LINKS TO BPW BLOG, WHICH ISN’T PUBLISHED YET.
How to, in all communications, make it clear that your business exists to solve your customers’ problems and provide the solutions they need.
It’s Never About You
Logically, you may believe that most communication from your sales and marketing departments should revolve around your products, their features, and why they should be purchased from you. Up until recently, this approach worked well for a distributor because of their salespeople’s ability to close a deal.
But today, because it’s not as easy to get in front of a buyer, you must consistently, in all communications, make it clear that your business exists to solve your customers’ problems and provide the solutions and services your customers need. It’s that simple. When you focus on a solution for your buyers in your communications, and the solution you’re providing resonates with your buyers, your company will stand out as a problem-solver.
Does This Mean You Should Stop Promoting Your Products?
No, of course not. But what it does mean is that every communication you put out — including those that promote your products — should emphasize why the product is the best choice, or a possible choice, for the individual reading that message. You’ve got to get the right message in front of the right person and only the right person.
Since the beginning of time, it’s been easy for distributors to get the right message in front of the right person through their salespeople. But today, in a world where your prospects and customers are bombarded with information from all directions, coupled with the difficulties of making face-to-face sales calls, it’s just no longer the case. Today, you are best served by relying on technology to deliver your message.
The distribution industry has reached what can be a devastating inflection point, but it doesn’t have to be devastating at all. Learn and deploy new strategies in communicating your value. You don’t have to invent these communication strategies — many industries before you have already been down this road. Follow their lead and deploy proven strategies you already know will work.
Differentiating Means More than Standing Out
In distribution, now more than ever your messaging should emphasize your services and solutions to help differentiate yourself from your competition. In other words, instead of selling products, which anyone can do (and is doing it seems), communicate to your audience why working with you is in their best interest… why choosing to work with you vs. a competitor is the best decision they can make.
But you’ve got to walk the walk and, again, you must communicate in a way that puts the focus on the customer or prospect, not on your company.
Let’s look for a minute at how to tackle effectively communicating your value, aka your problem-solving abilities.
We can start by saying that clearly, your company provides a lot of value. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t be in business. And it’s probably not difficult to talk about or write about your value. In other words, creating the right messaging is easy. Again, it’s what your salespeople do for a living.
The difficulty now lies in getting the right message in front of the right person and not getting that message in front of the wrong person,’ especially if the wrong person is someone whom you might want to communicate with ever again.
In other words, if you are communicating information to prospects or customers that doesn’t apply to them, there’s a good chance they may stop reading your communications altogether.
Because of how technology has evolved, people today are conditioned to expect a certain level of personalization. While that expectation may be almost subliminal, your ability to ‘get the message right’ will undoubtedly affect their perception of how well you can serve them.
To understand who your prospects and customers are, and which message or communication each should receive from your company, check out our blog about using the best buyer persona tool for distributors.
If you’d like additional information or need to ask a question, please get in touch with me at Susan@SusanMerlo.com. I’m here to help in any way I can.