Picture your first date with someone, going well, suddenly they get out a ring and propose to you, what do you do? Turn around and get away as fast as you can, right?
It’s probable that even if you liked the “keen dater” in question, their willingness to commit their life to you without knowing you would put you off.
So, put that scenario into a business context: It is possible to drive your prospects into the arms of your competitors if you come on too strong or hard with your prospects. Overdeliver or take the hard sales approach too soon and you will face problems.
Knowing your prospects’ wants, needs, and pain points before making a proposal is key to managing customer relationships effectively.
These tips will help you woo your prospects and consistently manage customer relationships for the best results.
Only fools rush in: Building a rapport will get results
Building a rapport with your customers before making a big sales effort can help you deliver a product and service that results in mutual success.
This will not only make the customer feel at ease, but will also give your business the chance to plan how to deliver a product that will benefit their company in the long run. The result? You’ll offer them genuine value while creating much better customer experience outcomes.
Rushing into ‘marriage’ comes with many risks:
- A dissatisfied customer
- A poor customer experience
- A loss in the sale
- A poorly implemented product that will strain the relationship further down the line
In spite of the temptation to rush in and make promises to a potentially lucrative lead, painting a clear picture of your customers’ culture, goals, and business model will help you shape your lead nurturing strategies.
Profiling your prospects will yield the best results
As opposed to your sales reps hounding prospects for orders right off the bat, learning what your customers engage with most will lead to a much bigger success story, as the customer is more likely to be satisfied with the product.
As soon as you schedule a ‘date’ with a customer and ask for orders, both the business and the customer will understand what the product looks like and how it will be beneficial to them. In this sense, you are not ‘proposing’ too early.
When you conduct your research and utilize your customer insights to create a profile of your prospect, you will gain the ability to approach them in a way that is likely to result in an initial sale while building a lucrative long-term relationship.
Here at Spotler, we are big believers in nurturing leads before making a big move as this is more likely to lead to a successful outcome. Our IP-lookup technology and lead generation strategies helps us (and our clients) do this, by tracking which pages on our website prospects are visiting, helping us understand their interests and needs. By surfacing this information to the sales team via CRM, it helps them have a much easier ‘first date’ as they have a clearer understanding of the customer’s needs and can tailor the conversation accordingly.
Working with a CRM will help you woo your customers time after time
When it comes to getting the big proposal just right, a CRM will provide the fully laid out insight you and your sales team needs at the swipe of a screen or the click of a button. So, the next time you’re on a ‘first date’, you’ll have every pearl of information you will need for it to go off without a hitch.
For more lead and customer relationship pearls of wisdom, read our blog on how a CRM benefits your entire business, not just sales.