects and customers improve the way they attain objectives important to them. Top performers gain a substantial competitive edge over their less proficient competitors by alerting their clients to opportunities they were unaware of and help them define problems they could not discern on their own. Such salespeople get the sale and the long term loyalty of their customers.
The purpose of this article is to help you develop a logical method and deeper insight for the analysis of your products, customers, and the creativity it takes to match them up.
In a business, where we essentially call on the same customers each week, it is important that we sell ourselves so that our customers will feel positively toward us and will want to buy from us. We know that friendly emotional feelings and trust on the part of the customer go a long way in making the sale and getting repeat business.
To get favorable attention from individuals, they have to feel they can trust us. For any relationship to grow, each party has to be able to trust the other.
Exercise #1 Based on your experience, list what you think has to be done to build trust with a prospect or customer.
Exercise #2 Now, list those behaviors that either interfere with building trust or destroy an existing, trusting relationship.
Interaction of Personality Styles and Trait Combinations
To be successful in business, you must be sensitive to the basic needs of others. In this article, you will develop a greater understanding of your own unique personality style and tendencies. You will also see how others have similar and/or different styles and tendencies.
The Drake/IPM system fosters a candid, open attitude between people. When used properly, mutual trust and respect are created. Trust and respect are the primary ingredients in successful relationships.
Your Profiles pinpoint where potential interpersonal conflicts may occur and the system provides the tools to manage or eliminate them and allow you to accentuate the positive elements in relationships between you and others while being sensitive to areas of potential conflict.
The following is a summary of potential conflicts and complementary relationships between people based on their High Traits. It illustrates how personality styles contribute to relationship building and/or conflict.
Understanding Trait Combinations and how to use that knowledge is very important to successful Managers and Supervisors. Understanding your own people and how to motivate them — that's what this system is all about!
Let's see how understanding Trait Combinations can help . . .
Selling to Different Personality Styles
In order to consistently be successful in sales, you should know how personality styles tend to interact with each other and how to influence all styles.
Selling to the High Dominant Style:
High Dominant people tend to be motivated by daily challenges, tangible results achieved, and respect as a leader. They insist on being in charge and want to make the final decisions. Following are suggestions to build trust with High Dominant customers.
Preparation: Be prepared and get down to business—do not waste time with small talk. Make sure you have several objectives dealing with their needs for achievement.
Opening: Make an opening statement which contains bottom-line results, or time efficiency.
Questioning: Have two or three general and specific questions ready—all relating to efficiency or tangible results. Be certain you take good notes and be able to translate the information into Benefits your service or product will produce.
Presentation: Focus on the specific Benefits from your product features that lead to their objective of increasing profitable sales, or improving efficiency.
Support: Have tangible evidence of how your product or plans have produced results for other customers with similar operations.
Action: Give the High Dominant the choice of several alternatives when asking for the order. Remember they have to be in charge. If they ask questions you can not answer, be honest with them and tell them you will get the information for them. Ask them for feedback on their thoughts.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Extrovert Style:
High Extroverts are motivated and productive by a lot of interaction with people, by praise and public recognition, by acceptance and being liked by others, by identifying with an organization or product that has a good public image, and by opportunities to make more money.
Preparation: Be prepared to visit about topics which interest the customer for a brief period and then have an introductory statement of purpose for the meeting which includes how their store or they can gain more wide-spread recognition or make them more money. Being recognized in the community as a leader is also important.
Opening: Focus your opening in terms of who else is using this produce/service/idea.
Questioning: Be prepared with two or three general and specific questions that force the customer to use his/her creative talents.
Presentation: Focus the Benefits of your product or plan so they show how easy it will be to use it.
Support: Focus on the positive feelings they will have by offering your product or plan to their customers.
Action: Just assume the High Extrovert has already decided to use your product or implement your plan. Talk as if the sale has already taken place. Remember the Feel-Felt-Found method for any objections.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Patient Style:
High Patient people are motivated and productive when there is a harmonious and cooperative work environment, with a minimum amount of conflict, resulting in a steady atmosphere. They resist when pushed or forced into decisions before they have had time to think things through.
Preparation: Prepare your presentation around primary and secondary objectives of meeting their need for acceptance and producing satisfied customers.
Opening: Spend a lot of time visiting with the High Patient person and showing them you accept them and want to work closely with them. Your opening statement should focus on how your product or service will make for better relationships.
Questioning: Your general and specific questions should concentrate on how they could help others do something. Friendly, help oriented questions. You should avoid putting them on the spot. High Patient people dislike taking risky positions by expressing opinions that could be controversial.
Presentation: Use fact statements with Benefits that demonstrate how your product/ service/plan will improve relationships and make people feel good.
Support: Share feelings, personalize how those using your product or plan have benefited. Be very sensitive to their objections. Ask enough questions that they feel free to express any reservations they may have. Many times High Patient people will not express how they really feel for fear of hurting someone's feelings. This can hinder the sale.
Action: Draw up a specific plan of action and get agreement to use it. With a High Patient style, a sale is not a sale until the product is delivered and paid for. You will need very specific and dated time lines for the final sale and be ready to re-sell if necessary. Be certain to protect the prestige of this person.
Selling to Different Personality Styles
Selling to the High Conformity Style:
High Conformity people are motivated and productive in an environment where there are few abrupt changes, where there is basic job security with good benefits, where there is praise for tasks well done, and where criticism is carefully administered. High Conformity people want to provide a structured environment with few sudden changes and even fewer risks. They want standard procedures and well worked-out systems.
Preparation: Be prepared, be prepared, be prepared. Develop primary and secondary objectives for the High Conformity customer that deal with the need for security. Your information must be correct and timely and be related to their particular operation.
Opening: Spend a small amount of time in small talk and immediately state the purpose of the meeting in terms of proving how your product, service, or plan will work.
Questioning: Have general and specific questions ready that deal with the exact details of their operation. Be certain you have obtained verification of their situation and take notes to prove your attention to detail. Translate this information into Benefits that provide a secure return on their investment in your product or plan.
Presentation: The Benefits from your product or plan should lead to their objective of security and relieving his/her worries. Transfer his/her concerns to yourself. Be prepared to cover all the details and be prepared to give more than the average amount of back-up support. High Conformity people will not change easily and must see adequate Benefits and minimum risk.
Support: Have plenty of information of how your product or plan has produced the Benefits you have promised in other operations. Give more and more information and share your logic. Be very patient with the High Conformity person and never infer they are wrong or have made mistakes.
Action: Do not expect big or quick decisions for the High Conformity person. Offer choices, options, while helping to make the decision. They will be very deliberate in their decisions and will often check out any references before deciding on making a change or adding your product/plan. Offering training is a strong positive in moving the High Conformity to a decision.
Always keep in mind your own High Trait and how you interact with other individuals. Flexibility is the key to building a long lasting relationship with all styles.
Who Is Your Customer - To learn more about this author, visit Leo Bartlett's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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