As I promised on my previous post, Develop your business in a sustainable way, today I want to bring to your attention the way we communicate with our customers. I want to share with you not an academic opinion, but one based on the experiences with the customers and the salespersons during my 5 years corporate training career and based on the recent readings that rose up to a conscious level all these experiences.
I chose After Sales Services Sales as support topic. Why selling After Sales Services is important? Many companies choose to strengthen their brand image through innovative After Sales Services portfolio. For example, Volkswagen’s developed Think Blue mindset, Toyota focuses on safety and mobility responsibility. In the heavy automotive area, Scania is focusing on sustainable transport.
For the end customers, especially on B2B, it may be related to fuel consumption, breakdown or safety risks, repair and maintenance costs, environment friendliness, corporate image in their own communities, the customers’ customer satisfaction. And the list is open.
At the first sight it looks like we should play the “carrot & stick” communication game with the customer: dear customer if you want to have a higher uptime and the vehicles running our Maintenance or Repair & Maintenance program will fix this for you – the “carrot” or, dear customer if you want to avoid downtime and the expensive costs of being assisted on breakdowns our after sales services will be your best option – the “stick”. And then of course we may wonder isn’t this something like a “mambo-jambo” words game with a glass in front of us and trying to show to our customer either the filled, either the empty part of it.
And the answer is no, finding the customer’s drivers is the key of our relationship, because it is about the business ethics, too. When we find out what is really important for our customer then we should analyse if we have an offer that helps him achieving what he wants. And if the honest answer is no we will step back from that deal. Afterwards, either we use the reasons for losing the sale as customer segmentation criteria; either we start working with the Offering/Customer matrix. It is our choice. But don’t disappoint your customer by promising something you are not able to deliver. YET! See: Tim Brown's Offering/Customer Matrix
Getting back to the metaprogram #1, the customer answer to our “what keeps you awake during the night related to your business operations” question is “I can’t sleep until I know I am able to pay my people wages”. It seems we have a clear moving towards something case. Then we probe the first answer by asking “how do you know you are able to pay your people wages?” the customer answer is: “when I get my invoices paid in due time and I can sell 10 transports/week”. Again, it seems like a moving towards something case. But just to be sure, we probe again by asking “why invoices and transport selling are your big concerns?” and the customer answer is: “because I have a lot of problems with overdue invoices and my trucks stay a lot of time in my Workshop for repairs that I can hardly make 8 trips/week”.
How do we deal now? The last customer’s answer is a moving away one. He explained us about the problems he faces with on a daily basis. How can we apply the metaprogram #1 and show that we are genuinely interested on supporting our customer?
The answer stays in finding the right customer’s brain area involved in taking the decision. Our brain developed from the Hunter-gatherer era, but our instincts for survival are there. Our Amygdala is there to filter out any potential threat. And it connects with Emotional Memory just to make sure that we recall every bad experience:”Repairs in the Workshop = Bad = Avoid it!” Which means, in our case, we shall talk to the customer’s Amygdala and explain him how a Maintenance or Repair & Maintenance contract will help him avoiding the trucks downtime & breakdowns.
How do we know when we shall talk to the “antique” brain? The answer to this question is related to the customer’s horizon. If the customer’s horizon is linked to short term goals and is looking like a closed space where he doesn’t have room for manoeuvres we understood the “antique” brain is in command. And our communication program is focusing on it by presenting moving away solutions.
And there are customers who have a horizon linked with long term goals. It looks like an open space where impossible is like a forbidden word (i.e. the customer wants to become the leader on his region, to setup a new business line, to set new standards in his industry etc.). In this case the brain area in command in Pre-Frontal Cortex. And when it connects with Emotional Memory it works like: “High uptime & wheels rolling = Good = Go for it!” For this kind of customers our communication program shall focus on Pre-Frontal Cortex it by presenting moving towards solutions. Our after sales programs help you to become the region leader because your trucks will roll almost 24/7 on the roads.
Now you may see there is a clear difference in customer behaviours & thinking as in the brain area in command as well. Be sure you address the right part of the brain; otherwise you are knocking on a door with no one behind it to open it for you. For more information about how our brain works and support us on achieving our goals I recommend you the Robert K Cooper excellent book, “Get out of your own way” (http://www.cooperstrategic.com/books/get-out-of-your-own-way/ )
Don’t try to find the logic when it comes to talk to the “antique” brain. There are only instincts and gut feelings. I had an example 2 weeks ago. One of my friends received a very good offer for car insurance from a well known company in B2B zone. It seems they want to expand their operations in B2C zone, too. The offer was too good to be true in my friend’s eyes. So, she asked on Facebook for an advice on what to do. 90% of the comments where to go for another company with a well known reputation in B2C zone. And she took the advice and bought the insurance with the same level of offered services at almost a double price. We know that insurances business is moving away one. If you want to have another good example of why not to try to find the logic, but the deep fear I will recommend you the TED talk of Karen Thompson: What Fear can teach us
Things are not as easy as it seems; a customer that is moving towards something may had bad experiences in some area and he is moving away from a particular thing. Let me give you an example: suppose you are in a deal of signing a Maintenance contract with a customer who wants to develop a complete new business line in transport services. Everything goes well and all our arguments are from moving towards are until you ask him to guarantee the payments by using checks. At this moment the customer says that if you insist on this issue, by working with checks, the deal will be off. When you search “behind the curtain” you find the he went almost in bankruptcy due to a check operation he didn’t authorise it. What would you do in this case? Are you flexible enough in your way of running the business to overcome this kind of barriers?
Next topic – Maintenance: why to sell it and its importance
