However, customer understanding remains underdeveloped and often underestimated in terms of business development and customer loyalty. Many salespeople only question their prospects to discover their current or potential level of equipment. They often feel they know their customers well enough, and do not need to conduct an in-depth discovery interview with them.
Customer knowledge is too often passive, and much less frequently the result of commercial proactivity. CRM tools also show that customer databases are often incomplete, while insufficient contact with sales representatives is a frequent reason for customer churn.
Why implement a customer-oriented sales approach?
While product knowledge remains fundamental, implementing a customer-oriented sales approach is therefore both a matter of commercial effectiveness, satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Thanks to a better understanding of the customer and the relationship of trust created, the average value of contracts and conversion rates increase.
Cette évolution représente également un facteur fort d’épanouissement professionnel pour les équipes de vente, permettant de valoriser leur approche et d’apporter une valeur ajoutée très appréciée des clients. Un grand groupe européen d’assurance et de banque a ainsi choisi KESTIO pour l’accompagner dans son projet de déploiement d’une nouvelle démarche client. Ce projet représente un fort enjeu de développement commercial, de fidélisation client et d’amélioration de la contribution client.
How does such an approach materialize?
1. To show interest in your client, you must first prepare for your meeting by analyzing the information available about them, ideally formalized in the CRM tool. In the insurance and banking sector, this means knowing perfectly what the client has within the company, but also with competitors.
2.During the sales meeting, the customer approach also means asking your client exploratory questions, taking a real interest in them and their motivations, and thus going beyond what they have spontaneously said. Investigating the reasons behind the choices made or considered is considered as important as the type of equipment they have (products or services purchased).
3. The proposal should be developed as a comprehensive client solution, and not as a series of unrelated products or in-house services. Therefore, it should start with the client's needs and motivations and be presented with a client-oriented approach.
4. Finally, to position himself within a customer-centric approach, the salesperson adopts the position of an expert. Their assertiveness helps to establish a strong relationship of trust with their client, and to help them make the right choices.
How to deploy a customer approach with sales teams?
Such an evolution in the sales approach requires significant changes for sales teams. In this regard, the presentation of the project and the role of managers will be crucial in giving meaning, supporting, and enabling employees to positively evolve into a new dimension of their profession.
Therefore, the shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach should be seen as a significant change in practices, requiring support that integrates skills, tools, processes, and organization.
Because this approach is particularly structuring, it is built over time, with the involvement and conviction of the entire sales management team.
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