John Paul Narowski is the founder of karmaCRM , a simple software based on the CRM Web-oriented small businesses.
The days of high-pressure sales pitches by vendors seeking are more suave. You can thank the Internet for that. Today, competition is fierce sales in all industries, and a popular way to move forward is through services business models customer-focused.
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You can generate sales via the customer service in a variety of ways - to transform customers into evangelists to convert users into partner network - but the way to get there is difficult
the sale by the customer service requires a lot of homework. You must listen and study the clients to provide answers to their challenges (before they ask questions). Forget the psychological sales tactics, this practical guide will provide the guidance necessary to build relationships with the game changing clientele.
The sale by evangelists
Zappos is the poster child regarding the sale by the customer service. In a risky and ingenious move, the company closed the most profitable division of their company; ending days shipping directly from its inventory sellers.
Zappos knew he wanted to be a company focused on customer service. Thus, to provide the worlds best customer service, he needed to fully control the order lifecycle. In deciding the warehouse all, it reduces errors, provided lighting fast shipping, and was able to offer free shipping to and from customers.
By focusing on customer service instead of just making money, Zappos has created a passionate recurring basis to customers. Many of these customers not only have become customers for life, but also ardent evangelists, practically selling shoes Zappos.
Studies show that consumers trust the recommendations of their relatives before everything else. In a 2012 study, Nielsen reports that 92 percent of people trust the global word-of-mouth from friends and family level.
To give an idea of the effectiveness of references can be, one of our clients called evangelists karmaCRM September accounts for us. Of the seven, six have signed up for a paid package - all with updated within two weeks of the trial, and all subscribers pay even today. It goes without saying, but that blows our typical percentage activation to test out of the water.
The sale by listening
you do not sell the customer service by launching features and selling solutions, you do it by listening. Put the customer in the driver's seat being their ally, learning who they are and what problems they need to solve. The customer needs to feel in control of the process. The best thing about the sale by the customer service is that it does not sell at all.
The less you focus on the sale and the more you focus on just support your customer, they are more likely to trust and purchase from you. In the process onboarding, one of our first customer interaction with us was a suggestion. We reacted quickly to the ticket, but instead of just saying thank you for the suggestion, we asked more detailed information, highlighting our value his opinion.
This is a short supplementary lead to a phone call, leading to multiple conference calls, and a strong relationship between our companies.
This relationship has not just helped to address some minor problems, it helped to mold an entire section. Ask for someone's opinion and be genuinely interested in what they have to say is powerful.
The most important thing to keep in mind is to actually live by it: 1) building a system to gather and organize evaluations as uservoice.com; 2) make a point to implement customer suggestions; and 3) establish a process to inform customers when their feedback was discussed.
The sale through complaints
When handled the right way, a complaint Customer may often be a better sales opportunity for a new leader of highly skilled business. unhappy customers often have an uneasy state of mind after their dilemma. This is the perfect opportunity to listen, react quickly and show their importance. People expect more companies to be perfect, they expect humility.
Surprisingly, when complaints are processed correctly, you can win a customer more loyal than if there were no problems at all. Now, will not cause problems just to solve them, but understand it's a delicate part of the sales process. You can make you and your company look like a hero.
An example of the real world
Therefew months, we had a short service outage. Meanwhile, the support team was aligns support tickets, calls and live chat pertaining to the fault. One of our customers contacted us about a non-related problem, and it would have been easy to say that we had the biggest problems at the moment, but the support team felt like this was an important issue to address and helped investigate.
There is evidence that the issue of the woman was a quick fix, and it was going to be presenting our product to a large audience the next day (so, why she sought quick support). She was blown away how invested we were helping her during a stressful time, she wrote us a testimony of an unsolicited client!
The next day, she presented our product to a large group of real estate agents. Within days, we had an influx of realtors register. In addition to this presentation, it hosts at least six presentations a year, all that we have been presented, which all helped to generate great leads.
Conclusion
back to Zappos, the company is proof that selling through works of customer service. Do not take my word for it; ask Amazon, which acquired Zappos in 2009 for $ 807 million. He did not buy Zappos to take advantage of distribution partners, he bought Zappos because of its culture and alignment service values customer.
This alignment and mutual respect has to leave Zappos Amazon largely intact and autonomous part, instead of a controlled subsidiary.
When done right, this practice is a clear win-win. Not only does it help you develop your direct sales, it is incredibly rewarding to be able to focus your energy on supporting rather than selling to your prospects.
We share customer success stories, comments, shout-outs and every day in our meetings. Each word is equivalent to pouring gasoline on our fire, inspiring us to work harder, make more people happy, and build a better business. Although we are a sales tool ourselves, we will never not intend to have a sales team. We can do this because we have everything we need to grow in our customer success team.
I encourage you to try! Start simply by focusing on the creation of a single evangelist, going beyond a time and see how it spreads like wildfire.