February 14, 2017 By Salesforce Canada

Beyond Demographics: What Do You Need to Know About Your Customers

in Customer Service

No good salesperson goes into a sale blind. To truly make the best out of any interaction, they need to know basic data about their customer, such as their name, their company’s name, the size of the company, what they do, and how the salesperson’s products and services can help the customer. This information is fairly easy to come by with a customer relationship management (CRM) platform—but the key is to use that data to form a relationship.

The better you know your customers, the better you can help them. You need to know their pain points, understand them and their purchasing process, and ensure your sales pitch is personalized to their needs. Do this by segmenting your lists and personalizing your emails—create emails that feel as if they were sent specifically from one individual to another.

The more personalized your sales process, the more success you should see. You can learn more about using demographics and data to understand your customers better in the infographic below.

Understand the Customer

Know the basics
- Before Sales reps pick up the phone to talk to a prospect they should be able to answer some basic questions:
  - Name and company name
  - Company size
  - What the company does
  - How your product can help
- Automation platforms can pull this data into a comprehensive prospect profile

Know their pain points
- Go beyond basic data
  - Understand your buyer’s pain points to better anticipate their needs
  - Use prospect tracking to see:
    - What a prospect searched for to bring them to your site
    - Which pages they visited
    - What content they interacted with and downloaded
  - This added insight into prospects’ interests can help:
    - Guide conversations
    - Provide relevant and useful content
Better understand the person
- Marketing automation allows you to automatically pull prospects’ social media profiles if they are public
- Having this glimpse into your prospects’ lives can
  - Allow for more personalized communications
  - New ways to interact
Understand their purchasing process
- Review the needs and benefits that make your customers purchase your product or service
  - Where do they begin their research?
  - What is their problem or need?
  - What are the benefits to finding a solution?
- B2B companies should also think about:
  - Do they make purchases by impulse?
  - Do they seek out referrals?
- Will they need approval by a committee before making a purchase?

Personalizing Your Sales Pitch

Make the story about them (not you)
- People want to hear a story about them
  - Orient your narrative around what they need
  - Talk about how your offerings can solve their problems
Understand their needs
- According to a study by Qvidian:
  - Salespeople often lose deals because they haven’t customized their content to their buyer’s needs
  - Find out what’s important to the buyer before talking with them
Feel their pain
- Emotions, not just fact, play a part in the buying decision
- Empathize with how someone in your prospect’s role may feel
- Talk about how your solution will improve their situation
Show, don’t tell
- Deepen engagement by allowing prospects to experience something and conclude on their own
- Avoid reciting a long list of features and benefits
  - Show your product or service in action
  - Show how similar customers are taking advantage of your product’s relevant features through
    - Screenshots
    - Charts
    - Pictures
Make slide titles that tell the story
- Make it easy for your prospects to follow along
- Don’t bury the most important points midway through a slide
- To ensure each slide is impactful:
  - Write slide titles that tell the story on their own

Personalize Your Marketing Tactics

Segment your lists
- Research from Campaign Monitor found
  - Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns
- Don’t treat all contacts the same by sending the same email to your entire contact list
- Create unique segmented lists so you can personalize the content for different groups
- Divide your master list into key segments that are relevant to your business
  - Market
  - Client type
  - Service area
  - Buyer persona
Personalize Your Emails
- Campaign Monitor found
  - Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened
- Create emails that feel as if they are sent specifically from one individual to another
- Emails should be from a member of your marketing team rather than a generic company email address
- Add an email signature to the body of the email
- Avoid “First Name” greetings
- To bring a personal touch to the email content use a contact’s:
  - Company name
  - Industry
  - Job title

Conclusion

Better understanding you customer and personalizing the way you communicate with them in marketing and sales pitches helps them feel good about your company and trust doing business with you.