The months of health crisis have reshuffled the cards of customer relations and loyalty. In a contact profession par excellence, the salesperson therefore had to find new benchmarks. How to respond to the new challenges of commercial relations?
Between confinements, physical distancing and new work organizations, salespeople have faced numerous challenges over the past two years. Changes like telework invite them to rethink the commercial relationship and therefore find new benchmarks. How can the company fit into a strategy which has seen the offer increase exponentially in 10 years and its accessibility increased through globalization and the Internet? Michel Bienert, sales expert, gives us his analysis of these new customer relationship parameters.
Customer loyalty: key to commercial performance
Acquiring a new customer costs more than developing a new one. And for good reason: it takes on average six times more time. Of course, it remains necessary to prospect, because a customer base is vital capital for the company. It lives and suffers from a certain erosion. But it is just as essential to retain your customers.
The importance of satisfying
To satisfy, you must exceed customer expectations. The salesperson's job is to go beyond the functional to reach the emotional, the relational and the creativity. In other words, he must know his customers well enough to anticipate their needs.
This is an aspect often forgotten by salespeople: assessing real customer satisfaction. However, when we know thata satisfied customer is more open to cross-selling and up-selling approaches, 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. In fact, they require less prospecting time, because they are already “supported by the cause”. Furthermore, they are the company's best promotional agents through word of mouth which promotes its products. The idea is therefore to use existing resources by giving them more than they ask for.
Before developing the value of a customer, the salesperson must analyze their potential: what purchasing power, what network or sponsorship. The calculation is simple: the value of a customer lies both in the value of the purchases they have already made, the value of their purchasing potential and the value of their recommendation.
A personalized relationship with the customer
A satisfaction process requires a real investment on the part of the salesperson. Indeed, nothing is ever acquired. The salesperson must know how to question himself, which requires courage, because he must be able to confront customer dissatisfaction.
In a customer loyalty approach, the salesperson must anchor the customer relationship in concrete terms, which requires taking the time. Communicating with your customer, establishing a long-term relationship, generating trust… This means responding to the depersonalization induced by “all-digital” and therefore enhancing the value of your customer.
This personalized approach will then establish more of this trust essential to a long-lasting relationship. It will also be part of a more global continuous improvement process that is also necessary for businesses.
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 anonymized, the customer can adopt new behaviors:
- feel their loyalty devalued and therefore turn to the competition
- no longer identify with the brand and favor a purely functional approach
Companies then face a major challenge: putting people back at the heart of the process. The health of their customer base is as much at stake as it is their image.
Post-COVID business relationship
The forced isolation of many of us has imposed the Internet and the virtual as the sole purchasing process, leading to new habits.
New challenges
Firstly, it is up to salespeople to re-evaluate their KPI's and their objectives. No more automated systems (e-mailings, surveys, etc.), instead listening to customer needs and empathy. In a word: dialogue. From now on, the objective is to promote the true ear, dialogue and to promote human recognition.
Digitalization allows a human approach that is just as effective “as in real life”. Rather than using his sense of observation (cues from his client's environment), the salesperson will favor friendly dialogue to identify your catchphrases to the customer. With everything digital allowing us to move ever faster than ever before, taking the time to exchange will be a real guarantee of recognition.
Building your customer loyalty strategy
Everything is therefore possible, provided you know how to locate the digital cursor: optimize technological tools while maintaining the human dimension. Because, if the customer likes to do things online, he still needs authenticity. And this is only found in the involvement of the salesperson. So, more than a question of technique, it is above all a question of know-how and respect for the customer, especially in a remote context.
10 best practices:
- devote more energy to relationships
- replace observation with questioning
- be curious (but not too much) in order to reveal information useful to the sales strategy
- personalize loyalty offers
- mention in loyalty offers the contact of the salesperson able to adjust them
- remain authentic and sincere in the most natural exchange possible
- helping your customer rather than selling to them absolutely
- be honest
- don't promise everything
- train and educate salespeople in the notions of active listening, transactional analysis and non-violent communication
Beyond sales techniques, the strategy consists of strengthening the human element in a commercial relationship which is increasingly disembodied.
Watch out for drifts
We must keep in mind this defect specific to digital: where computers are well connected, humans are not necessarily as connected behind their screens. This generates more passive relationships not allowing the involvement necessary for a productive relationship of trust.
Offering flexibility and immediacy, digital can also push the customer to demand perpetual availability from salespeople. However, even if technological tools make it possible to respond to these requests, salespeople must learn to delay.
The growing use of digital tools has turned organizations and relationships upside down. For most of us, an adaptation period will be necessary to acquire good practices and adjust our uses.
