By Kelly Lawrence, Founder & CEO, Lawrence Innovation
One of the most common reasons companies fail is poor customer intimacy. They are not really in touch with customers through deep dialogue.[1] You may be thinking, “That’s not my problem. My sales team calls customers every day.” To which I ask, what’s the conversation? Are you learning about unmet needs? Do you know what problem your solution solves? Do you know what value your solution creates for your customer? At this point, most business teams tell me they don’t know. Check out our 10 Indicators That Your Company Needs to Deepen Customer Engagement.
Achieving true customer intimacy is hard. In B2B, we have true customer intimacy when we understand the profitable problems to solve because our customers told us. The ultimate prize is when we earn first right of refusal – the customer calls us first to share their problem to be solved.
As in any good relationship, trust is the first requirement to achieve customer intimacy. An easy way to start building trust is through conversation. When was the last time you called customers and asked them about their problems? “Voice of customer” or Discovery interviews are a great tool to understand problems to solve. Unfortunately, many companies stop after they’ve asked the question.
Imagine you are a huge basketball fan. You’ve been networking for years and finally got a meeting with Michael Jordan. You’re ecstatic. The discussion is going really well, your kids are the same age, your philosophies on life are aligned and you even share some of the same hobbies. In fact, Mr. Jordan agrees to meet you for a golf outing and tells you to give him a call. You can’t wait to go golfing with Michael Jordan, but you want to improve your game first. Time goes by. You still don’t think you’re good enough. Before you know it, too much time has passed. You never called. You missed the opportunity to golf with Michael Jordan, to establish a life long friendship. At this point, I hope you are saying, “I would never pass up an opportunity like that!” This is the equivalent of not following up with a customer after a “voice of customer interview”. How frequently is your team not following-up?
When we follow-up with people, we gain trust. We show people that we do what we say we will do. It sounds so simple, yet so many relationships die at this critical stage. Don’t let your teams fall into this habit. Instead, encourage teams to follow-up with customers after a “voice of customer” interview with a Custom Market Insights Report[2], a summary of their learnings. This gives the team a reason to follow-up, shows the customer the team does what it says it will do, proves to the customer the team listened and provides something of value in return. Isn’t that what trust building is all about?
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[1] Eric T. Wagner. “Five Reasons 8 Out of 10 Businesses Fail.” Forbes, 2013.
[2] Lawrence Innovation. Custom Market Insights Reports. 2020. https://www.lawrenceinnovation.com/marketinsightsreport