Support depends on complexity. “Organizations with highly technical products will require live support through distributors or in-house sales representatives, whereas those who sell less complex product sets may benefit from self-service channels.”
Channel sales requiring giving up brand control. “While such partnerships can be a tremendous asset toward cost-effectively gaining greater market coverage and presence, they also can reduce control over the brand experience and ultimately inhibit an organization’s goal for creating intimacy with its end users.”
Customer Success should not be responsible for upgrades. “The biggest issue is that the service personnel often are not comfortable with the idea of selling and can be very resistant to it. Additionally, compensation and performance evaluation can be barriers. Many times customer service agents are evaluated by their ability to resolve customer issues quickly. So it can be confusing as a service representative to be instructed to try to get a customer off the phone as quickly as possible and at the same time cross-sell them.”
Selling by product line is inferior. “Deploying a sales force by product line is one of the most traditional ways to go about allocating resources. It is beneficial in supplying high levels of product expertise to buying organizations. As organizations merge and extend solution sets into numerous lines, however, it becomes less common as a primary strategy. As a result of these mergers and investments, some of the sales organizations we studied found themselves in situations where they were deploying multiple sales representatives into the same customer account, each selling a different set of products. This created inefficiencies. It is beneficial in cases where the product sales and implementation may be highly technical or a great deal of product detail is involved in the buying process.”
Geographic sales can work as well. “Segmenting sales teams by geography allows for extensive coverage, increased face time, and local responsiveness to customer issues. This strategy works best in situations where the sales force is tasked with selling a relatively homogenous product set to a broad customer base.”
Again selling a solution is far more effective. “The language the salesperson uses to provide information to the customer should be benefit-orientated — not feature-orientated — and linked to these needs. It’s the difference between a digital camera “with 3 megapixels and 3x2 optical zoom” and one that “will allow you to take high-resolution pictures of your upcoming cruise vacation.” Both are accurate statements but the latter helps the buyer see how the product will help meet needs.”
Customer Success is critical and valuable. “According to the study, customers said they would pay more if they could get excellent after-sales service, and they placed premium value on service and product reputation. In fact, service was the most important factor they valued from their vendor organization.”
Visit us at blossomstreetventures.com and email me directly at sammy@blossomstreetventures.comhttps://blossomstreetventures.com/metrics/
Enjoyed this post?
Share it using the links below.