Skills you need to win customers

Skills you need to win customers

Winning important new customers that take your business to the next level is not an easy task, especially if you are a small business. Many articles have been written about the importance of having a clear sales strategy targeting those big customers you want. Although it is indisputable that a sales strategy is necessary, you also need to have the appropriate skills and traits if you want the strategy to effectively win customers for your business. In this article I will outline the 6 most important skills that, in my experience, you need to have to win customers.

Skill 1: Empathy

One of the basic sales strategies is to get to know your target customer as much as possible. That is the only way you can design the oncoming speech. But this means nothing if you cannot connect with them. One thing is to know someone and another is to “feel” him/her and for that you need empathy.

Skill 2: Patience

To get a meeting with a decision maker at a big customer might take time; especially if you are small. This process can be frustrating but if you really want and need this customer, you have to wait calmly until the circumstances are in your favor. But this will not happen unless you are patient.

Skill 3: Persistence

The things worth fighting for are often the hardest to get. Win customers that increase your value is one of those things. If you want to win customers you need to get used to rejection. No matter how many times you get told NO, if you really want this customer, you need to be persistent. Keep trying, without overwhelming the client. For example, you can try to enter through another person or family member of the person you need to talk to. Or you can “fix” a casual encounter in a public place where you know the person goes frequently because you researched him as part of the sales strategy.

Skill 4: Hunger

This is probably the most important trait you need in order to win customers. You need to want the customer real badly in order to strengthen your patience and persistence, and endure the time it might take and the neglects you can receive from the customer.

Skill 5: Communication ability

You can be empathic, patient and persistent but those traits will not yield positive results if you lack communication skills. Take into account that we are dealing with a tough character, more important than you with whom, somehow, you manage to meet. Your message must be clear, to the point and in a way that strike a chord with them. This ability needs to be paired with f “know your customer” sales strategy to be successful.

Skill 6: Flexibility

If you are growing a small company, it is very common that your product or service does not have all the features that bigger customers need. For this reason, it is very important to be open to adapting and growing the product in order to meet the customer needs. It doesn’t matter that profitability decreases if the question is to win customers that take you to the next level. In all the important customers that we have won and that took us up the value chain staircase, we had to customize the product and lower the price as much as possible. We really did not make much money from those deals but our DSD solution and WMS are the result of these deals.

I hope this article has been helpful to you. I will continue to post information related to warehouse management, distribution practices and trends, and the economy in general. If you are interested in this article or want to learn more about Laceup Solutions, please subscribe to stay updated on future articles.

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