The key to creating loyal customers is simply listening. If you listen long enough and hard enough, the customer will tell you exactly what it’s going to take to maintain his or her loyalty. All you need to do then is act on this information and you are home free. As simple as this sounds, most of us don’t listen to our customers very well. We tend to be preoccupied with our own problems and needs rather than those of our customers. On the other hand, if you can discipline yourself to take the time to actively listen to what your customers have to say, the results are phenomenal!
For example, I was reading about a sales executive who was reflecting on his first sales job. He said, “I spent forever getting to know a small handful of customers really well and it paid off handsomely. In no time at all, I came in at 195 percent of quota, tops in my division. The vice president of sales at corporate called me and said, ‘Great job, but I noticed that you averaged only 1.2 sales calls a day. Company average is 4.6. Just think of what you could sell if you could get your average up to par!’” He went on to say, “you can guess my response after I came down off the ceiling; I told him, ‘Just think what the rest could sell if they could get their average down to 1.2.’”
The reason this salesperson was so successful was that he was taking the time to listen to his customers and then using this information to make sure his product or service was tailored to satisfy each customer’s current needs. He was able to work smarter instead of harder, which paid off handsomely for him. As Tom Peters said during a speech several years ago, “If you listen to what your customers have to say and then do something about it, the bottom line is, you’ll get filthy rich!”
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