When looking for someone that you want to work with what are your deciding factors? Most people would say experience, or convenience, which are both great reasons on their own but one thing stands taller than all of those factors – even when you don’t realize it.
What makes a truly great relation between you and your customers, clients, and partners, is the fact that they trust you. Many people on both sides of the sales spectrum don’t think about this when choosing to work with another company but it always plays a factor in the final outcome.
I’m sure this scenario has played out at least once:
You or your company, are trying to choose a new {widget} company to handle all your {widget} related needs. You do your research and get to the point where you have options. You ask for demonstrations and weed out the {widgets} that you know don’t offer what your specific company needs. At this point you are left with two options. Both of these {widgets} do exactly what you need, and both will deliver the benefits you sought after in the first place. There is only one thing left to do – choose.
If you are on the selling side of this scenario I’m sure you know the pains that come with being in this situation. You’ve done the work; you know that your product is the better option for them. You have done everything you can to put your product in the best light, but they still want something more.
When you step away from your actions and actually look at the situation from a 3rd person view it’s not hard to see what is holding them back. Among all of the other decisions they have to make they know that going into this partnership is going to be a lot of time and energy they have to spend, they want to spend that with someone that they can actually trust.
This leads you to one question, “how can my company become the firm that people know, like, and trust?” so I want to answer this question before you even have to ask:
3 WAYS TO UP YOUR “LIKENESS FACTOR”:
IMAGE
t should come to no surprise that your company’s image is important to how other companies and customers view how they feel about you on a personal level. First impressions will always mean the most and sadly in today’s world a first impression comes from your homepage instead of a handshake, or even worse than that, if a potential customer isn’t able to find your webpage.
You need to make sure that you take every precaution necessary to ensure that your company’s image is in line with what your customers are expecting, or even exceeding expectations. Keep up with trends, find out what made your current customers chose you, and find a way to make sure that you are putting the right first impression out there.
PERSONALITY
Nobody likes working with someone that has a bad attitude right? Well what if I told you that your company could have that same attitude when dealing with potential clients and partners.
Your company’s personality starts at the top. You need to show your customers and your employees that you put the relationship first, above even the sale. If you show that you have a great personality when making deals so will your employees. Leading by example is the main catalyst for changing your company’s personality, so you have to live and breathe the message that you want to show to your customers.
Smart hiring is also a must when creating a great company personality. You need to make sure that the person you hire is going to fit in with the culture of your company. Remember that skills can be learned, but personality is hard to change.
UNIQUENESS
What are you offering that no other company can? You are offering what you bring to the table. It
doesn’t always come down to which product is better, because we all know that our product is better than the others. What it comes down to is, “what are you doing that gets your clients from A to B?”
Are you answering your emails in a timely fashion? Are you answering questions thoroughly? Are you having fun when working with the potential client? You never know what someone is going to find special about you or your service, but if you are finding trends from what people are saying, highlight them.
Most of the time what makes you unique is going to develop organically from the way you do business, but I personally, will never be too good for a gimmick. People love a gimmick, that’s why they still work even though everyone “in the know” will tell you that they are over played. Be a character, have fun with sales, and have fun with the people you are selling to.