Get Involved with Your Customers

How do you determine your customers’ needs and expectations? If you are a customer-focused company, this is probably a part of your business plan already. Many companies, will all good intentions, ask their customers what they need, make the improvements on their products, and anticipate customer satisfaction.

This seems like good customer service on the surface, but two questions arise. First, do your customers really know what they want? Think about yourself as a customer for a moment. While you’re driving your car, popping bread into the toaster, checking your wristwatch, or listening to your mp3 player, are you enjoying how these products benefit you, or are you thinking about how they could be improved? If you were asked, would you have an immediate answer, or would you have to make something up? Generally speaking, customers are satisfied with the purchases they make.

A second question is this: Who knows your product best, you or your customer? You do. You know your potentials and limitations. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You probably have ideas for product development that your customers haven’t even though of. Simply offering what your customers have asked for does not mean that they will buy it.

So then, how do your go about determining what your customers’ wants and needs really are? One of the best ways you can do this is to learn your customers' business. How do they use your product on a day-to-day basis? What tasks are they doing when they use it? How could your product contribute even more to improve their lifestyles or their businesses? Simply asking them can’t provide this information. The more you know about them through close contact and observation, the better you’ll learn and be able to serve their needs.

Here’s an example. I recently had a client ask me to video and comment on all twenty participants in a two-day business presentation skills program. Although certainly possible, this would have taken up a lot of valuable training time and left most of the trainees sidelined while one was receiving comments. In the long term, such a program would have low impact and only moderate value. By working with the company and discovering their key objectives, however, I was able to single out the six sales representatives that they needed to develop, allow them to present, and use the rest of the participants to provide feedback and review. Everyone benefited, and the company’s needs were met.

Of course, asking your customers what they need is still a valuable practice that you can continue. For you to best meet their real needs, however, be involved. The more you about how your customers use your product, the more your solutions will target their needs.

Your Customers' Top Five Expectations

Meeting your customers' expectations to drive sales is the foundation of your business, and your ability to identify these expectations is one of the most valuable business skills you can develop.

Fortunately, this is an easy task. Sure, you have the occasional customer who expects everything from you and you have one or two compulsive complainers who seem convinced that you can’t do anything right for them, but these represent a minority. Or, at least they’d better.

The majority of your customers have similar expectations, and since most of them are reasonable business people like yourself, most of their expectations are reasonable as well. Have you reviewed some of the most common expectations among your customers lately? Let’s see how well you can relate to five of the most common.

First, your customers expect recognition. They appreciate service that makes them feel important to you. Whether their business is worth 100 ringgit or 100 thousand, they enjoy your undivided attention. My own media technician is an excellent example of this. My orders represent just a small part of his business, yet he sits me down for conversation and a few laughs every time I come in, and that’s why I keep going back to him.

Second, your customers expect first-rate communication. They expect that information on your products and services will always be up to date. When you have information that they need to know, don’t wait for them to ask for it. Call your customers occasionally, either to update them or just to pass on a friendly greeting.

Third, your customers expect options. You become more valuable to them as a provider of products or services when you can be more flexible. Customers like to know that they have access to more than one solution. Providing options leads to dialogue, which leads your customers to better business decisions.

Fourth, your customers expect efficiency. They want to know that they are working with a supplier that provides fast, first-rate service at a fair price. They like seamless assistance, so that when they call you they work with you, rather than being passed from one department to another.

Finally, your customers expect quality. Naturally, this includes the quality of your product. But quality to them also means a well trained staff, a pleasant relationship and a positive experience every time they do business with you.

Recognition, communication, options, efficiency and quality. These are among the most common expectations your customers have. And your ability to meet them is what earns their loyalty.

To Be Convincing, Look Convincing

When you deliver a business presentation, convincing your audience that the recommendations you’re delivering are good ones can be tough, especially if your recommendations are unpopular. However, if you provide hard supporting evidence and a logical, coherent structure, your audience will follow your presentation effortlessly and understand the validity of your conclusions.

Content and structure are the your first steps towards planning a convincing presentation. Your next step -- during your delivery -- is to look convincing.

To do this, pay attention to your body language. When you present, your audience is listening to what you say, but they’re also watching what you do. What you say and what you do, therefore, must both deliver the same message simultaneously.

What can you do with your body language to appear more convincing? Here are three helpful ideas.

First, make eye contact. Eye contact is engaging. Your willingness to look your audience in the eye as you speak signals that you’re sincere and that your information is important. Engage everyone. Allow your eyes to bounce around the room so everyone feels included. Find the key decision makers in the audience so that when you come to your point, you can make direct eye contact with them.

Second, stand up straight. Posture counts. Slouching is what you do when you relax. When you want to be convincing, however, looking alert and on your toes is essential. A confident posture indicates that you are prepared to defend your point of view. Leaning forward slightly as you present your key points reinforces this even more.

Third, manage your gestures. Enhance your message with your hands. Simple gestures, such as pointing to your slides, counting and indicating numbers, and accenting main ideas all show that you are in control. When your hands have nothing to say, keep them still. Holding a pen in your hand helps, as this feels natural and comfortable.

To be convincing, you must look convincing. Correct eye contact, posture and gestures will help convince your audience that your recommendations are the right ones.

Direct & Indirect Approaches to Convincing

Before you attempt to convince your audience of anything with your business presentation, it’s a good idea to determine ahead of time how they will feel about what you have to recommend.

It could be that you’ve got good news. Maybe you’re presenting the solution that everyone has been waiting for. As a result, you can anticipate a positive response from your audience.

On the other hand, you may have bad news. Maybe your recommendation will result in increased costs or reduction in staff. Either way, you know that what you have to say will provoke a negative response from your audience.

Predicting your audience’s response in advance can help you determine whether to take a direct or an indirect approach in presenting your recommendations. As a result, your audience will more accepting of what you have to say.

For example, let’s imagine you’re recommending that your consumer health-care products company comes out with a new line of fruit-essence shampoo for children. You’ve done the market research, you’ve got the facts and figures, you know this is a sure money maker. You’ve got good news. Management will love it.

So, be direct. In your presentation, make your recommendation first and then support it with your data. If you begin with the good news, your audience will listen more attentively to what you have to say .

However, let’s imagine something different. Suppose shampoo sales in your northern region have leveled off. You want to recommend decreasing the number of reps you have in the north and moving a number of them to your growing market in the south. Relocating the reps and their families, however, is going to cost the company over RM250K and it may take six to eight months to recover the costs. Management may not like this at all.

So, be indirect. In your presentation, give your data first. Show sales figures in both regions and show your projections. Provide the background support necessary before making your recommendations. This will prepare your audience for what’s coming and prime them to be more accepting of what you have to say.

Some audiences may be tough to convince, but by appropriately choosing to be direct or indirect with your recommendations, you ensure that your audience will listen attentively to your conclusion.