Clients are an important part of any business, any business in fact. Knowing everything about your clients (what they like, what they really need, and their suggestions) will really help your business in the long run. Today’s business competition is fierce, every company has to compete with other companies to “win the target market.”
Every professional businessman knows that. They even take special time to continue to hone their skills in listening to their clients. The level of sales is directly proportional to how well we listen to our clients.
What is knowing how to listen?
Knowing how to listen is a process of understanding two-way communication between the client and the owner of the company, or the product team. This is where a well crafted feedback loop comes in plays. Communication must proceed naturally, without pretense, and without any coercion. One thing you have to understand is knowing how to listen is knowing how you are exploring what your client really wants. You should not focus solely on your promotional efforts. You should focus on how you can find out what they want from purchasing your product (or service). What problem does your service/product is solving for your customers? How does it do it? That is the essence of knowing how to listen from the perspective of the business relationship between the client and the owner of the company.
Again, don’t focus on the offer, but focus on what they want from your product, and the problem(s) you are solving for your client. Once you know what they want, you can offer them the products they really need. To better understand the importance of knowing how to listen to the client, I copy you some quotes that successful entrepreneurs have contributed to the business world:
- “When people speak, listen completely.” Ernest Hemingway.
- “Find out what your customers want and what your company does best.” Kevin Stirtz.
- “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. What they expect is that you fix things when it gets complicated.” Donald Porter.
- “To be successful in sales, you simply have to talk to many people every day. And the exciting thing is that there are so many people to talk to!” Jim Rohn.
Benefits of knowing how to listen to the client:
- Design services adapted to the taste and needs of your client.
- Design more effective marketing strategies
Foster new sales opportunities. When you develop your product it will bring additional upsell and crossell opportunities but only if you recorded the feedback in the right way and kept your client posted regarding your product improvements.
- Determine what you can improve or what you should eliminate in your company that is not giving value to the customer, by listening to your customer and gathering insights about how they use your product or service.
- Anticipate possibilities that arise based on the change in your environment.
In fact, a +1% increase of customers that recommend you or buy another product from your company has, on average, 2 times more impact on your bottom line than a new customer buying your product or service. Paying attention to what your customers need and how they change over time will help your entire organization become more efficient, especially if you know how to use your customer’s voice to prioritize your work.
Are you now ready to start listening to your client?