You or your competitor?
You or your customer contacts? (The 90/10 rule tends to apply: most people know 90% of what goes on in their department and 10% in the rest of the company).
This is a quick blog. In a complex, multi-layered sale, there is a direct relationship to your ability to close the deal (profitably) and how well you know your customer contacts, and their business. It also affects retention.
So what does it mean to be an expert on your customer? In addition to knowing the basics (goals, competitive pressures, market pressures, business initiatives, etc) as you move up, down and across the organization, here are some things to think about:
- Do you understand the workflow of their business and your product or service well enough to educate your customer, not vice versa?
- Have you anticipated gaps in process workflow so you can build the best solution?
- Have you effectively built alignment and consensus among disparate decision makers?
- Have you addressed your customer concerns in ways that work with their organization, not against it?
- Do you understand how your business affects your customer in every aspect of service after the sale (billing, problem resolution, customer care, etc?)
- Are you adding value: does your product or solution address problem areas that your customer had not identified?
Customer satisfaction is an ongoing cycle from the point that an agreement gets signed to paying your invoices. The areas of opportunity for your competitor come from how well you address the business needs—the ones the customer knows about and the unknown needs you—or your competitor–identify.
Thoughts?
