Few things are more discouraging than having a product that’s a perfect fit for a company that is not doing business with you, yet your reps are unable to even schedule a presentation. It’s time to do some intelligence gathering on your own reputation in your industry, not only regarding your products, but also your customer service.
“Taking customers away from competitors in my industry is all about relationships,” says Michael Blake, president of Arpeggio Advisors, which offers business appraisals and strategic consulting. “I’ve heard a saying that in accounting, clients tend to be treated like silver while prospects are treated like gold. Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth to that.” Talking to non-customers when the incumbent vendor doesn’t is a simple, but effective strategy.
“More often than not in this day and age, the product itself counts for 20 to 25 percent of the sales process. The other 75 to 80 percent is really driven by the sales rep’s ability to ask the right questions – to understand what that prospects needs really are,” adds Steve Wiesner of sales training company Peloton.
Adam Broetje, CEO of Seattle-based digital marketer Odd Dog Media says first-rate customer service is critical even when a client is leaving to try a competitor. “One of the mottos we have is to do the right thing by the client. When competitors take business away, we actually build extra systems just to make those transitions easy,” he says. “So many times, when you go through a marketing service provider, they’ve got a whole litany of access and information that you need to get. We try to make it easy. If a customer decides to try a different service provider, we pack it up nice and easy and hand it over to them. We really feel that speaks to our personality and our brand, whether someone is working with us or not.”
In that sense, a departing client is just a lead that your reps can follow up on in six months.
