(By Rick Fink) The skills required for selling and building customer relationships in the business-to-business world continue to dramatically change. Today, they’re changing faster than ever. In a survey by MarketingSherpa, buyers and salespeople were asked, “Why do buyers leave?”
Not surprisingly, the top answer with salespeople was “Price.” The top answer with buyers, however, was “Service.” But multi-tasking, tighter deadlines, and technology have redefined the world of selling and how buyers define service.
Service was once measured by the amount of face-to-face time you dedicated to your prospects. Today, in our fast-paced world, it can be just the opposite and measured by how much of their time you don’t occupy.
In the book, The Platinum Rule, by Ph.Ds Tony Alessandra and Michael O’Connor, they suggest that the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, be replaced with the Platinum Rule, “Do unto others as THEY would want done unto themselves”. In other words, treat ME like I want to be treated, not how YOU would like to be treated.
Reading your customers’ personality styles and adapting to their communication styles is more important today than ever. Just because I like to communicate face-to-face and by telephone doesn’t mean my client or prospect wouldn’t rather communicate via one of the many digital options.
And simply because someone is a Millennial, or a Gen X, Y, or Z, doesn’t automatically mean they prefer to communicate 100% in the digital space. I know plenty of Baby Boomers who prefer to communicate digitally.
So, how do you know how your clients and prospects want to communicate? Ask them! “As we move forward Mrs. or Mr. Prospect, how do you prefer that I communicate with you, email, text, in-person, phone, or a combination of?” They will tell you because, in today’s world, they want YOU to treat THEM the way THEY want to be treated!
Rick Fink from ENS Media can be reached at 605-310-2062 or at [email protected]. Read Rick’s Radio Ink archives here.
