We all know that different customers demand different sales approaches. Can management customers be targeted more effectively using a CRM to enforce and automate the correct sales approach?
First, let’s identify the types of customers in the typical B2B complex sale:
• Management customer – decision makers and executive influencers. Those who have final say on the purchase or have veto power related to their area of responsibility.
• End User customer – the people that will use the product or service.
• IT customer – CTO, development staff or IT support that are involved in selecting, implementing and supporting technology solutions.
End users will be most interested in how the product or service will affect their day to day work. Contract terms and even pricing are not really their concern. Will it help them work faster or improve quality?
So, the selling approach for the management customer should be different than for the end user. For busy sales people, it can be difficult to switch gears from phone call to phone call or meeting to meeting. An online CRM solution can ensure that sales people tailor their approach to each individual’s specific needs.
For instance, the CRM software can remind the sales person to ask questions of the end user related to productivity or process bottlenecks through tasks or reminders or through actual scripted questions and field drop downs for answers.
The CRM solution can remind the sales person to share relevant industry articles with the management customer and script questions related to financial benefits of the solution vs. the proposed investment.
So, the sales person can become increase the number of customer relationships they manage because the CRM solution is keeping their contacts with management customers and end users on-target, on time and on message.