The Power Of A Conversation

I saw this line in a recent Wells Fargo Bank commercial. In the ad, they portrayed their banking counselors as courteous, helpful, and full of useful insights. But most of all, they wanted to convince people to come into the bank and just “engage in a conversation”.

It's a great concept, and I am recommending it to you. Except, I want you to turn the idea around. I want you to focus on having a conversation with your customers. Many of them. Non-customers and former customers as well.

In most small businesses, the owner was the original salesperson. He spoke with all of the customers, fielded all of the calls from prospects, and had first-hand knowledge of what was going on in the marketplace.

Then, things got busier. The business expanded, and many of the routine sales duties were handed out to others. Unfortunately, the owner (now Chief Operations Officer) began to loose contact with his best source of information about his customer base.

So how do you cure this problem? Just go have a series of conversations with various members of your target audience.

• Don't leave this to your sales staff.  They are too focused on closing another sale today.
  
• Don't rely on your marketing person to tell you what your customers think. They may be too “inbred” to be really objective.
  
• Don't rely on your customer support people. They're focused on giving customers quick solutions, them moving on.

You really need to do this yourself. Here are some thoughts on how to do it effectively.

With whom should you converse?

Start with your best customers. Actually, that may not be strictly true. You should stay in touch with your best accounts, but keep in mind that they may not be representative of your overall market. Oftentimes, the names at the top of the customer list are there because of special relationships, or unique product packaging, or other circumstances that aren't relevant to your other customers. So, for the purpose of this survey, you might start with accounts further down the list. They may be more typical.

How should you organize this conversation?

Ask if you can stop in and see them for a few minutes. Get out of the office and go to them. Let them know you just want a conversation about your business relationship, your products, and the market. Make sure they understand you aren't there to ask for an order. Maybe even take them out to lunch, in small groups. That can help the conversational atmosphere.

What should you ask?

The purpose is to get deeper insight into your customer's needs, their thoughts about your organization and the competition, and ideas about where the market is headed. Get them to talk about the issues that are most important to them, and you will develop a good picture of market expectations.

And how should you respond?

Consider this a general research project, not a problem-solving event. The important outward response is a simple Thank You for taking the time to meet.

The important inward response is your analysis of the ideas, trends, and patterns found. You may uncover some nuggets of gold here that will help you devise innovative solutions to your customer's problems.

So, there's this week's advice. Get out of the office. Engage your customers in some casual (yet productive) conversation. Don't ask them for an order. Just listen to the things that they think are important.

Your future lies in there, somewhere.