By
Mauro Libi Crestani.
Categorize Customers can be a very productive and profitable initiative for an
office. I was to quote an article called Increasing Sales Productivity By
Getting Salespeople to Work Smarter by
Dr. Harish Sujan, Barton Weitz, and Mita Sujan. “While personal selling as a
communication vehicle has the advantage of allowing salespeople to treat each
customer differently, in practice, salespeople cannot take the time to treat
each customer in a totally unique manner.”
“Thegolden rule for every businessman is this: put yourself in the customersplace.” , Orison Swett Marden.
People are different and companies are different. If you are trying to sell
products to a woman’s boutique shop you may cater your sales pitch on beauty
items, on items that would enhance a woman’s looks. If you were selling
products to an auto repair shop, your sales pitch might cater to reliability of
the product and its longevity.
Once I saw a movie with Mel Gibson. He was a poor salesman and was passed up
for a promotion in his company even though he had been with that company for
many years. He also was a poor dad who just could not get along with his
daughter. His daughter felt that he didn’t care and that he didn’t understand
her. Mel Gibson’s character then had an
accident and as a result of that accident
he was able to hear the thoughts going through woman’s minds. As he
started to hear what women were thinking he began to realize that his mind was
centered around his own wants and needs.
Looking more into the wants and needs of his customers, family and
friends, Mel Gibson’s character began to understand that people were
individuals and he started putting in an
effort to understand what they were thinking.
The movie ended with him becoming a better salesman, better dad and a
better person.
While
all customers could be equally profitable, some clients are more profitable
than others. By categorizing
your customers, you can take the action that’s appropriate for them, identify
their marketing and cater to their varying needs while improving your profits.
You may break down your customers into general groups, which requires different
marketing strategies to reach them. For example, separate customers who want
you to come to them from those who are self-service, or group customers with
volume accounts versus irregular buyers or standard product buyers versus
premium purchasers. Focus on the qualities that make each group unique so that
you can obtain the results you want.
Now, you can not be all things to all people. You have
to find where your talents are best and it may be best to focus on those
customers. It would be nice to sell luxury cars and cheap cars and cater to
every type of customers needs. However, you may find it more profitable to sell
one brand of cars or type of cars and cater to those customer needs.
Steve Jobs took customer service a step further. He
said that you can not just try to understand your customers what they want
right now, you have to try to figure out what they will want tomorrow. By Mauro Libi Crestani.
