You are a salesperson or small business owner that wants to hit the market with a new product, service, or solution. Here’s something to remember: every interaction you have or you are going to have with a prospect or a client matters! These interactions are crucial while selling, and they might impact a prospect’s decision to buy or not to buy along with customer’s loyalty. Here are 4 tips on how you can engage with your customers effectively.
- Engage with your silent customers
What is more dangerous than a dissatisfied client? A silent client. They tend to remain quiet and say “Everything is well” every time you are asking them how they are doing and if they have any concerns about your service or product. First, give them some acknowledgement – thank them for being your customer. Second, make it a habit to check on them, say, once a month.
Ask them whether they are fully satisfied with what you are doing for them or not. Don’t be afraid to hear some adequate critical feedback, as it provides an opportunity to improve. Learning about minor issues your silent customers are facing might also protect you from turning them into major issues when it’s too late.
- Use social media as an engagement tool
LinkedIn is great for connecting with business professionals but it is also a good platform for sharing your values or thoughts. Especially when you are running a business. Don’t leave your company’s business page lifeless – post news, updates, and even surveys there. Ask open-ended questions that allow your followers to give you detailed answers.
Social media is way more than just a place where one can connect with a person and leave them alone. It is a place to engage and be engaged.
After all, there are 3.8 billion social media users worldwide. Some of them use social media to look for help. And through the right engagement, you can acquire and retain customers.
- Create a “safe space” for your customers and prospects
Build a social media community or forum where your clients might feel like it’s home. Through those communities, you can engage with your customers directly. Answering questions that are important for the industry both of you are in, discussing hot business topics, and sharing information with like minded individuals. A great example of such “safe space” might be a private LinkedIn or Facebook community or a Slack channel.
Many business owners think they can’t afford to be wrong, so those spaces might be considered as a place where they can talk about issues they are facing and feel everyone there is in the same boat. Studies have shown that there is still a stigma that CEOs should handle everything by themselves and coaching is being considered as something that is opposite to high performance. So, through those “safe spaces” business owners might be getting advice from those who are equal industry leaders.
- Know customers’ expectations
It’s always great for building business relationships. No worries, you don’t need to predict your potential clients’ thoughts, you just need to listen to what they are saying.
Basically, what you should do is to put your client’s needs and wants ahead of your own. Ahead of what you have got to say. Your customer is always your priority.
In his book It Is Not All About “Me”, Robin Dreeke says: “The individuals in life that are able to either mask their agenda or shift the agenda to something altruistic will have great success at building rapport.” And that is what all of us sales and marketing people need – to build rapport, right?
