If you want to help your company succeed at brand building, you’ll need to establish trustworthiness and credibility among some of today’s savviest consumers and prospective partners in marketplace before you can close the deal.
To help sales executives attract their target customers and achieve quarterly goals, 15 experts from Forbes Business Development Council discuss some practical tips for developing a more customer-centric approach when it comes to forming and maintaining their business relationships. This will better serve the clients and the company.
Forbes Business Development Council members share their insight.
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Refine Your Communication
We regularly spend time dismantling our products and services and the way they are perceived by our target audiences. The subsequent refining of the communication process and the ability to quickly and eloquently deliver a description of a product and the problem it solves to multiple target audiences is by far the greatest sales tactic we have for maximizing relationships with every potential prospect. – Peter Schravemade, BoxBrownie.com
2. Be Honest And Transparent
We strive to be the honest and transparent answer in this industry plagued by scammers and bad experiences. It’s important to provide our clients with a strategy session and give feedback on their website and business while answering any and all questions on search engines and what they are looking for. – Chris Siebeneck,SEO Werkz
3. Demonstrate Why You’re Different
Leveraging command of a message is crucial to understanding the value drivers from the prospect’s perspective. Leaders must also focus on how to clearly articulate the difference in their service or product. – Rebecca Myrick, Dragos, Inc.
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4. Create A Partnering Ecosystem
Our strongest sales tactic is the philosophy that we are at the center of a partnership ecosystem. We look to create value for every prospect and ourselves as part of every interaction. Oftentimes, this means making introductions to other partners who can create immediate value for the prospect if the timing or alignment is not immediately there with ourselves. We focus on investing in our ecosystem. – James Chalmers, Cortex Design & Engineering
5. Provide Expertise And Empathy
We added the chief strategist role to our sales team and maximized engagement by bringing real-world expertise and empathy to customer conversations. This elevates the relationship well beyond a product play and allows us to move directly into a partnership and mentorship position with a “been there, done that” level of camaraderie and deep understanding of needs at the most senior levels. – Paul Pinkney, Red Hat – Canada
6. Determine The Value Of Your OfferingsValue discovery is a mandatory step in post-qualification. We have even formalized a “Value Creation” team. Once the prospects understand value pools and identification for them with our offerings, our closing rates are very high. We follow the “slow down before you speed up” approach and take our time to ensure that everyone understands and agrees on the value created before making any proposals. – Guneet Bedi, relayr
7. Develop Asynchronous Video Presentations
Prospects are busy and need bite-sized content they can consume on their own time without added pressure from a sales rep. Asynchronous video enables our team to introduce themselves and share personalized content that prospects can view on their own schedule. Simply being mindful of a prospect’s time goes a long way in improving the relationship. – George Donovan, Allego
8. Identify Your Niche And Inspire Trust
Being knowledgeable about your prospect, their company and their goals will provide you with a better foundation. Take it one step further and develop expertise within your industry. Identify a niche to further maximize your unique value. Prepare materials to share with your prospect on a periodic basis to set yourself apart from your competition and inspire trust with your customers. – Stuart Bern, ATTOM Data Solutions
9. Listen Before Pitching
Understand the customer’s core issues and challenges and develop the ability to listen before pitching or offering anything. This goes beyond a customer’s “business issues” and gets to the source of their concerns and possible obstacles. This way, potential prospects know you are listening. – Vijay Sundaram, Zoho Corporation
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10. Remember To Follow Up
Following up with value is a key part of our sales process and the culture within the Association of Professional Builders. We strive to provide value in every communication, whether this happens in person, on the phone or in writing. By always remembering to add value, you’ll build trust, rapport and demonstrate authority within your area of expertise. – Russ Stephens, Association of Professional Builders
11. Act Like A Thought Leader
Don’t act like a salesperson. Instead, present yourself as a thought leader. Live and breathe your customer’s challenges and goals. Understand them. Put yourself in their shoes. Strengthen your relationships beyond the business. Get to know the person behind the badge, and after that, make sure that what you’ve sold is going to be useful for them. Great relationships will arise from this approach. – Vinicius Bagnarolli, rfxcel Corporation
12. Take A ‘Customer-Centric Approach’
I suggest changing the words “sales tactics” to “customer-centric approach” to best articulate a meaningful and long-term profitable engagement. In my opinion, the approach that best unites customer and seller to covenant partnership is a sales-centric mindset to “earn the right” to ask for an order. This urbane approach maximizes relationships through purposeful, mutual respect. – Peter Weedfald, SHARP Home Electronics Company of America
13. Make Every Interaction Count
Provide value with every single interaction, conversation, email and click. If the value aligns with your offering, the prospect will love the extra care. In a world where we are being copied and pasted or cold-called, give a personalized, positive and friendly experience. Automation only goes so far — we are pretty savvy to it now. Going the extra mile gets you the deal. – Anastasia Valentine, Wagepoint
14. Schedule Fewer Meetings
An overlooked tactic that we have built into both our inbound and outbound workflows is asking the question, “Is there anyone else on your team that would also benefit from being in this meeting?” Buying is a democratic process where consensus rules. The easier we (sellers) can make things, the more we maximize our prospects’ time. Fewer meetings, greater impact. – Eric Quanstrom, CIENCE
15. Personalize Your Outreach
Understanding the prospect’s business priorities, and personalizing every prospective outreach helps sales reps and sales development reps (SDRs) to be more thoughtful in their approach to being a trusted advisor or business partner to their clients. This helps build high-performing SDRs at organizations who will become better account executives as they transition to the account manager role. – Pradeepa Kolli, Facebook
