Attention Grabbing! The New Currency at cracking the Customer Code

The subject of the customer is central to every business and a very critical commodity for business profitability, survival, and continuity. Attention is the new currency for trading in today’s ever-changing world of business. Footfalls, eyeballs, and handgrips are the new buzzwords and center of attraction for Sales and marketing. The following critical questions are very important in our journey to crack the customer code. By asking the right questions, we can be certain of some answers i.e. right answers or wrong answers. Let’s think through the following:

• Do you have the “attention” currency?
• What is the customer watching and who has the ears of your potential customers? Who is feeding them and with what are they being fed?
• How much are you willing to pay or do to grab the attention of your target customer?
• How much have you invested in your brand and business to get your target customer to give you their attention.
• “Lend me your ears” you may shout but are customers listening to you?
• “The food is tasty, affordable, and hygienic!” “The service is great!” Do your customers know this and do they believe this?
• Why should they believe your pitch and why should they give you any attention?
• Walking the Talk – Charting the Customer’s Path

Many businesses are not ready to walk the talk when it comes to serving customers. From experience, myriads of sales professionals have come at us with products and services they think we need or products they have to sell without first taking the time and the interest to find out about us. On one fine day, a bloke called and asserted on the other side of the line, “You don’t have a website so we want to design one for you”.

Too bad, they will always be turned down or ignored with this kind of ignorant insistence. Many are muddying the waters at Sales and Marketing due to lack of performance training.
Our analysis of insights we have gathered over time reveals the absence of performance training for Sales teams who are sent into the field.

There will surely be big trouble for anyone walking through this kind of booby-trap. Sales is an art and worked in a serious zone that requires the full attention and devotion of the Salesperson.

To put it bluntly, it is not about what you are selling, it is about getting the target customers to be listening to you through the value you are offering that will eliminate their pain or solve their problem, and ultimately provide their needed satisfaction. Admittedly, competition is stiff and very fierce with everyone after their share of wallet (purchasing power) but do you have customers’ attention with regards to “share of mind” and “share of trust?”

Without a deliberate interest in the customer and without a thoughtful in-depth understanding of the customer, we will not be able to walk the path of our customers. Failing to recognize that there are different types of buyers and one size will not fit all, many will not harness the full potential of the targeted customer and the valuable market. Many today have become insensitive to the customers’ pain and without this sensitivity, we will be unable to build any meaningful relationship with them with respect to Sales and Marketing. We may have all sophisticated tools, large edifices and have our brands being managed by the best agencies in the universe, but without cracking the customer code, we shall but fail in our attempt to do business with them.

The business landscape is brisk, the sales front is brutal with fierce and stiff competition. Without an attention-grabbing matrix at your pitch, it will be very difficult to attract and retain customers. With innumerable emails, constant phone calls from varied sources, SMS blasts from lead generation systems, agencies, and varied call centers, you have a full plate with no room for add-ons. This is the signal that beckons one that it is time for you to raise your game. You must start trading in the currency of attention in dealing with targeted customers in order to get a share of their pockets and wallets.

Keys for cracking the code

To achieve this, it is very imperative to understand the identity and persona of the customer. This is one of the surest ways of setting your sales and marketing process on a sound footing that will yield phenomenal results over time. Hit and run as many have done will not serve the business relationship. It’s a huge trap that avoids the truth in the maxim “Rome was not built in a day”. We must be ready and prepared to nurture the relationship with prospective customers by getting to understand them before attempting to sell to them. Let’s use the following keys to crack the customers’ code and unlock the potential value in the relationship:

• Who is the customer? General class grouping
• Who is this customer? Specificity with Persona
• What do I know about the customer? Available information
• What can I know about the customer? Personal insights shared
• What is there to know about the customer? Insight generation
• What is the customer’s pain? Past experiences
• What is the customer’s experience? Past executions and encounters
• What is the customer’s vision? Expectations and desire
• What is the customer’s path to purchase? Patterns and habits
• How does the customer like to be served? Approach and attitude

These are the blind spots in dealing with customers and without taking the time to unravel them, we shall be shooting blanks and constantly missing the mark. Why would you assume anything about a prospective customer when you don’t have answers to these very urgent and pertinent questions listed above? Why would you be quick to speak when you are ignorant about the answers to these questions? 

These questions should force any business (SMB, Small or Large Corporate, etc.) serious about revenue generation to re-think and re-tool their approach about serving and selling to customers. Understanding the customer unlocks your sales process and increases your chances of harnessing the inherent value through a well-oiled and aligned Sales & Marketing matrix. 

Understanding the customer through insights then becomes the key that guides you at preparing your proposals, and tools at Sales Pitches and Marketing content development. All these wired carefully will help drive your sales closing process. Insight and Value-based selling are the way to go. Let’s show you how through our performance training and coaching.