MAIN INSIGHT 68
Anna Kocsis
HEAD OF DIGITAL MARKETING
Do businesses truly understand the meaning of customer centricity?
During the global pandemic, it became very trendy for businesses to claim that they put their customers first. But in reality, a lot of businesses are still in the ‘fake it until you make it’ stage of customer-centric acquisition and retention. To move beyond this stage, businesses have to spend more time talking with their customers about what really matters to them. Because if a business does not have a deep understanding of what really matters to their customers, how can they ever truly become customer-centric?
This insight is invaluable to creating highly personalised buying journeys for new prospects. Too often businesses implement new technologies in buying journeys because they think that is what their prospects want. Do your buyers want to complete their purchases via a self-serve AI tool? Or would they like to speak with a human being before making a final decision? There will of course be a balance between the two that works for your business, but you can only find it by speaking with your existing customers first.
How can companies differentiate themselves online?
Standing out in the digital world is hard. It seems that every company on LinkedIn now has a blue or green logo, because they’re seen as the latest trustworthy colours! But as a result, they all slowly merge into one another and fail to stand out. Although not many businesses are brave enough to take on a bolder colour, like a bright pink for example, there are still plenty of great ways to differentiate your business from the competition.
One powerful way to differentiate yourself is through human engagement. As self-serve and AI-powered buying experiences become the norm, any business that leads with a human voice is sure to stand out. Human support, outreach and community management are just some of the ways that enable prospects & customers to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with your brand. The added benefit of this approach is that because you are talking directly to your customers, it becomes easier to generate the insights needed to win new business too!
One powerful way to differentiate yourself is through human engagement.
Great sales representatives are those who realise that they should be listening to their prospects, not just talking to them.
What is the difference between good and great sales representatives?
Good sales representatives complete their homework. When they first get in touch with a prospect, they have a deep understanding of what their business is and what the pain points facing them are likely to be. But many sales reps fall down when they actually get into conversation with a prospect, because they just don’t listen. Great sales representatives are those who realise that they should be listening to their prospects, not just talking to them.
There are a number of reasons why. The first is that people feel respected when they are listened to. Building respect is a key gateway to building trust. The second is that the sales representative can potentially learn of further pain points that the prospect is facing, which could make it easier to sell a solution. And finally, listening to prospects and understanding what matters to them makes it easier to send the right follow-up content. There’s nothing worse than receiving a piece of sales enablement, such as a case study or video, that is clearly for a different size of company or even worse still - for a company in another industry! The more relevant the sales enablement content is that sales representatives send to their prospects, the higher the chance of converting the prospect into a customer is.
10to8 provides a system for small businesses and independent practitioners to transform the way they manage customer bookings. Using 10to8 will increase bookings, reduce admin-time and eliminate no-shows.
