Make it Easy (Easier) for Customers to Interact and Buy More

Harvey Chimoff 1 Comment

We’ve all been frustrated at times how hard it is to have a direct communication with the company we’re doing or trying to do business with.

This happens despite technology enabling all kinds of communication options.

Still, for many business entities, the question remains: how do you know what your customer really thinks, or wants?

There are many ways to understand customer sentiment, including mining social media activity, assessing inbound website questions, responding to call/contact center interactions, conducting research surveys, and establishing a net promoter score program. The approaches require different levels of commitment, investment and execution.

There is one thing that every company or organization should be able to do to increase sales potential and/or learn more about what’s happening with their customers: make it easy for the customer or potential customer to get in touch.

With so much of today’s customer journey happening during pre-purchase analysis and investigation, having a top-notch website is critical. Sometimes that’s not enough and the customer still has questions and/or needs direct communication. If you are not able to satisfy that information need, you may lose a potential sale or even worse, it may go to a competitor. In addition, the communication need can arise at some point after the purchase has been made.

Consider two action steps, one that is designed for both pre- and post-purchase interaction, and the other for post-purchase customer relationship maximization. Each should not be overly difficult to implement.

  1. Put contact information in an easy-to-find place on your website, be that a phone number, chat option, email address, contact form or social media account links.
  1. For post-purchase customer satisfaction, one tactic that impressed me recently was from Anker, the self described “global leader in charging technology.” Anker takes advantage of the product shipping occasion to deliver a simple and unexpected message.

Anker includes a small card with product purchases, with one side marked “Happy?” and the other “Not happy?”

The “happy” section says:

  • “We’re just happy that you’re happy. If you don’t know how to express your newfound joy, we’ve got a few suggestions …”
Photo: Harvey Chimoff

The suggestions are share the news (meaning be a recommender or influencer); write a review on Amazon; and connnect with Anker on social media platforms. Okay, if you think this part of the card comes across as overly playful, remember this: positive word of mouth is one of the most effective sales and marketing actions! There’s no shame encouraging it.

The “not happy” section says this:

  • “Our friendly customer service team will work hard to put a smile back on your face. Here’s how we can connect.” There are USA and international phone numbers, an email address, and a website support URL.
Photo: Harvey Chimoff

By the way, the “Contact Us” section on Anker’s website lists a range of USA and international contact options.

Whatever customer interaction approach you choose, have a ready-to-respond system in place and activated. This can be as simple as designating a member of the team to monitor, directly respond or coordinate a timely response. Otherwise, you may need the “Not happy” cards.

Harvey Chimoff is a customer-focused global business leader who connects marketing across the organization to drive performance and achieve business objectives. His B2B and CPG marketing expertise includes agribusiness, ingredients and food and beverage. Contact him at harveychimoff.com.

Ask This Question to Beat Your Competition

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Business is a hard competition. Sometimes it’s winner take all. Often, it’s dividing an existing market. Once in a while, it’s sharing an expanding market.

Regardless, any business team worth its mettle is spending at least some time determining how to go to market better, maintain share leadership, increase share or build a new business. They’re also thinking about how to beat their competitors. That means you!

An executive at Dick’s Sporting Goods demonstrates how to practically boil down such critical strategic and competitor assessments. Steve Miller, SVP of Strategy, Ecommerce and Analytics, asks this powerful question, per Lisa Lacy writing in Adweek:

  • “If there was a store that would open next to us that would scare us, what would that store look like?”

This is simple. Direct. Easy for everyone to understand. So incredibly useful.

Do you and your team think this way? Do you ask yourselves this type of powerful, direct question? Or, are you hung up in fancy, time-consuming exercises that nobody likes to do and no one will look at afterwards?

The Dick’s question is a good example of “scenario planning,” an approach that I’ve found helpful in my career. When organized properly, this type of activity is practical and effective, and can easily be repeated as necessary. Some related question examples:

  • “Wow. If our competitor did X, that would really scare us. What proactive steps should we take for competitive protection?”
  • “You know, if we took action A, we’d really increase sales and profits and position ourselves for sustained success.”
  • What do we expect our competitors to do in the next six months? How would we be prepared to act?

Framing your question(s) is critical for success, and how you do that depends on your particular business dynamics and personal style. You’ll want to create excitement and interest, though, so go with direct, conversational language.

For maximum effect, try this question:

  • “If we did X, we’d really drive our business forward and kick our competitor’s butt.”

Encourage your teams to adopt this type of business mindset for direct assessment, and both strategic and opportunistic thinking and action. Conduct regular sessions, whether informal or a bit more formal, to capture ideas and concerns, make improvements, and take advantage of opportunities.

Just remember, whether or not you think this way and ask these kind of questions, your competitors almost certainly are! They want to win now, too.

Harvey Chimoff is a customer-focused global business leader who connects marketing across the organization to drive performance and achieve business objectives. His B2B and CPG marketing expertise includes agribusiness, ingredients and food and beverage. Contact him at harveychimoff.com.

Make Your Trade Shows More Strategic and Higher ROI

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“Let’s exhibit at trade show X” is a common refrain among sales and marketing teams.

That’s no surprise, considering the scope of the global trade show industry. Various estimates put global trade show revenue in the low $30 billion range, with the United States comprising about 50%. Whatever the number, trade shows are big business: for the show organizers, stand designers, stand builders, brochure writers, hotels and every other business sector that’s involved and benefits.

But what do sales and marketing teams and their companies get out of trade shows?

Ahh, that’s a difficult question to answer, and I say that as a marketing leader who has extensive involvement with B2B trade shows. I’m back from this month’s Vitafoods show in Europe, and while walking the expansive exhibit hall I wondered about the massive investments, the decision-making processes and the hoped-for results.

The first challenge for many companies is that they don’t have a well-defined answer to this question: Why are we exhibiting at trade show X and what is the purpose of our investment?

Sure, the teams at those companies will say something like we need to be there to support our business or we need to be “seen” in the industry. That’s not good enough. How many can articulate the defined objectives, or better yet, have them integrated and written into the annual marketing plan? My view is that, for a high percentage, the process is quite informal. Year-to-year decision-making may even kind of roll over in autopilot mode. That doesn’t automatically make it a bad process, but it does make it one less optimized for success. With so many pressures on sales and marketing teams, it’s better to increase, rather than decrease, success factors.

There are numerous reasons for making a trade show investment, including for example:

  • Accessing a new market
  • Penetrating an existing market
  • Building or solidifying the company image
  • Launching a new product or service
  • Searching for channel partners
  • FOMO (fear of missing out) or more accurately stated FONBT (fear of not being there)

My view is that the trade show part of the marketing mix should be treated with the same marketing discipline respect as the rest of the marketing strategy and plan. However, lack of discipline with trade shows may be indicative of the same for the overall marketing strategy and plan process! (For more on that subject, you can read my post Why Your Business Needs “Marketing Discipline.”)

“9 Action Points” to Make Your Trade Shows More Strategic and Higher ROI

Want to separate yourself from your competitors? Here are nine easy ways to get started.

  1. Understand your company’s commercial objectives
  2. Determine if and how trade shows can help achieve those objectives
  3. Identify the most relevant trade shows
  4. Prepare written objectives
  5. Customize your participation to engage the desired target(s) at each show
  6. Formally prepare and brief your trade show team (everyone who will be representing the company at the stand)
  7. Devise some system for visitor capture, tracking and post-show action analysis. Pre COVID, my recommendation was to automate visitor tracking with easy mobile phone scanning software that scans visitor badges and enables easy note-taking. At Vitafoods, there were only phone-based digital badges, which would have made scanning awkward.
  8. Conduct a post-show analysis and prepare a written report. What worked well? Where were you short? What are good ideas for next time? Should there be a next time?
  9. Include a “fully-loaded” analysis in your post show report. What’s that? Well, your company is spending serious cash to fly-in, hotel and feed the onsite team. What does that cost in addition to the stand space, stand build and whatever else went into your total stand presentation? The fully-loaded number may surprise internal leaders, but the head of marketing should know the company investment and be comfortable that it’s a good use of resources. At the same time, the head of sales should agree that this type of total company investment (marketing and travel funds) is appropriate to help achieve the annual objectives.

For 12 more action points to help maximize your trade show marketing, read my article published in Sales & Marketing Management, titled: Put the Marketing in Your Trade Shows.

(Photo Credit: Vitafoods 2021)

Harvey Chimoff is a customer-focused global business leader who connects marketing across the organization to drive performance and achieve business objectives. His B2B and CPG marketing expertise includes agribusiness, ingredients and food and beverage. Contact him at harveychimoff.com.