As a marketing strategist I am often asked that question – ‘how can I sell more of what we offer”.

And I can understand where the question comes from.  You’ve got a great product or service – you just want more people to buy it- please!

The better question to ask is – how does my ideal customer want to feel before, during, and after they’ve bought my product?

The reason this is a better question is answered by understanding that yes every customer is different, unique but there are some things that every person wants every time they make a purchase and no matter what they are buying.

Every business is different.  And every customer is an individual.  BUT every customer wants to feel the following – and these apply no matter what your business or how your customers find you including the web.

So before training your sales staff or creating a marketing plan use this checklist for your business and make a note of what each thing looks or feels like for your customers.

1. Convenience: How convenient is it to do business with you?
2. Choice: How many variations on your solution do you provide? variation can be in size, length of time, price, bonuses, extras etc.
3. Value: Customers always want more value.  How do you explain the value of your service or product so that customers see it as more than your competitors?
4. Customers always want to be treated as important.
5. Free information: Always more rather than less, but in a way that does not overload them.
6. To be treated in a professional, friendly and helpful manner
7. To feel important and acknowledged – immediately.
8. Different ways to pay.
9. Professional, organised and clean – no matter what your business or how ‘dirty’ your processes.
10. Want follow up: In a way that is not intrusive.
11. To be appreciated, recognised and rewarded.
12. Products and services that more than satisfy their expectations – exceed them.
13. Easy ways to learn about the features and benefits.
14. Convenient hours.
15. Reminded with promotions and follow-ups that make it easy for them.  If they’re happy with your products and services they will want more.
16. Enticing special offers and deals.
17. Ways to give feedback that are easy and anonymous.
18. Guarantees so they know they are not going to be ripped off.

And finally they want to know, like and trust you.  How you build trust

Related Articles: Understanding Sales (part two)

The problem of a shirt

Greg has a solid business employs about 15 people and is managing to take some great holidays with his teenage boys. He has put a lot of energy into building a ‘team’ approach in the workshop with a significant level of trust. He thought it was time to smarten up the team and bought a load of new shirts in the company colours with a bright logo.

When he gave them out the reaction from his factory manager was less appreciative than he expected, in fact the manager seemed quite put out. Over the next few weeks the atmosphere became increasingly soared. Greg was angry at first and then realised he had to do somethiing about it. When he contacted me I spoke with his manager about the incident and his words were “same old same old, thinks he has to do it all” and “I’m not putting in any more effort, nothing changes”. When we got to the bottom of the situation we discovered a couple of things. 1. Greg acted in his usual way of getting things done in the most efficient cost effective way possible.

2. The factory manager thought it was part of his job and he should have been consulted, he also thought his job as manager deserved a ‘better’ shirt than he was given, one a little more like the bosses. After all don’t they go out to customers together sometimes?

The shirt wasn’t really the problem – it became a symbol of the level of trust. In this simple act of apparent generosity the trust between business owner and factory manager was broken – not irrepairably but definitely broken. Its not that the boss shouldn’t have a better quality shirt, sure he can but what message is being sent by this to the person he expects to ensure all work leaving the factory meets the quality standards of the business. And what message about his role? If the situation had been left unquestioned much of the work building the team over the last couple of years would have been eroded.

In a short session with Greg and his manager both were able to accept ,identify the behaviours and their reactions. When looked at through the lense of building a team they could see what had happened and what they each can do so it doesn’t happen again.

What we did to re-build the trust was: First roles, expectations and accountabilities were re-clarified. Next we did some work on behaviours, actions and words that build trust which includes committing to regular monthly management meetings where teh real issues get talked through not swept under the table. And finally it was helpful to re-align the management team on goals and prioirites for the year and diarise the dates for all the management meetings.

Going forward Greg will remember that he has a factory manager who wants to be fulfil his role and share some of Greg’s load. And the manager will speak up truthfully when something like this happens again and not return to his old pattern of thinking ‘there’s no point’. He has re-committed all his enthusiasm and energy to the business because he feels valued and trusted again.

It’s easy to talk about team and trust, the reality is that it is in the small everyday actions that we earn it so that it is there when it is really needed. If you’d like to know what the 13 behaviours identified and tested over many years by Stephen M R Covey that build trust at every level in an organisation are send me a quick email asking for the 13 behaviour list bridget@creatingwhatmatters.co.nz .

Or call me if you’d like to talk about something going on in your team that you know can be improved. 09 412 9485

When they called me in 2006 and asked me to do some work with them, John described their need as wanting a culture change. He was confronting the reality (High Trust Behaviour 8) that his firm was not as good as it could be.  He was very keen that his team take more ownership, be more part of the firm, have more pride in what they were doing. He heard other engineers talking about firms where they had worked as if they were the ‘mercedes’ of engineering firms and he wanted some of that. He wanted his guys to talk with the same pride of his firm.

What We Did

I spent  one and a half days in 2006 working on their vision and their values. Every one of the 8 values they chose was a ‘Trust’ behaviour i.e. a behaviour that when integrated into the systems and standards of the business builds Trust.   Then over a period of months supported them to create and implement new standards and systems that ensured the trust values became part of the way the business is run.

The Results

Asked what difference this work has made to the firm John says: “What happened is that I changed the way I managed the firm” .  John worked from the top down, first changing his own behaviour.   “And the change in leadership trickles down to how the guys feel and how they work.  I’m freed up to go out and get the sales, and know I have a team of guys who take pride in producing quality work, on time and within budget.  Our customers know they can trust us to deliver”.

“We had 24 months of real growth – 33% in turnover and increased margins. I think that growth helped us stave off the current downturn”.  John emailed me on 29 September 2009 to say that he had just won the largest contract of his time in business and the guy said he would be offering the work in future without the need for a quote because he ‘trusted’ him.

Barbara works for a property valuation business.  She has worked there happily for many years, but recently two businesses merged.  The new CEO was interpreting the holidays act to the disadvantage of the employees but they did not feel they could speak up for fear of losing their jobs.  So Barbara simply played a low trust card.  She would not accept any jobs that were out of her regular geographical area.  She simply turned the work away with an excuse.

Firstly, the nature of the global economy has shifted to collaborative and interconnected.  Trust is the new currency of this collaborative, connected interdependent economy.  It fuels the collaboration necessary to operate globally, and ensures relationships with people you don’t know well work.  Trust is vital to organisations, governments, reputations, brands and individuals.

Secondly we are increasingly operating in a low trust world.  Trust levels are going down everywhere – most institutions, most governments, in business, in marketing and advertising, in society generally.  Research conducted in 2009 by Perceptive Insight for Sustainable Advantage showed that in New Zealand only 11% of customers trust businesses to be open and honest in their communications.  And in previous research by Red Carpet 50% of employees trust their boss little or not at all and 85% of employees do not trust their organisation.  This lack of trust is a real and measurable cost to business.

Thirdly the foundation of brand is trust.  Customers will trust a brand that consistently delivers what is promised – or more.  This means that the opportunity is huge for leaders and businesses that set about deliberately building themselves as trustworthy.  High trust organisations have been shown to return up to 286% more in total return to shareholders.  Deliberately setting about to build trust as a competency is a crucial strategic initiative that will deliver significant returns.

What do we mean by trust in the business setting?  We mean confidence. We are confident in the intention and ability of the business to deliver the results they promise. 

In a team environment when there is low trust we can observe any of the following behaviours:

• People manipulate or distort facts
• People withhold and hoard information
• People spin the truth to their advantage
• Getting the credit is very important
• New ideas are openly resisted and stifled
• Mistakes are covered up or covered over
•  People are involved in a blame game, badmouthing others
• ;There is an abundance of “water cooler” talk
• There are numerous “meetings after the meetings”
• There are many “undiscussables”
• People tend to over-promise and under-deliver
• There are a lot of violated expectations for which people make many excuses
• Reality is often skirted and attention focussed on side issues
• The energy level is low
• People often feel unproductive tension—sometimes even fear

Each behaviour is a cost to the organisation which we can call a tax.

In the market, the costs of low trust are stated simply as:

•  Customers go elsewhere and 67% of them are likely to tell friends and family to stop buying as well.

So how do we go about building trust as a competency in ourselves and our organisations?

We begin by assessing our credibility – both in our character and our competence.  Credibility is the foundation. 4 key areas to assess are:

1. What is our intention, have we declared it, do others understand it?
2. What is our level of integrity?
3. Do we have the capabilities?
4. Do we deliver results?

And we follow by modelling the specific behaviours identified as building Trust.

After attending Bridget’s workshop I had the opportunity to help organise the big ‘Bikeoi’ motorbike protest ride to Wellington, which ultimately involved more than 6,000 bikes. Bikes from around the country arrived in Wellington on the same day to protest against the Government’s plan to make major changes to the ACC system.

The whole event was organised in a few weeks, and was run by a very disparate group, so trust became a big part of the event. I decided to set up the fund-raising/merchandising arm of the protest, and call it the ‘Scary Bikers Sewing Circle’ or SBSC.

The SBSC produced awareness-raising merchandise such as arm bands, fluorescent vests, flags and noise-making kits. The group of about six women got together each evening to make the merchandise, then sell it at protest events in Auckland and through a mail-order system to other parts of the country.

Rather than keep track of how much everything cost and how much everyone had to pay, we decided to just keep a cash float where we would put all income, and reimburse ourselves for the cost of raw materials straight out of the petty cash. We also set up a bank account where people could make direct bank transfers into the account, but told them not to bother putting references on their deposits, because we would not try to reconcile the payments when we were mailing out their orders.

On many different occasions, people at the protests did not have cash to pay for the items they wanted, so we invited them to take the merchandise and pay for it at the next event, or to deposit the money directly into the bank account.

Nobody knows how much money we have raised so far, and the fund-raising effort continues. So far we have purchased a loud hailer, paid for some repairs to a walkway that was accidentally damaged during the Wellington protest, paid for large banners to be professionally made, and reimbursed all the expenses of individuals within the SBSC. It is our belief that we have had deposits totalling considerably more than the value of goods we have produced.

Bridget’s workshop gave me the confidence to trust a wide range of complete strangers whose only common interest is motorbikes. I am sure some people have forgotten to pay their money into the account (and some may have deliberately chosen not to) but, on average, the people who have made a larger payment have made up for those who have paid less.

As a bonus, the scarce resources of the SBSC have been used to produce more merchandise, rather than putting effort into reconciling bank accounts, following up payments, and other such administrative work.

• Your customers want to buy from a convenient local business – let them know you are local
• Your customers want to be reminded of the services you offer – so they don’t have to remember
• Your customers like to buy from people they know and like – sponsoring a local kids sports team is a very likeable activity
• Your customers want to know they can trust you – do you look more trustworthy if you sponsor a local sports team?
• Your customers want to feel connected – they want to know a little about you and increase their sense of community – sponsoring a local sports team…
• Your local kids’ sports team is high energy, high visibility, positive, fun and your whole team will feel good about the promotion.  It’s a really positive talking point.
• It also has a positive cost/benefit ratio compared with a static advertisement stuck in one place where only a small portion of your potential customers are looking.

Please call me on 649 4129485  or email bridget@creatingwhatmatters.co.nz if you’re interested to talk more about this.