Voice of Customer Finds “Sales Secret Weapons”

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In my last series of posts I have been sharing how powerful capturing the voice of your customers (VoC) and voice of your market ( VoM) is in growing your business profitably. In this post I will share how to leverage customer voice into a “sales secret weapon“.

In my last post I shared how critical it is to understand the criteria your buyers use today as well as how those criteria rank in order of importance. You may be providing services and features that cost you margins that your customers no longer value. Or, you may be leading with a dated value proposition and not sharing the most important buying criteria your buyers are shopping for today and losing sales you could have won.

First we need to meet with our customers and prospects and understand how they shop, the buying journey they take, as well as the key criteria they must have to make a purchase. With out this information your sales team is playing what I refer to as: “feature and benefit BINGO”. They are calling out features and benefits in hoping the buyers jump up and say… yes, I need that one…BINGO! In this sales model you are relying on your buyers to figure out the problems you solve, or could solve for them. In todays market you must intentionally share the problems you solve for your customers.

Sales teams who have been trained to understand how buyers buy, what they need to buy, and are equipped with the right sales tool for each twist and turn in the buyer journey win sales.

I read an interesting article in Adweek this week concerning how sports teams use various give away items to increase ticket sales as well as encourage fans to arrive earlier to the ballpark. Fans who arrive early spend more money; it’s as simple as that.

What does ballpark giveaways have to do with your business?

Great Question!

Please answer the following questions:

What buying criteria must your buyers have today to buy?

What is the order of importance for these criteria?

How does your overall service offering compare to what buyers want and need today?

Some common giveaways I see companies offering include:

Time of shipment
Service level
Free freight or FOB freight
Payment terms
Packaging specifications
Quality specifications
Added value engineering
Marketing tools
On line order entry/ EDI
Customer sales force training
Technical support
Material recommendations
Discounted material costs based on your total buying power
Returnable freight packaging
Quality guarantees
Out going product inspection
Product testing

The list can go on and on based on your specific industry.

Based on your industry you have heard a number of requirements from buyers. Obviously the job of a buyer is to ask for as much as they can receive for the lowest price. The trouble occurs when your salespeople do not understand how they key buying criteria rank in order of importance for your buyers.

Market leading sales teams are trained to ask.

What I have observed more often than not is sales teams spill their candy in the lobby. They “show up and throw up” until the buyer agrees to buy. It is not your sales team’s fault. They are trying to use the tools they were given. My challenge is what if you could have sold the buyer with the ability to execute three key buying criteria and not all 12-15 your salesperson listed? If this occurs your team is incurring costs and performing features, benefits and services that are costing your team margins and are not of key value in the buying decision today.

For example I mentioned the recent AdWeek article. In this article it shares how major league baseball teams have taken the time to understand the voice of their customers, the fans, and in doing so identified a direct sales increase on the game nights they give away bobble heads. Bobble heads produce more results than any other giveaway.

Major league teams have given away all kinds of things (just like your business may be doing now) in the hopes of increasing ticket sales and getting consumers to arrive at the ballpark earlier. Things like tote bags, T-shirts, baseballs, baseball cards, towels and bobble heads.

When fans arrive earlier, they spend more money. It’s as simple as that.

The article shared the following:

Bobble head giveaways increase ticket sales 15%-30%
The Cubs realized a 71% increase in fans arriving more than an hour before the game

What I like about this information is it is simple, quantifiable and easy to execute.

What impact could your sales and profits see if you identified your one to three top “bobble heads” secret sales weapons your buyers need to buy today?

Do you agree how powerful this information would be to increase sales and profits?

With this kind of focus do you feel your team could execute in delivery? (I bet they can)

The trouble with most businesses today is they are providing a laundry list of features, benefits and services and are often not sure the top one or two that truly drives sales behavior. So what do most teams do? …. They offer them all. Just like giving away tote bags and baseballs fail to move ticket sales dials, your team may ( more than likely is) giving things away that buyers do not value today, or do not value as much as they did in prior years.

How can your team know what buyers value today?

Capture and leverage voice of the customer and voice of the market.

How about your company….

Do you know the key buying criteria your buyers must have today?

What are all the features, benefits, and services your team is offering to win sales today?

What impact would just offering what buyers need today have on your operations efficiency?

What impact could knowing and ranking buying criteria have on your teams’ sales close rate and gross profit margin?

What additional profits could you realize by eliminating things no longer high on your buyer’s key criteria list?

What is your team’s one or two bobble heads that really drive sales growth?

I have helped companies increase sales and profits for over 30 years. I wish it was some crazy technical secret process but it really is not. If you take the time to understand your customers, capture their voice and leverage what you learn you will see what I refer to as explosive growth.

Why?

Simply put, most companies you are competing with have salespeople showing up and throwing up. They are verbally vomiting all kinds of promises to win the sale. Some are important, some are industry standard performance requirements, and some are no longer a value, and some are dated based on how we have always done things around here.

If you have not captured the voice of your buyers and market in the last 12 months I promise you …

Your sales process is broken
Your team is giving away things buyers no longer value
Your team is losing sales you could have and should have won

Once you capture the voice of your customers you can leverage that knowledge into a repeatable sales process ,sales tools, and sales training that guides your sales team based on what your buyers value most today.

Customer voice helps you create your own repeatable sales process GPS for your sales team to close more sales profitably.

Increase Sales: Key Buying Seasons Surface in “Voice of Market” Work

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Market leading organizations understand the power in understanding the voice of their customers and markets. In my last post I shared how voice of the market work helps identify key buying triggers. Understanding how your buyers buy, the journey they take today to a purchase and the criteria they must have to buy is critical to growing your sales profitably. In this post I will share how Voice of your Market work identifies key buying seasons for specific products.

I was hired to grow the sales for Gardner Denver in the rust belt region. Gardner Denver is one of the leading manufacturers of industrial air compressors and accessories in the world. Industrial air compressors support manufacturing plants by supplying compressed air to power machines and tools used in the manufacturing process.

The first step in my business development process was to meet with as many end customers as I could on four legged sales calls with my dealer distributor salespeople. While the salespeople asked questions about upcoming changes that may require new or additional air compressors, I asked opened ended question and listened for unresolved market problems and buying trigger events.

Working with one of my larger dealers: Atlas Machine and Supply we identified a common problem end users have every year from May through August: Moisture in their air. Industrial air compressors compress ambient air and one of the by products of this process is water. Buyers purchase air dryers to remove moisture before it has a chance to damage machines and tools. What buyers shared was during the summer months in the Midwest they experience humidity and it often taxes their compressed air dryers and it is often a challenge to find new dryers when one of their dryers fail.

We developed a proactive business development plan based on this common seasonal problem our buyers were experiencing. Our dealer produced a postcard mailer that was sent to all their current accounts as well as targeted new accounts they have always wanted to serve. It was a simple message asking if they would like a free audit for moisture to insure their plant does not have any manufacturing problems when the high humid months hit. We conducted a sales training meeting and trained the distributor sales team how to execute the sales process.

Our distributor sales team followed up with each account within seven days of the mailer and scheduled audits to insure their customers and prospects they always wanted to serve would not experience any service interruptions in the humid summer months.

Our compressed air dryer sales more than doubled compared to the same months the prior year and new compressor sales increased. Since our dealer sales were contacting buyers about a common seasonal problem and offering to solve that problem, buyers trusted the sales and service people. They demonstrated they knew the industry and common unresolved seasonal problems. The sales and service team was not focused on “selling” but “serving” the market. While conducting audits proactively, our maintenance mangers and plant mangers openly shared other issues they were concerned about. These “other issues” resulted in new incremental compressor sales, service revenue and aftermarket sales increases.

Do your end customers have buying seasons for specific products and services?

Who on your team is responsible for helping dealer distributors grow their sales?

Does your sales team proactively reach out to buyers to address seasonal buying trigger events?

Would your team like to double your product sales in key buying seasons?

As we approach a new year, there is nothing more strategic than understanding your buyers, how they buy and the criteria they need to buy TODAY. “Today” is the key word. Think about all the changes we have seen over the years in how buyers buy. If you have not adjusted your repeatable sales process in the last 12 months or created new sales tools …I promise you have a broken sales process and you are losing orders you should have won.

The voice of the customer, voice of the market work becomes the foundation of your sales, marketing and business development strategic plans.

If you don’t have an understanding how how buyers buy and what they need to buy today…How do you plan to hit your sales numbers next year?

Voice of the Market Identifies Key Buying Triggers

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Companies who understand the power in the voice of their markets today realize greater and more profitable sales growth. Understanding your market, buyers, and how they buy and what they need to buy is critical to hitting your sales numbers today. One outcome of understanding the voice of your customers and markets is identifying sales trigger events.

What triggers one of the buyers in your market to begin the buying journey?

The answer to that question becomes a key consideration when developing your business development plan to hit your sales numbers.

In a past post I shared the work I did in the accessible van market with VMI. We sold lowered floor mini vans that were adapted so consumers in wheelchairs could drive and or ride in comfort. I launched VMI’s first retail mobility dealership Arizona Mobility Products.

Our team spent a great deal of our time out conducting vehicle demonstrations at consumer’s homes and our sales grew quickly. We were constantly asking questions to better understand our customers, how they shop and what triggered them to make a new purchase.

Consumers in wheelchairs must have a vehicle they trust and is reliable. You might say: well Mark I need that too. The difference is if our vehicle dies on the road somewhere we can call a tow truck and they will tow our vehicle and give us a ride to a service garage. Tow trucks are not equipped to accommodate a consumer in a wheelchair. Should their vehicle experience a malfunction, they are left at the point where the vehicle failed until they make alternative arrangements to be transported. Reliability is an even higher buying criteria for consumers in wheelchairs. Based on this we should not have been so surprised as we were when we kept hearing how consumers with accessible lowered floor mini vans often start shopping for a new van within three months of their vehicle warrantee expiring. When we surveyed our customers this came out loud and clear in almost every interview.

Our team sorted our customer database based on when vehicles were purchased and each month proactively contacted customers whose vehicle was about to lose its warrantee. We established a four-touch campaign.

-The first touch was a simple letter notifying them their vehicle warrantee was about to expire, share any current promotions, remind them we sold extended warrantees and suggested we quote the trade in value of their current vehicle.

-The second touch was a phone call, ideally from the salesperson that sold them the vehicle reminding them as a service their warrantee was about to expire.

-The third touch shared specific dealer incentives, rebates and once again mentioned their warrantee was about to expire.

-The last touch was a request for us to book an appointment to have their vehicle inspected by one of our certified service experts at no charge.

Identifying this buying trigger and developing a strategic series of communications, a GPS to new sales for our salespeople, helped us increase sales and build customer loyalty. As a side benefit it also provided our dealership with a supply of used vehicles that were in huge demand in this community.

What triggers your buyers to start the buying journey?

Does someone on your team Know?

How has your team used this information?

What could your team do to serve buyers who triggered the need to buy?

What is your team doing to make lifetime customers for your products?

Understanding the voice of your customers and market has many benefits. One benefit is to intimately understand what triggers your buyers to shop, to search for a new purchase. Taking the time to understand your buyers, why they buy and what they need to buy is critical to consistently hitting your sales numbers.

Voice of Market Identifies “Roundabouts” in your Sales Process

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The voice of your customer (VoC) and the voice of your market (VoM) are powerful data points if leveraged correctly. Your customers and your markets are eager for suppliers who take the time to understand them, their buying process and the criteria they need to make buying decisions. Market leading companies are constantly assessing how buyers buy and any shifts that occur in their markets and they adjust. One common outcome of voice of the customer work is changes to your repeatable sales process and eliminating any roundabouts in the sales process where sales stall or get lost.

I was asked to help the leader marketing and product training develop a seminar on how to help companies tune-in to their markets. The owners wrote a best selling book titled Tuned in. (a must read if you have not read it yet) This is what I have done my entire career and I was so excited for the opportunity to help thousands of companies and serve this market leading team. Then 2008 hit. We like many companies experienced a large market shift, particularly in the tech market space and it was not the right time to launch a new seminar.

After that market shift of 2008 the company experienced a significant drop in their on-site customer specific training. They offered public training where we would fill a conference center and train people from many different companies. One result of the public trainings was often someone coming forward after the class asking if we could do the same training but just for his or her team. We historically had a very high close rate when this occurred and we would provide an amazing onsite training experience. On site training is a great way to get an entire team aligned and using the same framework.

Once the stock market dropped we saw a significant decrease in onsite sales. The company asked if I would help lead sales out of this recent sales decline.

We conducted win loss calls with all our recent customers and the customers we recently did not win. (Just as we taught in our training) We asked open-ended questions about how they bought now after the stock market crash.

Was their process different?

Did they require new criteria to make buying decisions?

Who else in their organization was involved, if any in the buying decision? And so on…

What we learned was the following:

Human resources no longer could make buying decisions alone over a specific $ value
Human resources now had to sell the CEO and CFO on why they should invest in this training
The customers we won shared how they would prefer speaking with one of our instructors much earlier in the sales process

Based on the above and much more feedback we mapped the buying process and next to it our repeatable sales process. What we looked for were common roundabouts where the opportunity to serve our clients spun out of control. These roundabouts are always opportunities for new sales tools. For example, since the human resources group now had to internally sell the CEO, we proactively provided a short slide deck written for a CEO buyer persona as a sales tool.

We introduced our instructors much earlier in the sales process as they requested and often asked human resources to invite others who could authorize the expenditure.

We developed a new sales process with new sales tools and trained our sales team.

Within 3 months sales started to climb and after 12 months we realized a sales increase over 150%.

How about your company…

When did your team last capture the voice of your customers?

Did it result in a new sales process?

Did you identify new sales tools needed to help your buyers buy?

When did your team last capture the voice of your market?

Did you map how your buyers are buying today? Notice any changes?

Did you adjust your sales process based on how buyers are buying today?

Do your markets have new problems they need solved since the last time you did a value proposition audit?

We serve dynamic markets that continue to shift and change. How many changes has your team identified in the last year? Two years? Five years? Did you adjust to those shifts strategically or did you, like many teams tell sales to “just make it happen, work harder”?

If you have not recognized any market shifts nor changed your sales process or designed new sales tools it is broken but there is still time to tune in to how your buyers are buying and the market voice.

Spend time in front of your customers and understand how they are buying today, what they must have today and make the necessary adjustments. I estimate as high as 60% -70% of companies are not actively listening for the voice of their market today. Of the 40%-30% who are, less than 10% will actually adjust their sales process and design new sales tools.

Why wouldn’t your team want to be one of those 10% who hit and surpassed their sales numbers next year?

There is a power in capturing the voice of the customer and how you use what you have learned to adjust your repeatable sales process. Simple often-minor adjustments can have a huge impact on your sales close rate. Adjusting your sales process to how your buyers buy today creates a GPS for your salespeople to follow to the sale.

Who Owns the Voice of Your Market and Voice of Your Customer? ..Hint (not sales!)

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In my last few posts I have been sharing the power of capturing the voice of your customers and voice of your markets. Understanding how your buyers buy today, the journey they take and the criteria they must have is the quickest way to increasing sales. Who should own the voice of the market and customer? The answer may surprise you: Not Sales! In this post I will share who should own the voice of the customer and share a short video on the impact this information will have.

Who owns the voice of the market, voice of the customer in your company?

Before we unpack this topic we need to understand the differences between the voice of the customer (VoC) and the voice of the market (VoM).

Voice of the Customer

“Voice of the Customer (VoC) is a marketing research technique that encompasses the collective insights of your customers’ needs, wants, perceptions, preferences and expectations.”

– Iperceptions

Voice of Market

“Voice of the Market (VOM) is different in that it incorporates input from the greater market. The market contains not only your customers, but also those who chose not to buy your solution – those who bought someone else’s product and those who just didn’t make a decision.”

– On Product Management

Capturing the voice of your customer (VOC) is critical to providing your customers the best overall buying experience and growing sales profitably. I also use the voice of the customer to help me understand how customers describe the problems my clients solve in similar markets. The Voice of the market is even more powerful because it not only captures your customer, but it also captures prospects in your market you want to serve as well as customers you once sold. The voice of the Market ( VOM) helps you scale your solutions to unresolved market problems to new customers in the markets you serve.

Who owns the voice of the market and customer?

Marketing!

Why?

A few reasons I have experienced over the years:

First, you want sales selling. I don’t mean to sound trite but this is about focus. You want your sales resources selling and not conducting market research. You do not want them doing any behaviors that do not align with their specific objectives and hitting their sales numbers. They need to be driving to serve their customers and solve their unresolved problems.

“Diluted Sales focus causes diluted sales results.”

– Mark Allen Roberts

Second, you want unfiltered feedback from your customers and markets. What if the reason why buyers don’t buy is the most common reason: the buyer-felt sales did not adequately understand the problem to be solved so they did not trust their proposal to fix the problem. Will sales tell you that? Maybe but it would be a difficult thing to share. For example, what if “the why “your customers do not buy more is they were unaware of the new products you introduced over a year ago?

Third, your customers have a relationship with your salesperson. It would be very difficult and uncomfortable for them to share concerns directly with the salesperson that calls on them. However your customers will share feedback if asked correctly to give them a better overall buying experience.

Forth, your salespeople are trained to sell. Great right? Not when it comes to understanding your buyers and how they buy. Your sales people may hear something then start selling instead of actively listening and capturing the entire thought. The quickest way to shut down a good voice of customer, voice of market conversation is to try to sell through objections the buyers shares.

Marketing owns the voice of the market and voice of the customer.

If you are like a number of companies you may not have marketing team members experienced conducting interviews. If that is the case I highly recommend you hire a 3^rd party to interview your customers and markets. This is by far the best method of gathering what your buyers need and how they buy today. The outside 3^rd party will interview your customers, customers you lost, and prospects you always wanted to be customers. Another approach would be to have a senior member of the leadership team conduct these interviews. As VP of sales and marketing I would often conduct this research.

The only companies you should never interview are new companies who are currently at some stage of the sales process. You do not want anything to interrupt the flow of the sale through the funnel. I have seen companies inexperienced with this process call prospects they are quoting in an effort to help close the sale faster and lose the sale entirely.

Make sure when working with a 3^rd party you are clear about the deliverables.

Possible market work deliverables include:

Present raw data
Map buying journey
Identify buyer personas
Prepare a summary report / Identify shifts and trends
Prepare a summary report and recommendations based on the raw data

When I conduct customer and market voice research I present a summary report and recommendations for a specific project fee based on the number of people interviewed, the time to accomplish the project, and how the customers and markets are interviewed. Some clients ask I personally meet with 2-5 of their customers so the cost is higher than a phone interview due to travel expenses.

I feel I need to warn you at this point: In this capturing voice process you will hear a number of great things, things that will make you proud of your team. You will probably also hear things your customers believe to be true (their perceptions) that may or many not be true. Keep in mind your customer’s perception is their reality and that is what you must use in your strategic adjustments.

After the market work your team will be nervous. Sales, marketing, operations and even quality will be nervous about what your customers and markets share. As the leader in the organization you must set the stage for this exercise. When I work with teams I have four meetings:

Project launch meeting with senior management team – I share what we will be doing, how we will do it, who we need to speak with and what some outcomes may be. I emphasize this is not a witch-hunt, but an opportunity to learn how to make strategic adjustments that insures we all hit our numbers. This meeting is about education and expectations

CEO/President/VP of marketing/VP of sales – In this meeting I share my summary report and some specific customer interviews with raw data and recommendations, adjustments to sales process and needed new sales tools. This meeting is about understanding opportunities not finding a throat to choke. We decide what we will share with team and in what depth.

Senior leadership team – present summary of finds and recommendations without specific customer interviews. I ask the CEO and other leaders to prioritize the action items and commit to investment if required in this meeting. This meeting is about gaining team understanding and commitment tied to outcomes and shaping a plan to meet what buyers need today.

Sales VP, Marketing VP, sales and marketing teams– present findings and design a new sales process and list new sales tools needed. Conduct 3-4 sales trainings over 6-8 months and provide coaching as needed. This first meeting is about applying the work your team has committed to do and reinforcing new behaviors. This is a great team building exercise to tear down any silos that have developed over the years. Following trainings are to reinforce new behaviors and coach team members through any difficulties they are experiencing.

The number and severity of the adjustments needed will depend upon the market and customer feedback as well as the senior management team’s prioritization; most teams learn a few opportunities, misperceptions of customers and make 2-5 strategic adjustments and add new sales tools. It is not unusual teams create a project roadmap with phase gates to tackle findings. You can have a senior manager lead the project internally or I have been hired to hold team members accountable to their assigned deliverables.

Once your team understands the voice of your market and voice of your customers you have the foundation for a strong plan to hit your sales and profit numbers.

Does your team understand the voice of the customer?

Does your team clearly understand the voice of your market (s)?

Who owns the voice of the customer and market in your organization?

When was the last time you gathered this information?

Are you sure your brand is in sync with your customer expectations?

How often do you feel you need to gather this information?

Market leading organizations achieve their sales and profit goals on a consistent basis.

They accomplish this by spending time understanding how buyers buy, what they need to buy, and why they don’t buy.

They take current market data and adjust their plans to better serve their current buyers and markets.

Would your team like to realize a 10X sales increase over the next 6 -8 years, and or a $38 million sales increase in 18 months like the companies I have shared recently? If so, it involves capturing the voice of your customers and voice of your markets which is a key part of the no smoke and mirrors process.

Leverage Customer Voice into “Explosive Sales Growth”

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Understanding your customers and markets today is the first step in business development plans that result in explosive sales growth. In my last post I shared an example of one company that took the time to understand their market and doubled their sales in 18 months. In this post I will share the same process and how critical it is to understand who your real customer is.

After the plastics company in the last post was sold to a private equity firm for a multiple much higher than industry averages I needed to find a new team to serve.

A company contacted me: Vantage Mobility. This company manufactures vans with the floors lowered so consumers in wheelchairs can drive again. This was one of my favorite jobs because we were changing lives with each sale.

When I met with their owners I heard common pains they wanted solved:

Increased distribution
Increase sales
Increase market share
Improve bottom line

After joining the team as the VP of Sales and Marketing I set out to use the same process that helped Alpha Enterprises realize explosive sales growth:

Go out into the market and meet customers

Listen for problems that needed solved

Understand how they buy today

What they need to buy today

Then shape a sales process that mirrors what we learned, train and coach sales team on how to use it

The leadership team said their customers were independent mobility dealers who bought their vehicles then sold then to consumers in wheel chairs. What I heard was: mobility dealers were their channel distribution partners but the customers are consumers in wheelchairs. This led to some …lets say lively discussions with the new guy “who obviously did not understand the dealer is the customer because they send us checks!”

My first objective was to add distribution in markets we were not adequately represented. I conducted a number of four-legged sales calls with my regional sales managers calling on our independent dealer distributors and the dealers we wanted to add. While my regional managers were focused on hitting their sales numbers (as they should) I asked open ended questions to learn more about their business, how they buy, what the buy and why today. They openly shared why they bought from the 800 lb gorilla competitor: Braun. Braun pretty much invented this industry. Their founder, set out to solve a problem: help consumers in wheel chairs drive again. Because he was in a wheelchair himself, he intimately understood the needs of consumers in wheelchairs.

One of the questions I always use that produce great feedback is:

What does our competitor do really well?

This will produce items that are important to your buyers and key criteria they consider when pick a vendor. What buyers often expect is a competing salesperson talking about how the competitor sucks. (We had a few regional managers who used this approach and that was quickly changed). What salespeople must understand is when you use the approach of “the competition sucks” you are basically telling the buyer there are a fool for the buying decisions they make and really do not know how to do their job. Once this occurs the opportunity to build a relationship with the buyer is over. Once this occurs the opportunity to learn what is important to the buyer and how they buy is over.

Another question I always use is:

If you were the president of our company, what would you do?

In this case you are doing the opposite of challenging the buyers past purchase decisions. You are basically saying…you have been in this business for a while, you are smart, I respect you and I really would like to hear your thoughts because I believe they will help me…

After about three months we gathered all the information, grouped it and we prioritized it and offered what we heard the independent dealers wanted and needed. We trained our regional mangers how to present our offerings. I worked in the field with our salespeople making sure they adapted to this new behavior and coached them when they struggled. Our number of distributors increased. This led to increased sales and an improved bottom line.

However to solve the companies next three pain points we really needed to understand the true customers: consumers in wheelchairs. (In tech markets we refer to them as end users)

Increase sales
Increase market share
Improve bottom line

I continued the four-legged sales calls with our regional managers and coaching but changed my focus. Every mobility dealer sold accessible vans. They also provided amazing service for those vehicles and additional products to make the vehicle overall use experience the best it could be. They added innovative products like hand controls and transfer seats as well as conducted routine maintenance. While our regional mangers were calling on mobility dealer owners and helping their salespeople demonstrate vehicles, I sat in the lobby and talked to consumers in wheelchairs. I was amazed how little I knew, how little my regional managers knew, about consumers in wheelchairs and how they made buying decisions and the process they went through. They shared things like:

On average consumers in wheel chairs make about 25% less than those not in wheel chairs and have less disposable income due to medications and medical devices. “Its hard for us to get new car loans, and these custom vehicles are expensive“

The vehicle’s reputation for quality is is critical. Specifically their fear was should their vehicle break down, the tow truck driver can town their vehicle, but no tow trucks are equipped to transport a consumer in a wheel chair so they could be left in their wheelchair on the side of the road.

The closest relationships they have at mobility dealers is with the people who service their vehicles. “If Frank tells me brand X is the best because they rarely come in for service then that’s what I buy.”

How vehicle presentations at their home are so valuable for first time mobility vehicle buyers (they may not have any way of getting to the dealer after their recent operation or accident)

One young lady said something that I did not expect: You think consumers in wheel chairs are ugly! What? Your brochure, your web site all uses models who are obviously not people in wheelchairs…I can tell by this woman’s muscle tone in her thighs or this guy here the muscle tone in his legs and the bottom of his shoes are scuffed. (Never expected that concern)

We learned that all consumers in wheel chairs were not the same. We had four prominent buyer personas: Quadriplegics, paraplegics, some but limited mobility, and caregivers. Each had his or her unique criteria and requirements when purchasing a mobility vehicle or device.

My favorite comment came from a veteran who has having his vehicle serviced at our Akron Ohio dealer’s location: “You folks are not that smart you know? These vehicles are so very expensive when you buy a new van then convert it. If I were you I would buy as many used vans as I could and modify them and bring down the retail price so more people who need what you are selling can afford one…” ( as the new guy why wouldn’t we do this?)

We learned a number of our dealer salespeople came from the automotive sales industry and the strategies and tactics they were taught there not only did not work but caused consumers to leave the mobility dealerships. The mobility vehicle sale is a custom solution sale not selling numbers or as one referred to it as “moving iron”. This sale is about serving people with a life changing solution.

We brought all the current market data we gathered back to the owners, board and executive team. This is the hardest part of my process because I am often seen as a heretic, not loyal, telling them their baby is ugly, or I just don’t get the vision, you obviously don’t know how we have been doing things around here for the past ___years. (Well if what you have been doing was driving the sales growth you needed you wouldn’t have hired me? ..never said out loud)

Over time we made some adjustments based on what we learned:

We used actual VMI customers in our photo shoots creating an authentic connection in the community in our brochures, marketing and web site

Our tech services group dug deep into the most common service issues and solved them with engineering’s help, and our dealer’s field tech teams became raving fans

We proactively offered in home demonstrations when we learned it was a firs time buyer

We taught our dealers to proactively reach out to every past customer right before their vehicle warrantee was about to expire because consumers valued having the warrantee so much, and it created an inventory of used vans

We changed our web site. The first step when you entered our site was to identify what buyer persona you were and we took you through products that met your needs and requirements.

We started buying fleets of used vans from rental companies and converting them driving down the retail price and binging an entire new set of buyers into our dealers

Our dealer tech training did an amazing job and won the hearts and minds of dealer service technicians, one of the leading influencers for consumers in wheelchairs buying their next vehicle

We created and trained our dealers in a new way to help consumers in wheelchairs buy mobility vehicles. It was called the Certified Mobility Consultant program and it is still in use today

Vantage Mobility experienced “explosive sales growth “after tuning in to their distributor partner’s needs and the unique needs of their top buyer personas. We stopped focusing on what the 800 lb gorilla competitor was doing and we started tracking “lives changed” instead of vehicles sold.

Today VMI is seen as a high quality conversion van manufacturer and key partner with their dealers. Used van conversions grew to over 60% of the vehicles sold within five years. Because they are a privately held company when I served them ( recently sold at a strong multiple ) I cannot share the specific sales and profits, but I can share there sales today are estimated at 9X-10X the sales they had in 2000. They continued to listen to their dealers and consumers and converted new vehicles like Hondas and Toyotas.

How about your company?

Are you actively listening to your channel partners AND customers?

Are you counting on your distributors to share customer feedback with you? Or is someone on your team asking?

When was the last time you asked one of your customers what your competitor is doing right?

Is your team experiencing explosive sales growth? Would you like to?

What do your customers need to buy today and what process, what journey are they using to make buying decisions today?

Are you interested in 9X or 10X sales growth?

Once your team understands your buyers and sometimes channel partners, what they need to buy, and how they buy you can leverage this into explosive sales growth business development plan like VMI executed.

There is a power in the voice of your customers, voice of your markets, leverage it!

A number of companies tell me they know their customers, we have been serving them for 20 years….you might but don’t you want to be sure?

OK, let me ask you a question: When you buy something today, has the journey you take to the sale changed in the last 10 years? Are there new criteria important to you today that might not have been on your list 20 years ago? The reason why your business exists today is you intimately knew your buyers, how they buy, and what they needed to buy back then. Just as you now may use the Internet today to do research before you buy something today, so too are your customers. I am not trying to be a Heretic, I am working hard to serve your company and help you grow profitably!

Once we leverage the voice of the market today you will experience explosive sales growth!

Fix Sales Problems With The Power in the “Voice of the Customer”

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In my last post I shared how market-leading organizations provide their sales teams a repeatable sales process with tools that resonate with their buyers. Understanding the voice of your customers has power. Why do your buyers buy? Why don’t they buy? What process do they use on their buying journey? What criteria must your buyers have to make a buying decision today? Once you have this information you can design a business development plan that creates explosive sales. In this post I will share an example of a company that grew $38 million in 18 months using the voice of the customer.

In the 1990’s I was the VP of sales and marketing for Alpha Enterprises Inc. We were a plastics injection molding company that provided plastic packaging and mechanical security devices for the music retail industry.

In the mid 1990’s the music industry experienced a significant shift in how music on compact discs were going to be distributed. Prior to this time music on compact discs were distributed to music stores and other mass merchants in a 12” cardboard package. This cardboard package was designed to be easily merchandised in what were once record album fixtures. Secondly it added size to prevent and or slow down retail theft. Alpha Enterprises manufactures mechanical security devices in plastic for audiotapes and videos at the time. We had a design for a compact disc package, but we had very little sales.

Recognizing this large shift in how compact disc music was going to be distributed, we hit the road meeting with as many music retailers, mass merchants and other companies that provided music to locations like book stores and so on. Our competitor also had a security package design and did a mass mailing to all of the retail stores with a product sample, prices, and asking for a commitment. We met with music companies like Sony, music retail accounts like Music Land and Tran world Music. We met with mass merchants, bookstores, warehouse clubs and other retailers that sold music. In these meetings we were capturing the voice of the customer and voice of the market.

In our meetings we discovered a number of people in each organization that influenced the purchase of mechanical security products:

Merchandising

Loss prevention

Store design

Purchasing

Operations (specific to companies to provided music to stores and they used automated machines that loaded the compact discs into packaging)

We met with purchasing at each of the accounts we identified that could use our help due to this big shift, but also all the other people who helped influenced the purchases.

We found each influencer was also primarily concerned with theft, since compact discs could easily be hidden in someone’s clothing. We also found each influencer had specific requirements and criteria they were looking for pain and problems they needed to solve.

For example:

Merchandising – ability to use current fixtures, new market entering music retail at the time were bookstores. They required a package as small as possible but protected the security tag from being removed by a consumer.

Loss prevention – reduce theft, re-use security tags, speed at check out

Store design – maximum inventory in the smallest foot print, customer flow, particularly speed at check out

Purchasing – availability, a supplier that could guarantee to meet their volume needs and grow as their inventory grew. Devices that could use the current keys to unlock audiotapes at check out. Material the product was made of, for example mass retailers wanted consumers to take the package home and cut it to remove the music disc where music retail wanted a durable and reusable package. Price, price was important, however the biggest pain point buyers had was the promise of availability.

We took all these requirements back to our engineering team and decided the best way to serve the voice of the markets we heard was to design and develop three security products based on the market and customer’s requirements.

When our competitor mass mailed a sample and a cover letter bound with a rubber band ( really I saw it on buyers” desks) , we spent the time clearly understanding the pain this market shift would cause. We segmented customer types by similar pain and requirements. We designed and manufactured three unique products with specific size, material and locking mechanisms. We added a compartment in our devices to house a security tag. We even went as far as to create an Excel tool that calculated how many retail transactions needed to occur and reuse the security tags so the reuse of tags paid for our devices. When buyers challenges our prices, and they did, particularly one device made of lexane, we asked them to complete the Excel sales tool to use with their supervisors and owners to show how the devices would be free after so many retail transactions.

There is a power in capturing the voice of your customer and voice of your market.

Most companies’ launch with what I refer to as mullet marketing. They “think” they know what the customers want and need, and how they buy, what they need to buy today…and they launch. About six months into the launch and the CEO is asking why sales is failing to execute to the sales plan, they decide to do market research and find out why. Our competitors in this example did the same thing. They thought they knew the market since they served it for over 10 years. They thought they knew how their buyers would react and how their buyers would buy. They failed to ask; they failed to do the market work gathering the voice of the customer, the voice of the market. After we secured each key customer that matched our ideal customer profiles, we heard our competitors were asking for meetings to understand why they lost the sale and determine what they could do to possibly win the orders. The trouble was, since the top pain of purchasing was a guarantee of orders shipping on time, we had all the key accounts tied to a multi year purchase commitment.

What was the result of gathering the “Voice of the customer”?

What was the sales growth impact from gathering the “Voice of the market”?

What impact did the “voice of the customer” have on our bottom line?

We experienced a $38 million dollar sales increase in 18 months!

We sold our products at a market competitive price but we were not the cheapest.

Two of the new products we designed resulted in gross sales margins exceeding 55%. (Unheard of in the plastics market at the time)

Did we see any other unforeseen benefits of the voice of customer work?

We established strong relationships of trust with leading US retailers that eventually led to our launch of a line of consumer storage products that grew to over $69 million in 5 years. They accounts knew us, trusted our ability to execute.
We started receiving international inquires for our new product designs and this led to an international product expansion and additional revenues
The video game industry was watching and eventually approached us for security packages for video games and software games resulting in additional sales revenues

This is just one example of the explosive sales power when you understand what your buyers want, how they buy, and what they need to buy today. I emphasize “today” because how buyers buy and the criteria they use to buy changes as your market changes.

So how about your company….

Do you understand the voice of your customers today? Are you Sure?

Recognizing in most companies your customers represent about 30% of your market….

Do you understand “the voice of your market” today?

Is someone on your team asking questions and listening for buyer pain? Who?

What impact would an incremental $38 million have on your bottom line at over 55% margins?

What sifts are your markets experiencing right now?

Capturing the voice of your customers and the voice of your market is a powerful tool that many companies fail to utilize. The voice of the market becomes the foundation for your business development and new product development plans and strategies.

Without a current understanding of how your buyers buy and what they need to buy, your sales will not reach the explosive sales growth they could.

One last question…lets say I have not sold you on investing time and resources into understanding the voice of your customers and markets….

What if your largest competitor is doing this process right now?

If so you are about 24-36 months away from a sales and profits death spiral many companies never recover from.

PLEASE take the time and dedicate the resources to clearly understanding what your buyers want and need to buy today, and the process they use. Once you do.

PLEASE create a repeatable sales process that mirrors what your buyers want and need to buy today.

That is the No Smoke and Mirrors process I have used for over 30 years and it has always driven profitable sales growth.

Do not “sell” buyers I help them buy!

Fix Sales: Knowing Buyer’s Journey is like Creating a GPS for Your Sales Process

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The quickest path to creating a repeatable sales process that drives sales growth is understanding the journey your buyers take today. How do your buyers buy? Why do they buy? Why don’t they buy? What do buyers in your market need to have to make a buying decision today? One we have answers to these questions we can create a repeatable sales process that drives profitable sales growth. A sales process that mirrors how your buyers want to buy becomes a GPS for your salespeople.

I was asked to speak at an event for business owners and leaders. I prefer interactive discussions so I asked the room what problems they would like to solve ? We wrote problems on the white board then consolidated the list.

What we agreed as the top three problems these business owners wanted to solve were:

Finding and hiring good talent
How do we get found on the internet
Making sales more predictable and efficient

We agreed I would share my advice for solving business problem #3: Making sales more predictable and efficient because this is a topic I have experience solving. In this post I will share the advice for creating a powerful repeatable sales process that drives sales results.

I asked the business owners and leaders to share how this problem is seen and felt in their organizations

Financial results
Service experience
Overall buying experience
Turnover –customers and employees
Margin loss – in an effort to serve the customer we run overtime, we purchase expedited freight, our cost of inventory is too high
Sales decline
Morale decline – throughout the organization
Brand damage

This group was really sharing some great ideas and the above we agreed were the top 8 ways not having a market driven repeatable sales process hurts their business.

Next I asked what one thing could we do that would make this entire list go away? (This question came from one of my favorite books: The Power of One Thing)

The room grew very quiet.

So I asked a simple question:

How do I get to the airport after this meeting is over?

One gentleman started with directions: turn left out the parking lot, at the second light turns right. Stay on that road until it dead-ends and take a left, merge onto the highway and drive North for about 11 miles and look for the airport sign. Exit the highway on the left and follow the signs to the airport and car rental return.

A young lady said I would not send him that way, …and she proceeded to list a series of turns and it had me on the highway much sooner with less turns.

The last person first asked me a question: What time of day will you be driving? If it is between 4 pm and 6 pm you want to stay off the highway and proceeded to give me a very lengthy and complicated series of directions.

I then challenged the room: Why did you all assume I wanted directions from here?

I went on to share how this is the most common problem we have when trying to sell current customers as well as new customers…we assume where the buyer is starting from. After they challenged me that this was not fair we moved on.

I pointed to the maps I drew of each of the directions I was provided with all the turns and so on.

This one, the one with the least amount of turns and steps is what its like to sell a current customer. They already know you, your company, they have some level of trust and they have a logical series of steps they use to buy, and criteria they need to have to make a buying decision. As you can see it has many less steps and hard to get lost.

On the other end of the scale is the direction that did not have me using the highway. This had the most steps, turns and twists to get me to my final destination. This has the highest probability of me getting lost. This is what it is like selling a new customer who has never done business with your company before, never heard of your company before. You will have many steps the buyer will use to build trust. Some of them may fee odd to you.Depending on the study you read, buyers today are completing between 53% and 70%b of their buying journey BEFORE they speak with one of your salespeople. We must know what they are doing!

The last directions resembles selling a current customer a new product or service. The number of steps the buyer takes is more than the short journey but less than a buyer who never heard of you before. They trust you and your company but must be assured this new product or service will completely solve their problem.

Not knowing how your buyers buy and what they need to have to make buying decisions today is a sales sin. (Note sin means “missing the mark”)

It is second only to asking your salespeople to achieve sales growth goals with a dated value proposition that no longer resonates with buyers.

I went on to share your business has common buyers we need to group into buyer personas. Once we do we need to understand how each of these buyers buys and what they need to buy when in the buying process. The more you understand about each of your key buyer personas the more your repeatable sales process and the tools your salespeople are presenting at just the right time will connect.

Eventually an older distinguished gentleman in the third row said: OK I see where this is interesting and important but how? How do you map this process and gather so much information?

Keeping with the sprit of the power of one thing I answered: ASK!

I shared the process I use to interview current customers, customers you lost and potential customers my clients have always wanted to sell. I shared my top 10 questions I use that work in every industry. The only people you do not interview are those currently in the quote process.

What I asked everyone to do is ask the open-ended questions and listen, really listen. What you need to listen for is any place in the buying process the buyer enters a roundabout and goes round and round not making a decision. Listen for any time the journey slows down. . Red lights, if you will, in our driving example. What criteria does the buyer need to have and when? This is like me looking for the airport sign on the highway with enough time to still change lanes. Listen for any road construction that has changed how they buy in the last few months causing them to detour from their old buying process.

I closed our discussion with:

The best way to make your repeatable sales process effective and efficient is taking the time to understand your buyers, the process they are using and the criteria they need and when in todays market.

Put another way….

“Knowing your Buyer’s Journey is like creating a GPS for your Sales Process.”

– Mark Allen Roberts

Your salespeople’s and marketing’s activities will mirror how your buyers want to buy and provide buyers the tools they need at just the right time in the buying journey to close more sales. When I used this process with a company their sales to close % increased over 20 % and we added over 250 new customers in the last 18 months… (but I am getting ahead of myself as that is my next post)

How about your company?

Do you have a repeatable sales process? Are you sure?

How is it working? Are you hitting your sales numbers?

Does someone on your team clearly understand how your buyers are buying today? Who?

Does your team clearly understand what your buyers need to buy and when?

How effective is your team’s sales process?

How efficient is your team’s sales process?

Does your team know when a buyer is entering a roundabout, and what to do to get them back on the buying journey?

Is your team showing any or all of the above symptoms of not having a defined repeatable sales process?

Could your buyers be taking a detour while your salespeople keep selling the same way and unaware ?

The markets we serve are dynamic. We must tune into how buyers buy and what they need to buy today. Market shifts and other changes happen all the time that can cause sales growth to stall. Market leaders are constantly asking their markets how they buy and what they need to buy. Leaders identify detours early and adjust.

In my next two posts I will share examples of how adjustments to the sales process and adding new tools resulted in increased sales results and lowering the cost of sale.

Increase Sales..How a Personal Injury Attorney Chose Buyer Experience as His Distinctive Competence

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In my last few posts I have shared how market leaders listen for current market problems and solve them. I have shared companies like Yeti, Gunner Kennels, Ten Point Cross Bows and InVue. Someone who follows my content challenged me: “This advice is great for a company with a physical product but what about a company that provides a service?” This post is about how a personal injury attorney strategically listened to his customers and shaped a buying experience based on what he discovered.

About ten years ago I was giving a keynote at a trade event in the automotive industry. I did some research on the top three buying processes consumers hated the most.

Purchasing an automobile was #1

Going to a dentist was #2

Hiring an attorney was #3

What do you think of when you hear: “Personal Injury Attorney”? For me it’s the loud bold commercials on television when I am watching my favorite show. Can’t you see them too? Guys dressed in expensive pinstripe suites with gold cuff links, expensive watches and pointedly stating; We will make them pay, call now … I know I find these commercials almost combative and I would never refer someone to one of these firms. ( but thats just me)

If I were looking for a personal injury attorney I would hire Brian Wilson.

Why?… short answer is I trust him.

Accidents happen all the time driving motorcycles and other vehicles. Mistakes happen on occasion in doctor’s offices and hospitals that leave patients with new life challenges. If I had a recent injury or accident I would want someone who would take the time to listen to me, understand my situation and advise me and my family on the best coarse of action….not “make someone pay”. I want someone who is a proven expert, a thought leader in this space and can serve my family in a kind and fair way.

When other firms want you to sign contracts quick and get started…

Brian spends time with you and your family understanding the situation and will not let you sign any contract until you go home and sleep on it.

When other firms pay for expensive TV and radio advertising…

Brian receives just over 90% of business from referrals from happy customers who are now friends.

He does not advertise.

One client shared the following on his web site…

“We were going through an awful family tragedy and somebody recommended we call Brian Wilson to help us out. It was exactly the right thing to do. Brian understood what we were going through and explained everything. He was available day and night for us to help us with questions or concerns. We could not have hoped for a more professional, knowledgeable, and caring person to help us. Brian was and still is like family! I don’t know how we could have gone through this terrible time in our lives without him. I would recommend Brian’s firm to anybody if they ever have a need. Thank you Brian for everything. And I’m sure “the Nutroll lady” thanks him too. God bless!”

He has studied and understands that consumers ( buyers) on average share a good experience with 9 people in their network. He also understands if a buyer has a bad experience they share it on average with 16 people.

His web site is full of similar testimonials.

When other firms bark at you…

Brian shares content like his eBooks on topics like:

Your Ohio Accident You survived the crash…and now the adjuster is calling

Fully Exposed How Ohio Auto Insurance Companies Are Stripping Your Auto Policy

Eight Reasons Why Most Ohio Malpractice Victims Never Recover Anything

Nine Tips to Keep You & Your Family Safe When Dealing With Doctors & Hospitals

When other firms bark aggressive language over the radio…

Brian shares advice on his blog that is relevant and builds trust like …

Which Is More Dangerous: Texting/Distracted Driving Or Drunk Driving?

Car Accidents, Emergency Rooms, And “GOMER’S”–And The Importance Of Following Up With Your Doctor

When other firms interrupt our favorite TV Shows…

Brian provides videos on his web site like …

Ohio Medical Malpractice – Errors During Surgery

…that we as possible customers looking for a solution to our problem on line can find when we want to watch them.

I could go on about how every aspect of being served by Brian’s firm is different but you get the picture. Having helped companies for over 30 years that little voice of skeptical clients is saying: “ ok mark, so the guys easy to do business with and sounds great but is he any good at what he does? “ The quick answer is yes.

“Every year since 2007, Brian has been chosen as an Ohio “Superlawyer” by Ohio Superlawyer Magazine, an honor bestowed upon less than five percent of Ohio attorneys each year.”

What about your company?

How can your team make acts of service your distinctive competence?

What would your cost of new sales be if 90% of your new customers came to you through referrals ready to buy?

What are your customers sharing about your product and or service? Are they telling 9 people or 16?

If you needed a personal injury attorney would you call Brian? Why or Why not?

What would your sales funnel look like if your web site was the first one buyers see when doing a search in your market?

Over my last few posts I have been sharing content about understanding how your buyers buy and what they need to buy using a value proposition audit. This process works for every type of product and or service.

Once your team conduct’s an audit you will clearly understand how your buyers buy and what your market needs today, you too can make service your distinctive competence.

How Yeti Realized Sales Leadership Nailing Their Value Proposition

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In my last post I shared a process to conduct a value proposition audit. The goal of this exercise is to insure the value proposition your sales team is communicating still resonates with your buyers. Once you understand how your buyers buy and key buying criteria you can shape your value proposition so it instantly connects with the buyers in your market. One company who has done an excellent job of this is Yeti.

Ryan and Roy Seiders identified a market problem they understood intimately. The coolers on the market were just not holding up for outdoor adventurers. The lids would cave in, handles would break, and latches would snap off and gave them a bad overall experience. Could Colman or Igloo or others owned this market for high-end coolers? Yes…if they were listening to problems their users were having. They both were in the market long before Yeti.

Like Gunner Kennels, these two brothers set out to solve a market problem. In 2006 they were on a focused and simple mission…

“Build a cooler we’d use everyday if it existed. One that was built for the serious outdoor enthusiast rather than for the mass-discount retailers. One that could take the abuse we knew we’d put it through out in the field and on the water. One that simply would not break.”

The more intimately you understand the problem to be solved the clearer your value proposition will be. Just as I shared how InVue has a simple yet clear value proposition, so too does Yeti.

What started out as a quest to make an indestructible cooler has led to other products the market needed when they searched for problems to solve. Each of these products are designed based on customer feedback.

“ We decided early on product innovation would come from necessity and first hand experience”

Once they solved the problem for outdoor enthusiasts they asked themselves who else might have similar problems and they share this …

“We are so glad we were not the only ones looking for a Yeti. Today it is the cooler of choice for outdoor enthusiasts, pro tailgaters and back yard barbecue kings.”

As the company continues to solve unresolved market problems I believe they will add other buyer personas to their list. For example, my son is a police officer and he and all his other officers use Yeti to keep their coffee warm and their drinks cold.. As my son puts it…

“I can put some ice and a beverage in my Yeti rambler and I will have ice cubes in my drink at the end of an 8 hour shift.”

I now see road construction crew members, firemen and other service professions paying a premium to solve their problems with Yeti products. Knowing Yeti you will soon be seeing other indestructible products for service professionals who work outdoors.

When you understand the problems to be solved the burden is on you to communicate how you solve them. Yeti does and excellent job in their point of purchase that only a market leader would do.

So how about your company and your market…

What unresolved problems are your buyers facing today?

Are you going to build a category based on an unresolved market problem?

What if your competitor finds it before you do?

Is there any reason why you would not want to do a value proposition audit to find unresolved market problems?