So you’ve made your first sale … congratulations! You’re feeling on top of the world and ready to tackle your next prospect, but before you do, you have some work to do. You need to make sure your new customer has all the tools they need to best utilize your product or service and hit the ground running. Getting to know your customers during the entire sales process is vital to your business’s current and future success.
Here are five tips for getting to know your customers:
- Listen. You know the phrase “location, location, location?” Well, in sales it’s “listen, listen and listen some more.” Ask open-ended questions to find out exactly what prompted them to reach out to you. Why have they come to you? What are their expectations? You will find out a great deal about their motivations with these simple questions. And, unless you are that rare person who remembers everything, take notes for future reference.
- After-sale communication is key. Once you’ve made the sale enter your pre-sale notes about your customer in your database; that way you can refer to them when you make your retention calls. How great is it when someone who sold you a product or service remembers the little details about you at your next meeting? Paying attention to the little details will cause your customer to continue to do business with you, and better yet send you a referral.
- Find out their communication style. After finalizing the sale, make sure to ask their preference for future communication, whether that be text, call or email.
- Stay in touch. Connect with you point of contact on LinkedIn and ask to meet for coffee or lunch from time to time to continue to build the relationship.
- Develop and expand your customer relationships. One way to do so – join your local Chamber and continue to connect with your current and past clients while pursuing and developing relationships with future clients.
Put these five pointers to use at Net90, the Chamber’s networking event free to Chamber members, on Aug. 17. And if you aren’t a Chamber member, but would like to join us at our upcoming networking events, contact membership@denverchamber.org for a complimentary guest pass.
Ryan Pedretti is a membership representative for the Denver Metro Chamber and Laura Waligorski is a senior membership representative for the Denver Metro Chamber.