Have you noticed there’s a sea change taking place in the way in which sales, marketing and customers connect? Those days when sales staff ‘pitched’ to ‘sell’ to customers who were grateful to find a half suitable product are considerably on the wane.
Sales and marketing staff who were high performers because they scored high on knowledge and calls to actions yet low on soft skills are now on the back foot. That because the contemporary watchword for successful customer management takes the clarion call of ‘Engage!’.
Solutions selling, whether conducted by small or large organisations, is rapidly going out of fashion. This is the zeitgeist era where customers are able to skip television and mobile adverts at leisure, and find channels such social media platforms to express their views on product and service. There’s a movement towards the making the customer, and the customer as the individual, the very centre of interactions and influence.
It’s less about the hoopla and the ‘product and solutions specs’ and more about the: ‘How are you today, you lovely folks?’. With even more of the: ‘We really hear what you say. We looked into your real interests and have produced this new (X) product just for you. And, here’s the story behind it. Get in touch if you like it. We love you too!’
You’ve only got to look at the likes of global super brands Coca-Cola and IBM which over the past few years consciously turned away from the traditional methods of corporate selling to a ‘big idea’ policy of story telling and engagement management. Making the organisation a trusted ‘friend’, whether via a sales or a marketing representative (ideally both together), is the strategic goal.
Engagement means nothing more than quality long-term relationships. Lasting relationships are based on mutual needs and desires. It’s that old fashioned attention to people whom you care about, have meaningful associations with, and wish to build lasting value, influence and impact. It’s a two-way street.
And the rules for good relationships?
Ask any psychologist and these are some of the basic rules from an otherwise exhaustive list they will cite which relate just as well to best practice CRM:-
- Respect, respect, respect
- Communicate frequently
- Operate as a team
- Clarify any assumptions
- Solve problems as they arise
- Learn to negotiate
- Truly, actively listen to each other’s concerns
- Work hard at maintaining closeness
- Take the long range view
- Apologise for any mistakes
- Cooperate and share responsibilities
- Work through the good and the bad times
CRM is the process of managing customers through powerful software. Though you could legitimately say that these days it’s the return of one-to-one friendly relationships which nurtured properly over time create a mutually beneficial outcome.
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