Relationship Selling (and marketing) to an Anonymous Customer
We all want to establish relationships with our customers. That’s not rocket science. Or marketing science. It’s obvious.
It’s also easier said than done.
Curse the Web.
Sellers seek to “establish a presence” on it.
Customers seek to shop, learn, compare, and decide. And these customers are delighted to do all of this without your knowledge.
Anonymity is a comfortable way to shop. Not just for GPS systems or video cameras. For chromatographs, shakers, and glassware, too.
As sellers, we post offers, publish webforms, offer information – and cross our fingers … hoping that a customer will raise his/her hand and say, “Here I am! Please follow up with me!”
Even those of us who collect orders over the web fail to identify the “should-have-been” customers.
But wait! When we spend some dough on promotion, Presto!, we can see an increase in traffic. That’s good, isn’t it?
Yes, but traffic does not pay the rent.
Traffic does not even provide us with leads!
Advertising purists would argue that traffic is valuable exposure, and they are right.
But we want orders, so we need leads and relationships, not traffic.
So, what about the would-be customers who shopped, learned, compared, and decided to move on and buy from somebody else?
They moved on. We never had a chance to woo them. Or to address their objections.
And what do we do about it? We cross our fingers all over again, and hope they will come back. And maybe break out of their anonymity. What choice do we have?
– — –
If you are waiting for the answer, well, I don’t have a magic formula, either. Sure, there are steps you can take to pry these customers out of their shells. There are ways to track their interests. There are ways to communicate with folks based on their interests.
Some steps are simple; some are tricky.
And, as anticlimactic as it may be, I can only expect you to read so much in one sitting. Thoughts about remedies will have to wait until my next posting – in early June. With the caveat that there are no magic bullets. No tricks. No Five Steps to Guarantee Success.
Like most good business moves, it’s just another dose of common sense.
Embrace the web, don’t curse it.
