Susanne Kremeier Blog

Susanne Kremeier

Profi für erfolgsbringende Organisationsgestaltung

The famous customer of the customer

Almost every sales training also includes a discussion about the fact that one should also understand how one’s own customers address and satisfy their customers. Often, this closest circle of customers has ideas and needs that one can influence oneself as a supplier. Now, in the age of digitalisation and disruption, this connection is even more important than ever before. If the customer of the customer focuses on the functionality and less on the product, suddenly completely different elements could be in demand. So it’s important to have your ear on the ground.

The best thing, of course, is to have such a good relationship with your customers that they involve you as a partner in the discussions with the next customers. Then you become part of the design and creation process. Not only can you then exert influence and ensure that your own offer is used; you can also hear very early on whether there are changing needs that require you to adapt your own offer. Like an early warning system, research and development as well as production optimization can be controlled in that way. Of course, this requires that the right topics are discussed in the sales pitch. And this requires that the salesperson is actually addressing the right topics. And this in turn requires the salesperson to be involved in internal meetings where such topics could be discussed.

Strategic involvement of the sales force

Is your organization designed like that? How close is your management to your customer’s customer? Are they perhaps already thinking about other concepts? For example, if you are in logistics, is the customer’s customer already thinking about drones? Or via mega stores outside the cities, with onward transport in small electric vehicles? Will they then possibly already be looking for trucks that are and can be much larger because they no longer have to travel to the cities? Or are you perhaps more interested in packaging? How does a product have to be packaged if it is transported with a drone? What influence does the ability to print the product that the customer’s customer needs in 3D have on your products? As you can see, with the multitude of possible options, the seller cannot ask too many questions. The more information the market collects, the better. Of course, you can get a lot of information in the form of finished analyses via the Internet. Nevertheless, the seller also has a role to play. How do you put him in a position to do so? That’s what I would like to show you!

Implementing sales strategies: Selling is not the same as selling

A good salesperson can sell anything. That may be true, but doesn’t have to be. It depends on whether the salesperson sells, or whether he actually supports the customer during the purchasing process. That may sound like a marginal distinction, but it makes a world of difference. A salesperson who sells, will concentrate on the advantages of his product or services. He adapts these as far as possible to the customer’s requirements in the sales pitch, so the customer recognizes that they fit. A salesperson who helps to buy, however, is focused on the customer needs and then thinks about how he can satisfy them. This can be through the product or the service, but also through other activities offered by the salesperson. [Read more…]

Can a good salesman actually sell anything?

A stubborn assumption in many companies is that a born salesman can actually sell anything to anyone. Perhaps this statement was true a few years ago when the possibilities of finding out about products were still limited. Today, however, where interested buyers can inform themselves about pretty-much any product, the process of selling has changed. The process from the initial interest to the sale of the product is in the focus of attention as well as the support and care of customers and prospective customers during this process. It is important to know who needs what information and when about a product or service, how the decision is made for or against a purchase, and who ultimately decides whether the products will be bought or not. And also the question of who is influenced by whom during this process has to be included. In short: The entire process of selling has become more complex, which is why careful analysis is so important. [Read more…]

Is there such a thing as THE super sales person?

Of course we’ve all heard jokes about the typical car salesman. He always tries very hard and is a little too slick, and somehow we don’t really trust him. Why is that the case? Because the seller has only a specific product and is trying to sell it to the customer? Some of you might remember the Loriot sketch about the suit seller who tried to make the suit fit with all tricks of the trade, although it was plain for all to see that the suit really didn’t fit. [Read more…]

How do you define sales success?

What happens to a seller who has a very good conversation with a customer, but initially does not sell the product? Is long-term planning carried out here taking into account the entire potential portfolio, or are there quarterly sales goals? Of course the figures have to be right. But it is also a fact that it is more profitable to keep loyal customers than to acquire new ones. If you were able to delve deeper into the customer portfolio through strategic sales in order to develop future offers together with the customer, would that not be a fantastic result? [Read more…]