Do your customers buy YOU?
Earlier I spoke about how customers buy you and who you are as a person first. Allow me expand on this thought a little.
In truth, customers will initially buy from you for a number of reasons that have may have only a little to do with you as a salesperson and they’ll buy somewhere else for an equal number of reasons. Price, availability, deliverability, name recognition are just a few. At some point in the customer’s relationship with your company, if you aren’t the main reason they’re doing business with you … you should be or you might as well lose that customer. At some point in time, you stand to say “goodbye” to each customer if you allow the only reason for them to continue to work with you be because of something other than what only you can uniquely provide.
Stop reading and think about that for a second. Does it ring true with you?
If the customer buys from you solely because of price, they will buy from someone else if/when you’re not the lowest priced.
If they buy strictly because of the availability of your product offering and not because of any value attached with working with you and your company, they probably already realize they can get your products from a number of other places and will go shopping when the price is lower, more convenient, or just because they feel like it.
If they buy solely because of how quickly you can deliver the product, they’ll go to someone who can do it faster (not necessarily better) when you tell them they’ll have to wait for you to get it done right.
If they buy just because they recognize the name (whether or not it’s your name or your competitor’s) once they find a reason to hate your brand they’ll abandon you for another “better” brand they like more.
As sales people, shifting the perception our customers have of us from being someone who “gives me what I need at the lowest price” or is “someone I can yell at if things go wrong” or is ” just my vendor” can be a long and difficult process.
Part of what I sell is telecommunications products (which is already a challenge because a lot of my products are commodities) and because of the complex nature of them, the likelihood of problems arising can be very high. However, I’m constantly asking myself whether or not I’m increasing my personal value for my customers so that I can move from being simply a vendor or a person they can call if things go wrong to someone whom they can trust and rely on and advise them whether things are good or bad.
Moving yourself into the position of trustworthiness and dependability along with a good working relationship is what makes you and your company different but is not easy to come by. If you’re different and you’ve given your customers a good reason to be loyal then you’ll have a customer that is much more valuable to you than just the revenue they provide.
~jaq baldwin
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Category: Sales
I love this post. You are correct. If they value you and what YOU can do, price is no longer an issue. And that’s a wonderful place to be…
But you have to earn that…
You’re absolutely correct. It’s all about relationship!