All our customers are critical to our success. We strive to retain, renew, grow, and expand those we currently have. Every deal in our pipeline is important to us and our ability to achieve our goals.
But what would happen if we were to disappear?
In our current customers, what would happen if we disappeared? Would they just find a substitute product and move on with no impact? In our pipelines, what if we were to suddenly start ghosting our customers. We were in consideration, but just disappeared.
Would they notice? Would they care?
Or would the roll on, perhaps mildly inconvenienced?
We mistake engagement or presence for impact. But just because they are talking to us doesn’t mean that we matter. Just because they are using our products, doesn’t mean they can’t shift. When Newman’s Garlic Pasta Sauce isn’t on the shelf, I just grab Prego or something else, with no other thought.
Unfortunately, we see too many clues of around unimportance.
In their buying process, customers do everything they can to minimize our involvement. They seek advice of others, third parties, they consume some content. They don’t want to see us until the very last stage of their buying process, and that’s usually to get confirmation of a few last minute items and negotiate final pricing. And, if they don’t get what they want, there are always other alternatives. Or, they never get to that point, they don’t see the need to change.
Or when they buy. Perhaps there’s an initial level of interest and activity as they implement the solution, then tempers off. We find at least 30% of those buyers expressing regret, have they done the right thing? Then comes renewal and retention. We struggle with those. The customer may not see the real benefit or value, utilization is way down, priorities have shifted. To keep the business, we do deals, offer discounts. And still too many cancel.
Are we a critical part of their planning process? Do they invite us to sit in meetings as they look at what they are doing and where they want to go? Do they look for our insights, do they want to leverage our experience? Do they value our point of view?
In their buying process, do we become memorable and sought after? Are we helping them think differently about a problem or what they are currently doing? Are we bringing clarity into the confusion that surrounds any change management process? Are we engaging them in ways that are meaningful or relying on the next slide in our pitchdecks? Are they reaching out to us, asking, “What do you think? What have your other customers experienced when faced with this?”
After the sale, do we become indispensable. Are they not only getting the outcomes they hoped for, are they getting the outcomes that matter? Are we embedded into the fabric of their business in a way they can’t easily continue if we were to disappear? Would our absence cause friction relief?
Each of us need to ask ourselves, “What can I do that no one else is doing? How would their progress stall if I was no longer engaged? How am I helping the customer see what they haven’t seen before?”
The answers to these have very little to do with what we sell, after all they could choose any product to do the same thing. The answers are all about how we sell, how we create meaning, how we become entangled with them.
How do we start?
- Get off autopilot, stop following your playbook, help the customer create theirs. Stop pitching, but help reshape what they are thinking.
- You can’t do this without some level of business acumen. You have to start learning about them, their business, what they care about, what their customers care about, how their businesses and markets are changing.
- Audit your relevance. Look at the past 5 important deals you competed in. Or even your last 5 customer interactions. Were you driving their thinking, or pitching your product. Were you engaged in collaborative conversations? Were they asking for your perspectives, were you understanding theirs?
- Become hard to replace. It’s not through charm or remembering their children’s birthdays, or the fleece jacket and Yeti cup. It’s through the impact we create, the ideas/perspectives we bring. It’s when they start reaching out to you.
- Check your entanglement. I’ve been using this word a lot to describe being deeply involved in their success. It’s not just another logo on their tech stack, or another second source supply contract. It’s being vital to their success.
- Obsess over significance, not activity.
Before I conclude, some of you may be thinking, “Well Dave, this can only happen if we sell mega-solutions to large enterprise customers!” This couldn’t be more wrong! Our “customers” may be an obscure function buried in a large enterprise. But their function is vital to the enterprise and becoming indispensable to them is critical to their success. As an example, not meaning to embarass my friend Bill and his team. They sell sanitary and janitorial products to their customers. But the way they engage them, the way they work with the customer, makes them indispensable.
And what about within our own organizations? Would our people notice if we disappeared, or would they just say, “Who’s next?” How do we become entangled with our own teams and our own businesses?
We, each, have that opportunity, it’s our choice.
Afterword: Here is the AI based discussion of this post. What I am coming to enjoy about these discussions is how they bring real life and energy to my words. Enjoy!
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