1. Don’t Tell Customers What You Think They Want To Hear. Tell Them What They Want To Know.
When you’re trying to close a sale, it’s very tempting to communicate with a customer by talking about what you believe they want to hear. After all, you want the customer to like you, and that would make the person more likely to buy.
But—you may be better off telling your customer things they want to know—about your product, about your company, about how doing business with you helps them. You’ll build a stronger bond—and likely a bigger sale. In fact, one retail network discovered that it could significantly boost sales by keeping customers away from salespeople initially. Instead, it used point-of-purchase to educate customers first, then salespeople would answer the questions the customers had.
Telling them what they wanted to know, not hear.
2. Stagnant branding is as bad as no branding at all.
Your brand can suffer the effects of stagnation faster than you might think. Many industries don’t change, so the companies that work within them become frozen in customers’ eyes. And their brand becomes stagnant, slowly, but inflicting damage.
Your industry may not change much, but your company and brand don’t have to be caught up in the quicksand. Look for new ways to expose your brand to new customers. Offer existing customers new ways to communicate with you. Or share new information about your company with them. Take a proactive approach.
You’ll give customers and prospects a reason to take a fresh look at you. And that can pay off.
3. Give your customer base your knowledge.
You’re an expert in your industry. Take advantage of that. Share your knowledge with your customer base. Explain why you develop new products or services. In these tumultuous times, explain the unusual factors that may be affecting your business—either negatively or positively. (You don’t have to give away secrets, just useful info.)
Use your platform as a knowledgeable specialist to make sure your customer base understands that you’re the go-to resource for knowledge about your business. That promotes loyalty, and often creates new conversations that result in new business.
