Customers are one of the single most important factors for any business. However, before you have an operational business, having a product that’s desired by a customer is essential.
Any entrepreneur worth his salt knows one of the best ways to promote your brand and product or service is through the customer themselves. Get the product and the service right and you will have a happy customer – one who would be willing to recommend you to prospective clients. These are the ingredients for success and the beginning of what could prove to be a major business opportunity. However, creating or coming up with a business scope is not necessarily the hardest hurdle to climb, nor is finding customers who want to invest. One of the hardest, yet most profitable things to do is to retain your client once you have them, and considering 70 per cent of companies believe it’s cheaper to retain business than generate it from scratch, failing to withhold repeat business could impacting your revenue significantly. So, how do you make sure that your existing clients are happy? How do you ensure they will want to purchase from you continually?
Firstly, why do businesses need face-to-face relationship selling?
Digital isn’t always the solution
In a decade where the internet is steam rolling its way through society, many companies have capitalised on the impact it has had in the world of business, but replacing the face time you have with consumers for a dependence on technology is certainly a risky strategy. Digital tactics such as ecommerce websites, direct emails and social media platforms are becoming common marketing methods for business – all of these are certainly effective for evolving an online presence, but face-to-face selling is the most efficient way to build trust and generate customer loyalty.
Personal service = referrals
Once a prospect becomes a satisfied client, this could lead to additional business through referrals. If customers feel you listen to their concerns, answer their questions, provide high-quality products, and serve them with a high level of integrity and support, they are typically happy to share referrals from within their networks. This can be invaluable in growing a thriving client base and increasing the volume of business to ensure your success.
Build trust and develop relationships
Let’s face it, knowing those behind the business you’re purchasing from is crucial. Your sales team has the opportunity to ask relevant questions about the person’s situation and listen attentively to the responses, before explaining how the product or service can offer benefits. These kinds of interactions are much more difficult when contact is limited solely to the phone or virtual realm. After the first meeting, whether or not a sale was closed, your follow-up with customers can then include email and/or phone calls because a relationship has been established. Successful businesses will continue to build on that relationship, eventually establishing trust.
Close a sale faster
No matter what is being sold, a dedicated and skilled sales agent can help each individual client better navigate through the available choices to arrive at an optimal solution that balances the needs with the budget. In short, they can apply their expertise, experience and powers of persuasion to get to “yes” sooner rather than later or not at all.
How to get more face time
Now that we know we need to make face time a priority in order to hold on to our customers, what can we do to get more of it?
Have a business meeting
The power of face-to-face meetings is undoubtable. The only way to put the customer front and centre is to build and sustain relationships with them, so go out and meet them. Many businesses fail to see this as a valid use of time and will even avoid it, believing that it will cost them more than it is worth. However it really is beneficial to find out what the consumer does want face to face. Ask them questions about what they want to get out of using your product. What features would they like to see? And how would they prefer to communicate with you? What do they think of the facilities that you provide? If you know exactly what your clients want, then you have no problem being able to provide it for them, making it easier to go above and beyond their expectations. Many companies can improve their entire systems by simply ensuring they are doing exactly what the client needs them to do.
Networking
Sometimes having a typical meeting with your customer isn’t enough; especially if they are pressed for time, which is highly likely. Most people are very busy and will only give you their time if they are going to get something out of it. The perfect way to say thank you to your client for their business, as well as find out what they want from you and build on your relationship simultaneously, is to host corporate hospitalityevents. You can discuss business with multiple clients this way. The scope for a return on your investment could potentially be huge! Your chosen event doesn’t have to be elaborate either, if your budget won’t allow for a day at the races then there are plenty of gala dinners, charity events and even roadshows that could provide you with the right setting to make the desired impact on your client.An event like this would certainly provide you with more face time, not only that but you may be able to find new customers in this way too.
Making time
You can only hope to engage in more customer facing time if you manage your own time effectively. Planning a meeting or an event can only happen if your schedule allows it to, so prioritise. Schedule some time for your everyday practices such as answering emails and carrying out paper work, but do it wisely. When will your clients be more readily available for a meeting? If they are tied up in the mornings then this is time where you should focus on other roles and responsibilities. Freeing yourself up at a time that’s convenient will go a long way towards increasing the amount of time that you can spend with your client.
The need for more face-to-face interaction with prospects and clients in this digital age has never been more important. Unless you have established a relationship initially, e-communications are irrelevant. Bringing a face, voice and empathetic personality to the interaction makes it more human and real, and can lead to a mutually beneficial relationship over the long term.
Lucy Abrahams, Operations Director VIP Event Butler.
