What you know and what you don't know are two key factors in sales success, says Dean Hodgson Zeacom ANZ general manager.
I frequently talk to my sales team to discuss the latest customer wins and what is deemed the driving force behind their successes and two things always stand out – what you know, and what you don't know.
The first part– what you do know – relates to your initial engagement with the customer. Simply put, never go into a meeting with a preconceived idea of what they may need. It might be easier to default to an out-of-the-box solution, which you are familiar with, but you will not know the best fit for your customer until you have had a deeper look into their business and challenges.
I often hear from the customers who have chosen Zeacom, that it's because my team got to know them and truly understand their needs. I like nothing better than to hear this type of feedback. It means we did a great job for the customer and gained their trust.
Our customers view us not as a software developer, but as an enabler of great customer experiences. This is why we have many customers who have been with us for years, and come back to us to upgrade their solutions. They trust us to do what's right. The next factor to consider is what we don't know.
One of my favourite TED talks is by Ken Robinson, based around the need for more encouragement of creativity within the education sector. His reasoning for this is simply that we are teaching our children specific skills for a future, which ultimately we cannot predict.
We are all well aware of how staggeringly fast technology and communications are currently evolving. Five years ago, none of us knew how social media would vastly revolutionise the way consumers engage with contact centres. Realistically, none of us really know what new communication platforms and methods will emerge and be considered ‘standard' in five years time.
If we take that as fact then we need to make sure we provide our customers solutions that can be easily adapted and upgraded as these new ways to communicate appear.
A rigid infrastructure that is inflexible and requires a full rip out and replace when you want to change something is simply the worse case scenario for a customer. While there are the obvious cost implications in regards to their initial investment, the re-training and implementation will be a nightmare too.
If you want to future-proof your business as much as possible, make sure you implement a hybrid model. By its very nature, hybrid is easily adaptable. When a new method of communication arrives, it will be a very simple and seamless process to upgrade your current solution so it can be included.