The months of the health crisis have reshuffled the cards in terms of customer relations and customer loyalty. In a business based on contact par excellence, salespeople have had to find new points of reference. How do you meet the new challenges of the sales relationship?
Between confinement, physical distance and new work organisations, sales staff have faced a number of challenges over the last two years. Changes such as the teleworking are inviting them to rethink the commercial relationship and find new points of reference. How can companies fit into a strategy that has seen the range of products and services on offer increase exponentially over the last 10 years, and become more accessible as a result of globalisation and the Internet? Sales expert Michel Bienert gives us his analysis of these new parameters in customer relations.
Building customer loyalty: the key to sales performance
Acquiring a new customer costs more than developing a new one. And with good reason: on average, it takes six times as long. Of course, it is still necessary to prospect, because a customer base is vital capital for a company. It lives and suffers a certain erosion. But it is just as essential to build customer loyalty.
The importance of satisfying
To satisfy, you have to exceed the customer's expectations. The salesperson's job is to go beyond the functional to reach the emotional, the relational and the creative. In other words, they need to know their customers well enough to anticipate their needs.
It's an aspect often forgotten by sales people: assessing real customer satisfaction. And yet, when you consider thata satisfied customer is more open to cross-selling and up-selling, so we better understand the extent of the power of satisfaction. These customers, who are likely to buy more, are a real lever for increasing margins and profitability. They require less prospecting time, because they are already "won over" to the cause. What's more, they are the company's best promotional agents, spreading the word about its products by word of mouth. So the idea is use existing resources by giving them more than they are asking for.
Before developing the value of a customer, the sales rep must analyse their potential: what buying power, what network or referral. The calculation is simple: the value of a customer lies in the value of the purchases they have already made, the value of their purchasing potential and the value of their recommendation.
A personalised relationship with the customer
A customer satisfaction initiative requires a real investment on the part of the sales person. After all, nothing can be taken for granted. Sales people need to know how to challenge themselves, and that takes courage, because you have to be able to face up to customer dissatisfaction.
When it comes to building customer loyalty, salespeople need to anchor their customer relationships in concrete terms, which means taking the time to do so. Communicating with your customer, establishing a long-term relationship, generating trust... This is the answer to the depersonalisation brought about by the "all-digital world", and therefore revalues your customer.
This personalised approach will create more of the trust that is essential for a lasting relationship. It will also be part of a more global approach to continuous improvement, which is just as necessary for companies.
The risks of remote customer relations
In everyone's mind, a virtual relationship is a superficial relationship. This is also true for commercial relationships. By feeling anonymised, customers can adopt new behaviours:
- feel their loyalty has been devalued and therefore turn to the competition
- no longer identify with the brand and adopt a purely functional approach
This presents companies with a major challenge: putting people back at the heart of the process. Both the health of their customer base and their image are at stake.
Post-COVID business relationship
The forced isolation of many of us has imposed the Internet and the virtual world as the only way to shop, leading to new habits.
New challenges
To begin with, it's up to sales staff to reassess their KPIs and objectives. Gone are the days of automated systems (e-mailings, surveys, etc.), replaced by listening to customer needs and empathy. In a word: dialogue. From now on, the aim is to promote genuine listening, dialogue and human recognition.
Digitalisation enables a human approach that is just as effective "as in real life". Rather than using their sense of observation (clues about their customer's environment), sales staff will favour the "human touch". friendly dialogue to identify your catchphrases with the customer. With the digital age making it faster and faster than ever, taking the time to talk will be a real mark of recognition.
Building your customer loyalty strategy
So anything is possible, as long as you know where to place the digital cursor: optimising the technological tools while retaining the human dimension. Because, while customers like to do things online, they still need authenticity. And this can only be achieved through the involvement of sales staff. That's why, more than a question of technique, it's above all a question of people skills and respect for the customer, especially in a remote context.
10 best practices:
- devote more energy to relationships
- replace observation with questioning
- be inquisitive (but not too inquisitive) so as to reveal information that is useful to the sales strategy
- personalise loyalty offers
- mention in loyalty offers the contact details of the sales representative able to adjust them
- remain authentic and sincere in the most natural exchanges possible
- helping the customer rather than selling him absolutely
- be honest
- don't promise everything
- train and raise awareness among sales staff in the concepts of active listening, transactional analysis and non-violent communication
Beyond sales techniques, the strategy is to strengthen the human element in a commercial relationship that is becoming increasingly disembodied.
Beware of abuses
It's important to bear in mind this shortcoming of digital technology: where computers are well connected, people are not necessarily as well connected behind their screens. This leads to more passive relationships not allowing the involvement necessary for a productive relationship of trust.
Digital technology offers flexibility and immediacy, but it can also lead customers to demand constant availability from sales staff. But even if technological tools make it possible to respond to these demands, sales staff have to learn to take their time.
The growing use of digital tools has turned organisations and relationships upside down. For most of us, a period of adaptation will be necessary to acquire good practices and adjust our uses.
