It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell

By Ahmed al-Akber/ManamaA survey by the CEB Sales Leadership Council investigated the contributing factors to B2B customer loyalty - namely what it took to choose one supplier over another. The results were as follows:lCompany and brand impact: 19%lProduct and service delivery: 19%lValue-to-price ratio: 9%lThe purchase experience: 53%Some of the most fascinating insight from this research was that only 38% of customer loyalty is attributable to a supplier’s ability to outperform the competition on brand, product, and service. That means that investments in improving your brand, product and customer service will only get you so far. They are important, but not the key to success in B2B sales. Furthermore, only 9% of loyalty is attributable to price. Dropping prices to win business is a deadly game. As far as loyalty is concerned, customers that want to buy the cheapest will probably continue to do so. So you may be cheapest today, but a competitor can always drop their price and provided your customer is fixated only on price, you will lose their business. So all those times you lowered your price to win a deal does not necessarily make your client loyal to you.  The most compelling piece of insight from this work is that the majority (53%) of customer loyalty is attributable to the purchase experience. In other words, how you compete out in the field during the sales call has more impact on customer loyalty than all other factors combined. So improving your brand, enhancing your customer service, and dropping your prices may win you some customer loyalty, but none of those will matter if your sales team can’t execute out in the field. A major finding from the research highlighted customers’ desire to learn from their suppliers. They wanted to be educated on issues to do with their business and learn new ways of either making or saving time or money. Sharing insight on ways to get customers to think differently about their businesses mattered most. One way to get this started is to look internally and ask what you are better than anyone one else at. Then create some provocative content around that subject that will help your customers, and share it with them. Content takes different forms but can be in the form of articles, seminars, videos, audio podcasts, webinars, books and a host of other forms. Get your customers to think differently, to the point where they understand that they have a problem and need to change their ways. That’s when you then present them with what you sell, which just so happens to solve the problem they didn’t know they had.- Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on ahmed@acksolutions.com