Do you ever step out of your shoes and into someone else’s?
‘In the customers shoes’ is a phrase we hear regularly, but how often do we do it or put ourselves in their place? When we look at situations from just our own perspective, it doesn’t necessarily place us in the best position to win new business, as we are only seeing half the picture. Sometimes we can be in such a rush to act, ‘sell’ or recommend a solution that we don’t take the extra time to turn 180 degrees and look at it from their perspective. Highly tuned listening skills are crucial here, repeating what we have been told and linking to examples of what they are experiencing rather than generalised advice.
‘People buy People’ is the other phrase we hear a lot, especially in sales. But to be successful, we need to consider both of these in more detail. People do buy people – they like them (or not), feel they have similar values and outlook (or not) and when that happens they have the opportunity to build trust, and a stronger partnership. But that is only half the story. By stepping out of our own shoes and into our customers (or friends, or partners), we start to see something different. We see what their challenges, frustrations and successes are, from their perspective, not just ours. We can start to mould our approach to become more holistic, and from a sales perspective it can be that much more successful. Suddenly our proposals and solutions are focused on what they need, not what we think they need, the terminology may be different. They may be losing ground to a competitor, coping with major change in their industry and driven by fear and concern about gaps in their approach, knowledge or skills. Identifying this and demonstrating it in everything we do can only reap rewards.
‘Stepping into the customers shoes’ is something we incorporate in many of our training courses – whether it be Customer Service in dealing with difficult conversations, Leadership programmes, Sales or Account Management workshops. Models can be introduced then turned on their heads to look at them from the clients perspective or from their shoes to see something different, something more you can offer to bring greater success to your approach.
How often do you step in to your customers shoes? Have you any success storied that you can share?
If you would like to discuss how we can help you to step into your customers shoes give us a call on 01438 718071