Customer Acquisition…Learning so far.

The past few months have been spent acquiring customers as part of the job. I must say that there has been some learning so far during this on going process.
In this blog, I try to consolidate them in this blog for my own benefit and for those who believe there is one for them as well.
Here we go.

1. We need something so that we can sell. Sure, it is obvious. However the characteristics of that “something” defines the entire business. Google sells internet search and hence it is a multi-billion $ company. So it is very important to know what is the best “something” that you can sell and what is its long term potential. After all you want to be as successful as you can and want to and the product you sell should not become the limiting factor.

2. The most powerful means of customer acquisition is reference based acquisition. When a potential customer has heard about your company or your product from a counterpart in his business domain, that opinion, is pretty much unshakable in his mind. If he heard “they are a good company and they provide good service…”, then the customer becomes a pipeline item for you with a 90% strength. If he has heard “….they are….ok…not bad”, then the customer is your pipeline item with 50% strength. If he heard anything lesser, you can forget about that customer and move on.

3. No one sells a product or a service in isolation. “Customer acquisition” can (and must) be rephrased as “relationship acquisition and nurturing”. Each time you go to sell a product or service to a customer, the customer is looking to find out, if a good relationship can be established and nurtured for long. This process happens so much deep within the customer’s mind that it is never spoken about.
If we can make the customer realise that the relationship can be established and nurtured, the battle is half won. Besides, this will definitely result in the customer saying “they are a good company and they provide good service…” to your next potential customer (remember the pipeline with 90% strength?).

4. The first call and the first meeting with the customer is key. During this interaction, the customer is sizing you up. He wants to know how stable, reliable, capable, efficient and trustworthy is your entity (“entity” here includes company, product, service, the BD executive). Hence it is important to put up a good show. So try to look like a responsible company with a decent size and capability.
Trying to get technical or even into the details of features can frustrate the customer in the first meeting or call.
Instead, gauging the background reason why they are looking for a product or solution, the pains they are trying to solve and addressing those pains/ passing such information back to your company helps in making the right pitch in future.

5. Letting the customer talk and listening is always beneficial than talking a lot during a sales pitch. In banking industry at least, pain of one bank is usually a good representation of the pain of the banking industry itself. So the ideas for solution best comes from a talking customer. We have developed not less than 4 products in the last 6 months just by listening to a talking customer. All such products have been acknowledged by many other banks as “we need it”. I guess that this concept can apply to industries other than banking as well.

6. It is important to meet some one as close in the hierarchy to the decision maker early on. The farther we are to the decision maker, the farther we are from the deal and less probable is the deal. This is because, the decision maker and those closer to them in hierarchy are sure about the priority order of their various requirements. So you will quickly know if your product / service / solution is within their immediate priority list. If yes, you have a pitch. If no, you can save your time.

7. Though the deal is signed by one or two top decision makers, no product / service / solution is bought without the end user, supervisor, implementation manager and the decision maker are all DELIGHTED about your offering. I call all of them as decision sponsors. So you must convince them all.

8. The decision sponsors negotiate with you on technical matters, implementation matters, support matters, price matters, training matters etc. They do ask tough questions and be critical as well many a times. It is easy to hate them. But remember this most important point. They are your internal SPONSORS. They HAVE to go and convince their bosses why they must buy your product/service/solution and not your competitors. You must make them WANT to do so. If you have a weak internal sponsor you WILL loose that deal. Period.

9. One more point about negotiation. No one who earns his money hard will part with it easily. So you must hard earn your money. Hence do not be surprised or disheartened that you are being hard negotiated. But they will return favour by giving you consistent good references, becoming a flagship customer in your elite list of customer, heap praise about you with anyone they meet.

10. Customer acquisition is about two things, relationship and patience. We spoke about relationship at length. Now, patience. You call a customer asking for a demo slot. He asks you to call next week end. You call next weekend, he says call the next week again. You call and he is out of station for two more weeks. You call after two weeks, he gives you a demo slot two weeks from then.
The whole experience can be frustrating. But if you are confident that the customer needs a solution which you offer and it is in his priority list, then keep your patience intact. Your customer is chasing his business, which is always his top most priority.

11. If a particular behaviour of your customer confuses you, go talk to the procurement manager at your office. He will know exactly when he will behave the way your customer has behaved with you. In fact it makes a lot of sense to have your procurement head involved in preparing a sales pitch for all your key prospects. They will ask you such questions which you will otherwise face only at the customer’s place. Do a mock negotiation with your procurement head before you go for a final customer negotiation. You sure will benefit from it.

13. Look good always. Be well groomed at all times. If I want to buy anything that is significant in value to me, I will buy it from someone who looks responsible and capable. If someone is not responsible enough to look well groomed always, I will judge him as not responsible enough to give me something of good value to me. Will you judge him differently?

14. My boss once told me that customer’s get influenced a lot by the passion with which we sell . I have seen that happen myself. So have genuine passion and energy for what you sell. If the product or service you sell, does not make you passionate, change the product or change the company you work for towards a company you like more.
Someone told me this story. I am not sure if this is true. But I believe it anyway. Anil Ambani went for an important negotiation session. He was an obese man then. The customer asked him, if you cannot take care of your weight, how can you handle such a big deal? Anil Ambani promised to trim down in 3 months. He stuck to his deadline and picked up the order. That shows his passion for what he was selling.
Additional information. Anil Ambani runs in the Mumbai marathon’s every year.

Customer Acquisition is all about people skills. You don’t need an MBA in marketing. If you have it, it is an added advantage.

Happy “Relationship acquiring and nurturing”