I am sure I am not alone in being inundated with people telling me I need to be more Customer Centric and that I need to have an “Outside – In” attitude to how I run my business.
Which in principle I do not disagree with, it’s the pay-off I struggle with – “It will help me identify what products I need to focus on and what problems they solve, ensuring I keep customers happy to grow my business.”
Now do not get me wrong, I like growing my business and profit helps feeds my obsession with loud shirts and bright coloured suits, but isn’t the payoff all about me and my products and customer satisfaction, not about acquiring and developing customers?
Personally, I think Customer Centricity is the wrong mindset for a salesperson, I am not in the customer service business, I have colleagues who do that (there is a whole set of roles dedicated to this, customer service, customer success, etc.). Instead, we should be focusing on Buyer Centricity – i.e. putting the buyer at the centre.
If we, as sales, can consistently create value for buyers, help them in their complex buying decisions, support them to identify why they need to change and how they can achieve that change, then I know I will be successful. The pay-off should be “if you create value, people will ultimately buy from you” and this will deliver new customers and grow existing ones. A by-product of this is that your salespeople become differentiated as value creators who ensure that we retain customers by helping them to become better businesses, rather than through their satisfaction with a specific product or service – which could easily be replaced when the next hot new thing arrives on the scene.
So why should you care about the difference between talking customer centric versus buyer centric in a sales kick-off? It’s all in the mindset.
Let’s consider the message you are giving to your sales organisation
If you lead with a Customer Centricity message
- Are you telling your sales organisation that we want to hear the voice of our customers so that we can evolve our offerings? Are you looking for your customers to share their thoughts with you?
- Are you telling your sales organisation they can challenge the customer’s view, yes the Customer is “king”, but are they always right?
- Ultimately, this is highly reactive in nature, it is not about what you can share with the customer, it is what they share with you. This is not the pathway way to proactive sales; this is the role of Customer Success and Product Marketing.
If you lead with a Buyer Centric message
- You are telling your salespeople they have to create value to help the Buyer throughout their Buying Process.
- They must understand the Buyer’s world, the risks and opportunities they are faced with, and how this impacts their strategy – they have to have Business Acumen.
- They have to share Insights that help identify potential ways the Buyer can overcome the risks or deliver against the opportunities.
- They need to help stakeholders discover why they need to change for themselves, what they could change to and, when the time is right, realise that you are the right partner for them to work with.
- Ultimately you are being proactive. You are not waiting for the customer to tell you anything – you are going out and talking about their challenges, their business and things they can be doing.
How can this play out in an SKO?
Make the whole event Buyer Centric
- What to drop
- Firstly, forget last year, and put away your excessively detailed PowerPoint slides showing results & market shares. This is about being proactive in the year ahead, not reacting to the past. The results your budget & strategy demand will be delivered if you sell in the right way.
- Don’t focus on the new products, this should be about the buyer not you
- Instead, discuss how and why Customers’ buy, and how you can build value for them
- Profile your customers and look at what is changing in their markets and territories.
- Don’t focus on the actions of your competitors. Focus on the trends that are driving your customers’ businesses and why they might create the need for change.
- How do we position what change looks like without talking about our products – What do we want the Buyer to Discover?
From that, let’s build some insights that we can share with our customers and potential customers. - Don’t think sell, sell, sell. Think Value Creation to drive acquisition and development within future and current Customers.
A Buyer Centric focused SKO starts the journey to move from a reactive sales world to a proactive value creation world. It focuses the Sales Organisation to think outside-in and about what is really driving their customers – not from a product perspective, but from a business perspective. It helps marketing realise they need to provide insights and stories that help buyers discover reasons to change and encourages the communication between sales and marketing that is needed to deliver them.
