Step 1. Align expectations.

  • Are your expectations and the customer expectations the same, aligned or are they different?
  • Expectations need to be established, aligned and managed.  They don’t necessarily need to be exactly the same but they need to align or cascade one into the other.  Expectations also need to be reviewed periodically because they will and do change.
  • Internal expectations: Yours, your management and your company.
  • Customer expectations:  Executive level expectations are VERY different from other stakeholders: users, implementers and on-going management.

Step 2. Be gentle – You are changing the way a customer works. 

  • Successful projects and sales initiatives ultimately change the way people work.
  • Change is difficult and is not embraced easily or enthusiastically or at the same pace by everyone.
  • Help the customer understand the changes (and improvement) in workflow and process.  Help the customer identify new behaviors and skills required.

Step 3. Identify what the customer wants. – customer centric selling tenet #1

  • It’s not about what YOU want; it’s about what THE CUSTOMER wants.
  • I don’t care if the customer is wrong.  You need to ease new ideas in on them under the umbrella of what THEY want.
  • The ideal method is to have THEM discover needs and wants that align with what you are selling or trying to accomplish.  Thoughtful probing and questioning techniques are great for this.  It’s a “pull” approach where the customer discovers YOU.
  • If you try to drive the process the way YOU want, the customer will be more reluctant, slow to adopt and could even push back or reject it.  That’s a “push” approach gone sour.

Step 4. Uncover the customer needs. – customer centric selling tenet #2

  • Research and uncover customer goals and underlying needs.  You can find several KickStart blogs on how to do this.
  • Uncover customer needs.  Needs are different than wants.  Investigate a bit deeper.  Ask them what results and outcomes they are expecting.  What changes in process or approach will positively affect the business.
  • With this information you can better serve the customer.  You can also tailor project plans, selling efforts and offerings to align with their needs.
  • It is a discovery process, helping the customer to discover their needs.

Step 5. Speak the customer language.  – customer centric selling tenet #3

  • Speak the customer language.  Every business and industry has its own buzz words, acronyms and product names.  The customer does not care about your buzz words.
  • Did you get that?  The customer DOES NOT care.  They care about their business and what it will do for them.  If they are a bank, can you make them a better bank?  If they are a manufacturer can you help improve their manufacturing business.
  • Speak their business language … capabilities not products, outcomes & benefits not features & functions.
  • Use their language … use their words and their terminology in proposals and process documents (not your words & terminology).  Even better, have them help you write it!

Step 6. Address customer fears. – customer centric selling tenet #4

  • Customers have a variety of fears.  Look for and help the customer address those fears.
  • Fear of failure – establish back-up plans, milestones, validation, etc.
  • Fear of success – provide examples of other successful projects, establish control valves, link success to achievement of the needs and wants.
  • Identify fears, provide solutions & alternatives; find the best possible approach to minimize those fears.
  • Brute force is not one of the methods.

Step 7.  Find the right approach.

  • You think you’ve got the right answer and can’t understand why they don’t see it.  This is a “we’re right and they are wrong” approach.  That’s a win-lose strategy.  Your ego wins as you lose the customer.  In the end, that is a lose-lose approach.
  • Go for a win-win and take it step by step.
  • Win-win by establishing mutually agreed upon goals & expectations.
  • Learn-learn to establish a winning approach to implementation and user adoption.
  • Listen-listen to build a foundation of trust, customer loyalty and a long standing relationship.
  • Follow these steps to success and you can be successful in anything from projects to sales initiatives.