Brad Huisken

Do You Really Know Your Customer?
February 4, 2008

Do you really know your customers? Do you know what is going on inside their heads? Are you empathetic to the wants, needs, desires and concerns of the customer? Have you put yourself in their shoes and really know what they are feeling? If you haven’t, then you probably aren’t as successful as you could be in sales.

Each and every customer is different. They all have different reasons for buying or not buying. The only way to maximize every potential sale is through getting to know your customers. Some customers might be buying to show love, commitment and adornment. Others may be buying to celebrate a special occasion. Still others may buy for the prestige or status along with numerous other reasons that customers buy.

The top salespeople are those that are great listeners and those that ask outstanding questions to enable the customers to express the real reason behind the purchase. In other words, take the emphasis off of the product or service that you sell and put the emphasis on the customer. A customer that is buying to celebrate a special occasion would rather talk about the special occasion than about the specific product knowledge behind the product. Share in the emotional reason behind the purchase. Then, and only then will the customer really trust you and look at you as something other than another average salesperson.

A customer can get the same product at a number of different companies. What the customer can’t get anywhere else is the service and the relationship that you can develop with them. You are the only thing that sets your company and products or services apart from all of your competition. LISTEN to your customer, and hear both what they are saying and what they are not saying, in order to maximize your potential. Additionally, fine-tune the questions you ask in order to be more “customer driven” than “product driven”.
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Posted by Brad Huisken on February 4, 2008 | Comments (0)