Last week, was at a b - to b sales intervention for a glass company. Key concern of the salespeople - how do we ensure a set of loyal and happy customers? What we have right now is a bunch of customers who negotiate every inch of the way for prices and if the price is not OK, then the order is shifted to someone else. Even though our product quality is good, but then so is the competition:
a. In a b to b situation, there are multiple decision makers in every company. While purchase and technical buyers are of course to be contacted all the time, how about talking to buying influences within the company from where the need emerges eg if you have a new design for a glass bottle, talk to the brand manager who handles perfumes and cosmetics. Understand his brand plan for the next year - how many products does he plan to launch this year, where are his products selling, what are the gaps in the product portfolio, etc?
b. Study the business challenges (pain areas) for the company: This could be - falling sales, poor brand image, delayed payments, low profits, attrition amongst key people etc. Link your solution to these problems. eg a consulting company used to sell training programs on the basis of skill improvement. The CEO used to be more worried however about retaining his star performers. The consulting company started connecting better with the Sales head and CEO when the the solution was demonstrated as a retention tool and not a skill improvement tool.
c. Convert product benefits to specific financial benefits for each customer in $$$. eg a auto paints company designed a new formula which had better flow ad viscosity parameters and tried to sell it technically. But the client said No to the 30% price increase. Things were stuck for about six months till the technical team linked the better product to financial benefits to the customer. The superior product would result in faster cleaning of the paint shop, leading to more machine uptime, leading to higher production of $5.2 million dollars, and profits of $1.1 mn. The company's sales team researched all this information and presented their findings to the senior leadership at the customer. They got a 22% price increase. They did a similar activity and created customized cost benefit calculations for their top five customers and got an average price increase of 24%.
d. Use social media to position your company well: If you are a packaging organization. Create a blog where you regularly post articles that talk about your technical ability - eg a new packaging solution that your company has designed, a success with a customer, etc. Connect with your customers on Linkedin. Post these articles on the blog and send a link to your customers. Do this once every ten days and over a period of time your customer forms an opinion about you.
Maneesh Konkar is a sales strategy and leadership consultant. Subscribe to his blog "young leaders at every level" or connect with him at maneesh@directiononeonline.com. Follow him on twitter @youngldrs
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