Although she’s been dead nearly forty years, I can hear my grandmother as if she was sitting right here in the office: “You build trust by being honest, not by pretending to be.”
I was talking to a client this past week, another wise old head (might not be as wise as a grandmother, but then who is?) and he was summing up what he’d got out of a recent project we did for him. “I think our customers trust us now a little more, not because we told them we’re trustworthy, but because we showed them we are. It wasn’t why we did the survey, but it might be one of the best things we get out it.”
The project he was talking about was simple enough. Over the course of an hour with him (the CEO of a well known supplier in the industry), and his two top guys, (manufacturing and marketing) we worked up a list of questions based on the premise that their customers would answer them frankly and honestly. A rewarding exercise on lots of levels
Of course I’m going to say that I think we’re good at the work, the developing and the asking and the reporting back, but my guess is that the real value comes from the fact that we’re a third party, independent, with no ax to grind.
The CEO in question wanted to know a number of specific things, some pertaining to products, some to do with service and price, but what they wanted more than anything was to hear exactly what their customers were thinking, not what someone else at the company thought the boss wanted to hear.
“I don’t make many sales calls these days and I don’t answer the phones when a customer’s got a question. This was a good way to get vital information and test out a few ideas, but also make sure our ear in the boardroom was really on the ground.”
This company is probably bigger than most of those we work with on this type of project, and their questions were wide-ranging, but the results were essentially the same: They got to hear how their customers really think they’re doing. For some that can even be a little bit of a daunting prospect, but if that’s the case then they might have more problems than they realize.
The results were -and remain- confidential, but the takeaways included a better understanding of perceived bottlenecks in their workflow, a possible opportunity for a mid-level introduction into their machinery line, and a potential problem with sales support in one particular region. But they also were alerted to some issues that headquarters hadn’t been aware of both good and not so good.
And then there was the trust and credibility they’d earned in the first place by being prepared to ask each customer as individuals not a ‘base’ or a focus group. They got some pricing ideas too, some competitive analysis, and came to understand that a delivery time problem they thought they had wasn’t actually perceived by their customers to be a problem at all.
The results have ended up as good PR but also as a sales tool. They have released results in a press release, done a feature in their newsletter and added some results to their website.
It doesn’t take long, it’s really not that expensive to do, and what was initiated as a one off thing, now looks as though it will become an annual effort. That exceptional customer service every salesman talks about can sometimes start with being prepared to be proactive, not just reactive. And by being seen to be so, as well.
All the best,
David