Stop hiding behind your computer and get out to see your customers!
Stop hiding behind your computer and get out to see your customers!
If you are responsible for managing and developing key customer relationships for your organisation you can’t do it purely sitting behind a computer.
“I just need to analyse that last piece of data to get a fuller picture”
“I am just waiting for the latest report to drop”
“a 3 hour round trip for a client meeting doesn’t seem like the best use of my time”
The reasons and excuses go on and on.
To say the last few years have been tough would be an understatement – many sales and account managers had to quickly adapt from face-to-face to Virtual and/or phone contact. Many made that transition, uncomfortable as it may have first appeared. However, many are now stuck in the too comfortable position of not putting themselves into the ‘difficult zone’ of physically seeing a customer face-to-face and interacting.
Back in the day we used to call them; “cup of tea customers” – you didn’t do much business there and then, however, you always got a warm welcome and cup of tea, and opened up opportunities for the future.
The problem many customer facing teams now face is transitioning back to an effective form of hybrid / blended customer management.
Why is face-to-face interaction important?
Customer relationships develop along a defined continuum as drawn out in this image (fig 1).
In the early stages, the relationship starts with a high level of affective trust (the emotional elements). This is about:
- rapport building
- setting the relational intent
- expectations
- engagement
- exploring potential common ground
This element of the relationship is often undertaken face-to-face, informally within or around social occasions and client site visits. It also builds formally through ‘face-to-face’, review meetings.
Once a foundation is in place then it can be enhanced through virtual mediums, phone, and emails. So, this may have already occurred and the relationship has moved along the relational continuum.
The downside:
However, if you stay in the office and stop face-to-face engagement or significantly reduce it then the relationship has the potential to roll back, stall or stagnate. Customers need to feel your commitment and witness the demonstration of your relational intent. They need to be communicated with more than an email or virtual (teams/zoom) meeting.
It can feel like a challenge – your client may initially try and talk you out of face-to-face interactions as they don’t want to do it either! They may not get into their office much any more and for you the thought of getting back in the car or on the train rather than the convenience of working from home, may seem like a lot of effort. For some people, managing a relationship purely on a virtual basis can work. But for many of us, to really maximise opportunities, in person interactions can add a lot of value to the overall relationship.
Why does meeting face to face add so much value?
- Over 70% of communication is non-verbal, if you contact your customer by phone or over a laptop camera then you are diluting 70% of your relationship development potential. That’s a huge amount to risk!
- Virtual meetings definitely have their place to cover the routine and can be a highly efficient means of getting task done; if you like the ‘process part’ of the relationship and the check in stages.
- However, we use personal interaction to do a number of things that develop both the emotional and practical stages of a relationship. Sharing with each other to establish similarities in:
- values
- beliefs
- opinions
- views
- and needs.
We also explore the non-formal elements of the relationship, the stuff that makes us tick.
- Face-to-face interactions allow us over time to understand the person and relate them to the many profiling tools that are available which gives us the ability to flex our style to develop the relationship to a deeper, more integrated and effective level.
What can you do to get yourself back out there?
- Do an honest assessment of your key relationships and ask yourself questions such as:
- when did you last meet in person?
- Has the relationship got a bit too comfortable and transactional?
- Could it do with a bit of an injection?
- Use this assessment to identify and importantly prioritise who you would like to get in front of and then make your plans.
- Recognise that this is an investment of your time so think about what you want to get out of the meeting and plan accordingly
- Are there others in the organisation who you could take the opportunity to spend some time with – if your key contact left, what relationships do you have in place to maintain the overall company relationship? Far easier to build from existing relationships that starting from scratch.
- Don’t be afraid to position the value of meeting in person if you sense a reluctance from the other party to meet face-to-face.
This short post covers just one small but crucial part of relationship planning and development – this is one of the many topics we explore in our very successful Sales and account Management training programmes.
Get in touch if you would like to hear more – we would love to speak with you and turn a cup of tea meeting into a full tea tasting!
He is an expert in B2B Customer Experience and Customer Management. This includes CM strategy development; execution of improvement plans (incl. organisational modelling for customer management); programme design; and partnership & alliance development.
Mark's applied work across FMCG, industrials, medical devices, financial services, business services and construction has led to organisations making, significant improvements to their customer management. A large focus of this work has been moving organisations up the Trust Ladder to enable them to benefit from reduced cost to serve, while continuing to innovate and deliver mutual value.
Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Member of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management. He holds an MBA in strategy from Henley Business School.
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