Serving Customers From A Distance
“Feet on the street get the work” is a mantra I have often used. Over the long term, it is companies that make the decision to purposefully visit clients that successfully grow market share (especially in NZ & Australia).
As NZ remains in restrictive levels, we need to look for alternative ways to connect with clients to ensure we continue to be a source of value.
It is important to remember that the core principles do not change. When we contact a client we must have a clear purpose. We must know how it is going to add value to the client and why our contact with them is worth them investing their time and attention in dealing and connecting with us, and we must be very clear on what value is going to add to the business, which is best measured by looking at what the ideal next step will be as a result of this client contact.
It can be very tempting at this time to rely on sending out emails and ramping up our social media presence. While these are good strategies, they are not the best use of your sales team's time. Sales people should focus on how they can stand out and be a point of difference and this is best done through personalised conversations with clients. This means picking up the telephone and having a conversation. Ideally we should also be able to make use of online meeting platforms, like Zoom, which add the face to face element into one's interactions.
If you are already doing this and you still want to stand out and add additional value, here are some ideas:
Consider hosting a podcast and interviewing successful clients or suppliers. Give your podcast a theme and to keep it to a length that best suits your target market.
Doing customer surveys can also be very effective - particularly if you take the time to make them personalised, calling to ask open ended questions rather than just relying on an online survey app.
Hosting an online meeting and facilitating discussion between people from the same industry can work very well. This can simply be a social get together - where you encourage people to grab a beer at the end of a week and discuss how the week's been, their challenges, and how they’re best using their time. It can be a forum for discussions around challenges facing the industry that you're in and getting multiple input from people invested in the industry.
Here’s to your success!
