Everything you need to know about customers

Do you know your customers? Do you know what they really want? Does your Sales team communicate effectively with your customers? Sometimes we make selling more complicated than it needs to be. A couple of years ago sales guru Jerry Acuff compiled a list he called "13 fundamental facts about human beings (especially customers)." Here's a trimmed down version:

• Customers want to feel that they're important.
• Customers want to feel and be appreciated.
• Customers are not particularly interested in you (or me).
• Customers want two things in life: success and happiness.
• Customers want you to truly listen.
• Customers will only connect if they feel valued by you.
• Customers buy emotionally and defend logically.
• Customers' attention span is very short.
• Customers with common interests have natural rapport.
• Customers want to feel and be understood.
• Customers are drawn to those who show genuine interest.
• Customers love to teach you things they know.
• Customers want to associate with others who can help.

What do you think? Does that pretty much sum up what you feel about your customers?

Is something missing from the list?

Do your Sales teams truly know what your customers want?

Do your Sales teams communicate effectively with your customers?

Do you have problems structuring your sales communication and information gathering process?

CRM implementation is more about people and processes, analysing and improving business rules, user and customer psychology and analyzing and improving social interaction; that is, interactions between internal teams and perhaps most importantly between internal teams and their customers.

From automated workflow to centralized calendars and task lists helping your Sales team manage and follow up with leads and customer sales enquiries; from 'trigger alerts' to workflow templates which match your business process and help Sales say the right thing at the right time, a CRM can be a fantastic tool to help you in all of the above areas and fully understand your customer.

For example, how many of us have been in that situation when a telesales person has called us and gone charging into a tough sales pitch about a pension plan or some new, wonderful product, barely taking a breath and irritating the potential customer in the process?

Instead of trying to 'sell' products, wouldn't it better to ask the customer to tell you what they would like to change about their existing product? What the customer would like to improve? What the pain points are? Do your Sales people truly 'listen' to a customer's needs? Wouldn't some great questions at the start of a sales pitch be as follows?

- What seems to be working?
- What are some of the things that aren't working?
- What would you like to change or improve?
- Tell me about the "need to improve your business".
- What has been the impact of the issues you have observed?
- How would you like to see things different?

Most of us work in a multi cultural environment too. Some of us even work in a multi language working environment overseas, as expatriate employees or foreign business owners. The chances are high that you have customers who are from multiple different countries.

With the above in mind, sensitivity to this fact and forethought and planning on how best to communicate and listen to customers, some of whom may not even be native speakers of your language, is especially important in fully understanding what your customers want.

Contact us at info@crmasiasolutions.com to see how a CRM can help.

CRM Asia Solutions