Isn’t this a question we all ask? How can you help me?
Today we are in the third question that people ask during each interaction. If we get past the first two we are on our way if we can also answer this question.
All of us by nature are born with the innate desire to find out how we can be helped by associating with others. Call it selfishness, survival, whatever you want to call it. We are born with this desire to find out how we will benefit by the interaction with another.
Our customers want to know how they will get to a better place by doing business with us as well. Just like us, they want to know how their lives will improve. It’s up to us to answer that question each and every time we interact with them. If we chose not to, then we will find ourselves receiving price down requests instead of how can we help them innovate. No one wants to continually fight cost down requests. We want to have people coming to us for help and providing solid solutions for them.
The question we should be asking ourselves is what do we have in our capabilities to make the customer’s life better? How by doing business with us will we help them. This is a crucial change in our focus. Instead of focusing on how we can benefit, we need to shift that focus onto how we can help the customer. What is it that we, and our organization can do to help the customer get to a better place.
Do we have a software package that will allow for the customer to spend less time counting inventory with real time updates? Do we have interactive videos that will help the customer walk through and diagnose malfunctions with their equipment? How about an app that tells the customer when their robot they are using is not functioning as efficient and needs a service call before it breaks?
One thing that I have strived to do is add value in each interaction. It doesn’t have to be monetary all the time. It can be helping the customer with software that we are fluent in that they may be having issues with, ideas and local hot spots for a vacation location that the customer wants to travel to that we have also visited, life hacks, deals, helping them find toilet paper when the country is freaking out during a pandemic, connecting them with someone we know that can help them, etc.
The key is to take the focus off of wondering how we can capitalize from the exchange and how we can add value to the customer. I love the quote from Zig Zigler that says, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough people get what they want.” Read that one more time and marinate on that for a few minutes…
It doesn’t mean we just give away all of our profit if we are selling something, but it does say constantly add value with those we come in contact with and focus on how we can help them. Not for how we will benefit, but how that person will get to a better place. It is harder to accept something with a closed fist, but with an open hand more can be added.
I know we are all in stressful times right now with what is going on in the world, but we will get through this and we will become stronger because of it. Innovation is happening each day and we will be ready for the next challenge. If we open up our hands today and help those around us especially in this time of need, we will get to a better place ourselves.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”