“Customers long to be engaged.  They have a desire to be raving fans, to be in relationships with providers of services and goods of all types, to have productive relationships.”  ~ Skip Anderson

If you haven’t noticed, there is a significant shift in the way customers make their business decisions.  They are no longer simply buying, they are purchasing products and services from businesses that they feel a connection to.  In Skip Anderson’s blog, he talks about the importance of effectively engaging customers at a deeper level than we historically have.  Another blog by Margaret McComb, talks about “what matters to customers now has forever changed.”

What does all this mean?  Your customers accept that your business offering has features, benefits, potential value, and all that “stuff.”  What they are really looking for is a sense of engagement and community to your business with theirs, or to your product with their emotional needs.  Your sales strategy cannot be to simply pitch the many wonderful benefits of your product and expect the enticed customer to follow.  Not today.

Your customers are looking for a relationship and a connection to you and your business.  This means that your sales effort requires you to spend the appropriate and necessary time to build a relationship, build a connection, and establish a sense of commitment and community with your customers.  More specifically, your growth strategy cannot involve your salespeople running around trying to close deals and getting orders without investing the appropriate time in effective relationship building, solutions oriented behaviors that today’s customers are looking for.

This is a very critical time for businesses as they struggle to grow and expand.  Understanding this critical customer relationship shift is a fundamental component of that success model.

Dave Cooke has recently launched his program the Sustainable Revenue Formula™ (SuRF), which provides businesses a comprehensive formula for effective and sustainable revenue growth.  If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the white paper, “Revolutionizing the Future for Today’s Business”, please contact me: dave@salescooke.com.