5 questions to help you to increase sales and improve client retention

The podcast highlights the essential role of understanding customer pain points in driving sales and building lasting client relationships. It explores several strategies for obtaining customer feedback, reducing churn, enhancing customer service, and encouraging referrals to propel business growth. 
Here are the five questions that will help you to increase sales and maximise client retention:

1. How do I identify and address customer pain points?
2. What feedback should I gather from customers to improve sales?
3. How do I retain customers and reduce churn?
4. What role does customer service play in boosting sales?
5. How can I encourage word-of-mouth referrals and testimonials? 

Chapters

• 0:00 Customer Pain Points and Sales Improvement
• 10:43 Customer Loyalty and Referrals
• 18:13 Building Credibility and Encouraging Testimonials

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello again. What would it be like for you if you could get inside your customer's head and know exactly what was worrying them? So one of the issues that we have when we're selling, particularly if you're new to sales, if you're an entrepreneur or if you have your own business, and perhaps for you, the sales part of it is something you'd really not be doing but unfortunately you have to because you're starting out or whatever the reason is. So the next thing to think about is that I would suggest that most of the experience we have with salespeople because if you're moving into sales and you've not done it before, it's quite natural to think back and look at as examples the people who've sold you something in the past, and I would argue that a lot of them are actually pretty bad salespeople, and that's really the whole point of offering sales training, which I do, and having these podcasts and just trying to help people to not fall into the traps that most people do when they move into sales for the first time. So we're going to look at a few things that I hope will put you on the right track when it comes to really dealing with your clients how to approach clients, how to sell to them, basically. So I'm going to run through five questions, and the first one is how do you identify and address customer pain points? So this is really important, because the bad news is that you'll probably find that most, if not all, of your customers are not lying awake at night wanting to buy your product, whatever it is you're selling. What will keep them awake at night is the problem that you solve, and this is the first thing to remember about selling that salespeople are problem solvers. We're basically solving problems for our clients. So that can be a change in approach for many people.

Speaker 1: 2:16

A lot of people, when they go to sell whatever it is they sell, they think it's about the product. They think it's about the service they offer. It isn't. It's about what that product or service does for your client and what the problem is that you're solving for them. So a lot of people talk about pain points when it comes to clients. That's what the pain point is. It's the thing that's keeping them awake at night. So I don't know what it is you're selling. I don't know what it is you offer to people, but that's the first place to go when you start to try and identify what your customer' pain points are what are the things that are keeping them awake at night that you can solve for them? So that's point number one. Another question that comes up is what feedback should you get from customers to improve sales? And, honestly, the easiest way to handle that is when you do make a sale, when you've got a client.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Always remember that when you're making sales, when you're taking on board new clients, new customers, ideally these are people that you are looking at building a long-term relationship with. Another big mistake that a lot of people make is that they just view their clients, their customers, as being there for that sale and then, as soon as that sale is done, as soon as you've delivered, whatever it is that client is buying, that's the end of it and you move on to somebody else. Well, it isn't. Even if what you're selling is a kind of one-off and there wouldn't naturally be follow-on products, you still want to keep a good relationship with that person for a couple of reasons. The first thing is that you may well have something down the track that will also appeal to them and something they may also want to buy, and it's far, far easier to make a sale to an existing client than it is to somebody who's brand new. So with somebody who's new, you've got to build up trust. You may be looking at social proof. You've got to build up all of these elements that make them comfortable to invest their money, their time and possibly their future. Don't forget that if you're solving a problem for them, this could be something that's pretty major for them, and if it isn't solved, it can have all sorts of repercussions in their life or in their business. So this stuff is very important to understand. So it is very important to put yourself in your client's shoes, as it were.

Speaker 1: 5:02

And the other reason for approaching a client as somebody you want to build a longer term relationship with, even if they are unlikely to buy from you again because you only offer one thing and they buy it and they go is referrals, and referrals are great. They are the next easiest way to get business, after repeat business from an existing client. Because, if you think about it, if you've ever had someone you know and trust, who knew that you were looking for a certain thing, if somebody has said to you oh, you need to go to these people because they're really good, they know what they're doing and I've used them and all of this stuff. How far down the sales decision-making process are you straight away? You've already got through, you've already jumped over a lot of the hurdles that people go through before they make a purchase. So you need to think about them as building up long-term relationships. And if you approach it that way, then, in terms of getting feedback, it is far, far easier. Once the sale is complete, once you've got the dotted, they've signed on the dotted line, it's all complete, you've delivered, all of that sort of thing. It's far, far easier to just arrange a follow-up with them, have a cup of coffee if that's possible, and just have a chat to them about how they found the whole experience with you. Get that feedback from somebody who is under no pressure to give you good news there's nothing in it for them but you're genuinely interested in their experience of you as a supplier. And this is really valuable because this is where things will come up that you hadn't thought about, and this is the whole point of doing it getting a completely different perspective on how you roll as somebody who is selling to them, and from that you can begin to refine your whole sales process, your whole sales technique, wherever you find, or the feedback tells you you've got weak areas. You can work on those and, of course, you'll also get feedback on the things you do well, which is great to hear too. That can also build your confidence when it comes to selling.

Speaker 1: 7:30

The next thing is how another question that comes up. So the third question I want to talk about is how do I retain customers and reduce churn? Well, think about why you have left a supplier. In the past, I used to deal with the telecoms industry and churn was a major factor for them. So the place to start with this is to think about the things that make you leave a supplier and go to somebody else.

Speaker 1: 7:59

Now, in my course, the online course, the sales course, I talk about behavioral profiling because I think that's a really useful tool, and there is definitely one group of clients who are likely to churn simply because they are motivated by trying something new. That's just the way they're wired and there is a way of handling those clients. But you just need to be aware that there are certain people, and they tend to be the ones that are really easy to get along with. They're great fun, they're very charismatic, and then you're chatting to them and then all of a sudden they bought from somebody else and you just don't know what just happened. And it can well be that you've done absolutely nothing wrong, but these particular people are wired in such a way that they love new things. It's in, I guess, psychology circles it's referred to as pretty shiny syndrome. If it's pretty or it's shiny, then they're attracted to it and they'll want to have it. So there is a way of keeping those people on board. But it does mean a lot of follow-up, contact and keeping them engaged. So that's one aspect of it.

Speaker 1: 9:09

The other aspect of churn is to look at, first of all, start with, why you've left. But for a lot of people and again without going into DISC, which is the profiling system I use there are four types of people, so that makes it really easy. So one of them is likely to churn. The others are actually, on the whole, pretty loyal clients. All you've got to do is treat them right, stay in touch with them. You don't need to get in their face, but respect them, make them feel that you care, look after them, and it's helpful if that's genuine as well, because if you really care about your clients, you're likely to do far better than somebody who obviously doesn't care, doesn't care. So these are just places to start, really, when it comes to keeping clients with you, and also what I was speaking about against the earlier point, about just having a chat to them about the whole process. Ask them about what they would like from you as a client moving forward, what they would like from you as a client moving forward Again, over a cup of coffee, just raising that as a question yourself, it's really good to get feedback and insights into what clients are looking for from you and then, obviously, you can build that into your post-sales process and it's really important to have one of those for the reasons that I've already described, to have one of those for the reasons that I've already described.

Speaker 1: 10:43

And that really does take us on to the next question, which is what role does customer service play in boosting sales? So this comes back to it. At least this is one aspect of it, but it comes back to having loyal customers who will give you good referrals, who will keep coming back to you for repeat business. So looking after your clients makes a lot of sense, because that way they're going to cut, they're most likely to just come to you next time they want something, they may not even go to a competitor. So from a competitor's perspective, that sale was completely under the radar and you got it without any competition at all. They pretty much just came to you and ordered. So customer service is very important from that perspective, from maintaining customer loyalty, from maintaining customer loyalty and it also again comes back to referrals and the the more people value what you've delivered, the more they like you as a service provider or a product provider, the more likely they are to refer you to other people.

Speaker 1: 11:52

And again, think about situations you've been in where you've bought something from a supplier and you've been really happy, not only with the product that you bought or the service that you bought, but the follow-ups as well and how they looked after you. So again, obviously not knowing the context of what you do, you're going to have to think about that. But what would make sense for you to do in order to maintain client loyalty? Is it a newsletter? Is it updates? Is it how to sort of hints, that kind of thing, how to get the most from their product? Whatever it is for you, these are the kind of things to think about. And again, if you are able to spend the time with two or three clients that you find it particularly easy to talk to. This is where this feedback can be really helpful in starting to lay down the specifics that you need to be delivering in order to retain your clients.

Speaker 1: 12:51

And the final question here that I'll cover in this podcast at least or at least give you some food for thought in this podcast is how can I encourage word of mouth, referrals and testimonials? So there's a couple of aspects to this. One is to provide really good service anyway. So the whole experience, from start to finish, or from start to the ongoing experience, needs to be really good. But, of course, another thing you can do is to offer incentives. So it might be to offer them some sort of a value add if they give you a referral or two or three referrals. And this is a pretty standard practice in some industries, for example, in the fitness industry. If you join a gym, often you'll get a month free or some other deal. If you refer a friend, or they might do a bring a friend along and you'll get some sort of deal if they sign up. So again, that is one way of doing it. I don't know what you do so, you'll have to think about how you might be able to apply that in your own situation.

Speaker 1: 14:03

And getting testimonials is another thing you can do. So, again, offer some sort of incentive if someone is willing to give you a testimonial. I've done that myself with products, so it might be with a product. So I've done this with training courses. I've offered them either half price or I've given them for free, depending on what the price is or where I'm at in terms of launching that product.

Speaker 1: 14:29

But it is really valuable to get testimonials from people when they use the whatever it is you're offering, because that way we all love testimonials. I mean, I don't even have to really explain it, I think I mean it's pretty obvious. Most of us like to hear from other people. We like to see that other people have had a good experience. This is where things like Trust Pilot can come in very handy, because the more positive feedback and positive results that you hear about, the more confident you are that this particular supplier, let's say, gives a good experience, and people have experienced that directly. So these are things to think about. What can you do in your situation to encourage people to give referrals, to give testimonials? It could be if you run events is another example. Or you might run the occasional live event, if people are giving you testimonials to get a free ticket. Or you can encourage them to bring somebody along at half price or sort of buy one, get one free. There's all sorts of different ways of getting people to bring others, get others involved in what you're doing. So those are the five things.

Speaker 1: 15:52

I'm just going to quickly run through the questions again. So the first one I covered, or at least this podcast is really here to get you thinking, because I can't be specific, because I don't know what you do, so you're going to have to fill that gap in yourself. So the first question is how do I identify and address customer pain points? So that comes down to looking at what you do. Remember the client doesn't want to buy your product or your service. That's the very first thing to remember with sales. They don't want it. What they do want is a solution to the problem. So what is the problem that you solve? And maybe that's an exercise you can do, if you haven't done it, to just start writing down the problems that you solve. What are the pain points? What are the things that are keeping your client awake at night.

Speaker 1: 16:40

The second question is what feedback should I gather from customers to improve sales? So the specifics on the feedback will depend a little bit on what you do, but equally, I much prefer to have an open-ended, a very open conversation with clients and just let them fill in the specifics, because they may well have picked up on something that I hadn't thought about, have picked up on something that I hadn't thought about. So if I set the agenda on the feedback or make it too specific, there's a fair chance that I've missed something that could be really important. So have that conversation with clients and remember the whole point of sales is to develop relationships that last. It's not just a one sale relationship. Get relationships that last. It's not just a one-sale relationship. Get relationships that last for a while at least. How do I retain customers and reduce churn? So again, getting feedback from customers is really helpful.

Speaker 1: 17:36

So if you're in a situation where they previously bought from a competitor, ask what was it about your offering that attracted them and also what was it about the competitor and what they were doing that made them look for alternatives in the first place and think about your own experience. That that's a good starting point. What's made you leave one supplier and go to somebody else? Fourth question what role does customer service play in boosting sales? So it's an extension of building trust. It's really delivering, in fact. Um, quite strangely, I guess.

Speaker 1: 18:13

Uh, one of the things that's helped me the most is when something's gone wrong with a client, because before, if you think of any of these situations, you know we'd like to know well what happens if something goes wrong. But some sales people would just say anything just to get the sale, and there's no real evidence that they will do what they say they'll do. So if something goes wrong and you have to solve a problem for a client, it's actually good news because it's a real opportunity for you to demonstrate that what you're doing is more than just words. You're fully prepared to back up what you're talking about, and then that's a great testimonial to get from that client afterwards, if you can, so the customer service can prove that you walk your talk, it's not just talk.

Speaker 1: 19:02

And then the final question that I've looked at in this podcast is how can I encourage word of mouth, referrals and testimonials? So again, just think about what it is you do. What opportunities do you have to offer some sort of incentive to your clients to either give you referrals or to give you testimonials, and both of those are very important. So that's it for this podcast. I hope you found that useful. Hopefully it's got you thinking a little bit and I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.