Meeting Customers Where They're At: The Secret to Sales Success

If you think selling is about convincing someone to buy something, you're only half right. Yes, selling does involve a touch of persuasion, but most consumers are tired of worn-out sales pitches. They want to know your business is listening to their perspectives and doing everything you can to meet their needs.

A customer-centric sales strategy is what creates memorable and remarkable client-driven experiences. Your business can't be persuasive if it doesn't demonstrate a willingness to meet customers where they're at. In a nutshell, clients want honest conversation and service more than they want a splashy product promo.

1. Consumers Want to Know How Businesses Can Help

Say you scroll through your social media feed and see a post about a company that offers boot camps for job seekers. These upskilling programs are ideal for people looking to switch careers. Such individuals may have transferable skills but need technical training to successfully transition. You see this post because the platform's been analyzing your behavior, and its algorithm determined that you're job hunting.

Of course, you're not looking for just any job. You want one where you can combine your passions for IT and people while achieving upward mobility. The post presents an opportunity to act on your desires and get value from a company willing to help. This type of online content is known as native advertising, something platforms like Nativo are bringing to the forefront. Native advertising seeks to deliver value first by blending educational or entertaining content with selling.

It's advertising that doesn't look like a pitch. The content starts with a deep understanding of an audience's needs, what content formats they like, and where they're at online. The purpose of native ads is to engage and get the conversation going. And it can be more effective at increasing engagement and conversion rates than traditional formats.

2. Customer Experience Strategies Are a Must-Have

Global management and consulting firm McKinsey & Company defines customer experience as everything a brand does to provide its customers with growth, value, and exceptional experiences. Its research also shows customer experience can boost shareholder returns by three times. Customer experience leaders know it begins with strategies built around buyers' needs.

It's why companies like Amazon are powerhouses in the digital retail space. It's also why traditional and other online retailers copy the company's tactics. The basic buyer need driving online sales is convenience. However, it's not only about being able to shop at home in your pajamas. Nor is it limited to having the products show up on your doorstep.

Convenience encompasses being able to get next-day delivery and schedule an exact window. It's knowing when a product you've had your eye on goes on sale. And it's also choices like picking up orders from a secure location or having a driver place them in your garage. Customer experience strategies can define what your brand is known for. But it starts by identifying an audience's core needs and planning how you'll meet them in superior ways.

3. Setting Expectations Can Define the Customer Experience

It's an understatement to say consumers want to know what to expect. They need a road map for everything, from what your support team can deliver to how the product will perform. Otherwise, they grow easily frustrated when their ideas of what should happen don't match their actual experiences.

Think about how you'd feel if your car sustained damage in an accident. You'd like to repair it, but your insurance company initially says it's a total loss. This means the estimated repair cost exceeds the market value of the car. So your insurance carrier tows your car to a salvage lot and says you'll get a payout in a few weeks. But two weeks later, they call to let you know they've determined the car is repairable.

You must now wait for your car to be towed back to a body shop and get repaired. Naturally, the delays would upset you. Mismatched and not-so-transparent expectations have created a less-than-pleasurable experience. You may even incur extra out-of-pocket expenses for a rental car in the meantime. Customer-centric sales strategies look at ways to improve customer experiences holistically, including communicating all potential scenarios, setbacks, and challenges.

4. It's Important to Remain Adaptable

Customers are human, which means they're unique and bound to change. If your sales processes and solutions aren't adaptable, you'll probably have a tough time satisfying customers' needs. While there will be similarities between buyers, personalization is an absolute in today's challenging environment. Customers want to feel like you're talking to them as an individual, not as a target demographic or buyer persona.

Therefore, your sales approach needs to be flexible enough so you can customize it to each buyer's situation. Perhaps you can adapt some of the terms in your sales and service contracts to meet individual needs. Your solutions can also flex with changing market demands, so what you offer doesn't become irrelevant.

To remain adaptable, think of your solutions as ways customers can empower themselves. What you're offering doesn't always have to be disruptive, but it does have to enrich consumers' lives in some way. It comes back to understanding what their core needs are and shifting your approach to align with them.

Your Customers Determine Your Success

The big secret to sales success isn't such a secret. It's about creating approaches that meet people on their terms. You can't persuade consumers if you don't first understand their why. And your brand must be willing to serve and deliver value before it sells. Otherwise, potential buyers will go where they feel seen and heard.