Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Now the Hard Part

Friday I was reading this from Pat McGraw. I subscribe to his blog and you should too. Click here.

What’s Your ‘Out of the Box’ Experience?

Posted: 22 Apr 2011 11:03 AM PDT

out of the box - [mcgraw | marketing]

Congratulations – your sales team just closed that big deal after months of hard work and investing hundreds of hours of your limited resources.

Now what?

What does your company do in order to make the ‘out of the box’ experience a strong confirmation of the wisdom shown by the buyer in selecting you over the competition. What do you do to ensure that there is no buyer’s remorse – and that the buyer’s happiness continues to shine brightly?

Unfortunately, a lot of companies will answer ‘…we do whatever it takes…’ – and that means, in all honesty, there is no process and the happiness of the buyer is placed at risk.

Have you ever bought something and found out that the sales person didn’t include a key component because it would have raised the price and the sales person felt that would kill the deal? Or have you watched the installation take significantly longer than planned? Or have you sat through product training and found out that the product really doesn’t do what you thought it could do?

On-boarding new customers is key. You’ve worked hard and won their trust – now you have to prove your value. Unfortunately, most companies are set-up in a way that can cause some problems.

Sales leaves as soon as the paperwork is finished – and the installation team isn’t aware of the conversations that took place and promises that were made. They don’t know the buyer’s expectations and could inadvertently do something that turns the joy of buying into a case of buyer’s remorse.

Remember, it’s expensive to get a new customer and it’s critical that you turn first-time buyers into long time repeat buyers that refer others to your business. You don’t get repeat buyers by dropping the box on their foot – you keep their business by exceeding their expectations. Business isn’t a 100 yard dash to the sale/purchase, it’s a marathon over the lifetime of your business and your customer’s business.

So, what is your company’s out of the box experience?

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