Making Customers More Valuable [Part 2 of 5]: Educate Deliberately

Making Customers More Valuable [Part 2 of 5]: Educate Deliberately

August 9th, 2017 // 3:56 pm @ Scott Manning

There are many places where businesses leave to chance the quality of their customers. The most significant of those places, where we can have control over everything that happens, is in the education of our customers.

If you think about it, every buyer of anything believes that they are buying something, someone or some service that is superior to their current circumstance. This should be used to our advantage to serve the customer in a better way by teaching them what a good customer is to us.

In other words: how they can get the most out of our products and services by following our path that leads to a successful outcome – for us, sales; for the customers, benefits.

I think about how many doctors just leave it up to the patients to decide, as if the patients have enough education to understand to make a good decision on their own.

The entire reason and point of patients walking into a doctor’s office is because they believe they are going to a place where people know more than they do, will tell them what they need to know and help them make a good decision for their health.

This is why people go. It is only our ridiculous attempt to completely avoid “selling” that people overcorrect and then completely sabotage their ability to get a yes.

And as I always tell my doctors: “Remember, no one wins when a patient says no.” Not you and not them.

You have to start seeing it like that. Instead, most of our approach and experience is designed around customers feeling like they lost if they give in and say yes. If you don’t have something valuable to offer (where a buyer is better off by saying yes), then find a different business.

It needs to be a win, a victory, a celebration for every yes decision (for both you and the customer).

And the way a customer arrives at that is through education… before, during and after the sale.

Consider this a reminder. I have talked about it many times. Sit down and make a list of all the ways you want your customers to behave. Then list all the ways they benefit by doing those behaviors. Finally, construct your marketing and sales material in a way that is more moving and educating through these reasons.

Don’t make the mistake to teach people about your products and services. Instead teach them about how they will benefit from what you do, how their lives will improve and how they will avoid problems they are or will be facing.

When you educate about this, you increase the quality of your customers without changing who the customer is.

Package these first two points together and you have a great one two punch.

Next week we’ll talk about YOU.

Category : Blog