Hardwood Floors April/May 2019

Controlling these conversations for the customer interface is vital to yourmarketing and sales e orts. Abreakdown in communications confuses and frustrates customers. erefore, it’s critical that every customer-facing employee understands yourmessage of value and communicates it consistently. Here are a few tips to help you launch a consistent customermessaging campaign. IDENTIFY YOUR VALUE-ADDED SOLUTION Answer this question:“Howdowe bring value to our customers?” It’s useful tomake a list of all the value-added items and services you o er your customer. is includes the quantitative (what you do for customers) and qualitative value (who you are). ismenu of value-added solutions reads like a talking-points yer for your employees. is is the value youwant your salespeople talking about in themarketplace. It’s also away to audit your performance once you secure the business. When identifying your company’s value, get input fromdi erent disciplines in your company. No one has amonopoly on good ideas. Seek out other opinions. is is necessary to help uncover some of the hiddenways your teambrings value. When trying to identify your value-added solution, analyze the customer’s Critical Buying Path® (CBP). is is the sequence of steps customers go through fromthemoment a need exists up to and including buying and using the product you are proposing they buy. In short, it’s the end-to-end customer experience. Once you analyze your customer’s CBP, identify howyou bring value at each step along theway. is enables employees to present amore comprehensive value-added solution. campaign. Customer messaging is not only what you communicate, but also how you surround the customer with your message about the value your company brings. Salespeople are struggling to communicate their message of value. In my book, Value-Added Selling , this is called customer messaging. Customer messaging is the marketing side of sales. It is your planned communications

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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