New customers are a tough crowd. You probably won't get another shot if you fumble on that first impression.
The reality is that most customers care a lot less about finding the perfect product or buying from well-known brands. Seventy-three percent of customers now say the number one thing they consider when deciding where to spend their money is whether they have had a good experience.
If a customer has a bad experience… they're going to your competitor.
These numbers would keep me up at night if I didn't spend the last decade building a watertight customer-centric approach at Close. Everything we do, from the start of the sales process to post-sales nurturing, is focused on one goal: whatever our customers want.
I'm ready to reveal our sales process so that teams like yours can take a bigger share of the customer-centric pie.
Being customer-centric means focusing every aspect of your business on what your customers need and want. This starts from product design and bleeds into marketing campaigns, sales tactics, and the customer success stage.
The aim of your business should be to make your customer your North Star. Whoever understands the customer best will ultimately end up owning them. The bottom line is that your sales teams need to care. You need to give a shit about customers. It doesn't matter what strategies or tactics you use. If you don't do this, it'll fail.
Customer-centric selling isn't a complex strategy.
Talk to your customers. Listen to what they have to say. Adapt processes to meet their challenges. It sounds simple, but most businesses don't put their customers first and forget who they are selling to.
I want to walk you through some of the winning strategies I've used over the years and how they can help you build a customer-centric approach 👇
Content is the foundation of any customer-centric sales process.
It's how customers first notice your brand. It's how you educate them. It's how you win their trust.
This strategy is simple. Teach people how to run their businesses more effectively, and your company will be at the top of their list when they need a product or service like yours.
If your team is starting to pivot to a customer-centric strategy, start with the basics:
Here's an inside look at what we do 👇
Over the years, I've discussed how we created our content marketing machine at Close. Nearly 60 percent of our trials come to us through this machine. We don't just write blog posts or eBooks. Our content stretches further into what our audience wants to read.
I'm talkin' emails, playbooks, selling guides… even free tools. If our customers want it—we produce it.
The Follow-Up Formula is just one of the (many) customer-centric guides I've written for our audience. Close's guides have been downloaded thousands of times to empower our audience to improve its sales game.
But with one (huge) caveat: it must add value. We go straight to the source to figure this one out. Our customers tell us a shitload more than data and analytics about what they want:
As Ezra Fishman says in my book Talk To Your F*cking Customers, people should drive your content and marketing efforts—not data.
"When we let data drive our marketing, we all too often optimize for things that are easy to measure, not necessarily what matters most."
A successful relationship with a client is a two-way street. To build a truly customer-centric approach, check in with customers before, during, and after the sales process to ensure you're both on the same page.
The days of sales reps using pushy sales calls and rhetoric to pressure somebody to buy something are over. These tactics are giving Wolf of Wall Street. And not in a good way.
Instead, focus the entire sales process on the customer's needs:
There is a caveat to the feedback point I want to touch on 👇
I wrote a whole damn book about how important customer conversations are. They are the bread and butter of any successful company.
However, there is a caveat to adapting your sales process based on customer feedback. I know because listening to customer feedback nearly sunk Close when we started the company.
The problem? 🤔
We were asking for feedback from the people buying our software (the managers, CXOs, the bigwigs). But these folks aren't necessarily using Close Daily to close deals. In hindsight, this was really stupid. The whole reason we started Close was to get away from the archaic way the industry operated and make a product for salespeople, not managers.
My point is 100 percent use customer feedback to improve your sales process. Just make sure the feedback comes from people who use your product!
B2B customers don't just want to write companies a check.
Research by Harvard Business Review suggests they want to buy from companies that offer solutions to a problem. They also react positively to organizations that reach out to see what they can do to help and respond to any questions with knowledge.
A customer-centric approach thrives when you put customers into the spotlight:
Putting customers into the spotlight is also a great way to spot if a prospect isn't a great fit. Let me explain 👇
During the first call, sales reps can figure out how helpful their solution is for a customer. If the product isn't a great fit, consider whether pursuing the lead is the right choice for your quota and the customer.
The Close team asks every lead:
We ask. And ask. And ask.
We keep asking questions until we are 100 percent convinced that our sales software can help them and is the best and right solution.
If not, we will cut the lead loose.
People always think I'm nuts when encouraging them to cut leads loose. But seriously, why would I want a customer to use Close when I know it's not a great fit for them? That's the kind of sleazy sales tactics that will (sooner or later) result in churn.
And it's not a customer-centric approach to sales ❌
It's always better to recommend a solution and give advice rather than push a bad-fit deal. At the very least, it will leave a good impression on them. A good experience with our sales team has led to folks recommending Close to others who did end up signing a contract with us.
It pays to be honest and put prospect needs first ✌️
Prospects don't like to be left hanging.
More than three-quarters of customers expect a brand to get back to them on social media within 24 hours.
Here's how to do it:
Of course, communicating with prospects to get a deal across the line can be a little more complex. Let's take a look at how to streamline it and save your team time 👇
The right sales stack makes sure you can connect and communicate with customers no matter where they are, seamlessly.
At Close, we use our software to communicate with leads and customers via email, phone calls, SMS, and even Zoom meetings. Every team member can see past interactions with each lead, meaning they jump on calls or email threads with full context on the deal.
And if they need help or input from another team member? They can add comments and mention team members to get their feedback right away.
Another fantastic way our sales team stays on top of conversations is with the Conversations tab in Close. Here, our team can see a history of sales calls, with recordings and transcripts, or even check out calls that are going on in real-time!
Of course, our sales team can’t constantly check for updates. That’s why they have the Inbox view, which shows them new leads they need to contact, missed phone calls, or emails they need to respond to.
The sales team is always on the same page. And we never miss a customer.
Your work isn't over once a product becomes a customer.
The first weeks (or months) with your product are crucial to winning them over. If you don't get this stage right, new customers risk churning and never returning. One of the best ways to keep them around is with a customer-centric onboarding process to get them up to speed with your product.
Here's how to do it:
I'm also a (huge) believer in letting new customers learn your product around their busy schedules 👇
Some customers don't want to go through hours of onboarding calls and training. You must think about whether your onboarding process meets them where they are at.
Close has so many moving parts that it's hard to cover all of its features in one onboarding call. So, we give new customers the tools to do it at their own pace. Inside our knowledge base, new customers will find a custom onboarding section:
It's full of screenshots, videos, and useful tips so they can learn about the features that matter most to them. Our customer success team is ready to help with any questions.
The best part about onboarding customers like this is that they get a deeper understanding of the product, and our team saves hours on phone calls and onboarding meetings. It's a win-win 👌
This last one is a criminally underrated but super important step for building a customer-centric company.
You absolutely, no-questions-asked need to hire people who not only give a shit about your business but also give a shit about your customers. However, to build trust and meaningful working relationships with your customers (and keep them around for a long time), your team must trust each other.
This trust starts from day one of a team member's day at your company.
Every stage of your hiring process should focus on finding people who care:
It might take time to find the right people, but the wait is worth it once they are on your team.
I have spent this whole post focusing on talking to customers. I still believe that's the best way to build a customer-centric selling approach. But let's touch on data to wrap this up.
While relationships can’t be measured, metrics are available to see how your customer-centric strategies impact your bottom line. The metrics you should keep an eye on include:
There are tons of other metrics to track to help measure customer centricity.
The most important way to measure if your company is customer-centric is to take a metrics dashboard with a grain of salt.
Talk to your customers. Send that email.
Remember, these folks put trust in your product. They are writing the checks. Pick up the phone and ask them what you need to do to keep delivering 💪