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Customer Relations Group

What! It's already mid March. Where has time gone? I apologize for being late with today's issue ; I'm in the middle of more than $14 million in new business for a client (with an additional $21 million in their pipeline. )

You should be excited about this because I am sharing with you the same relationship building strategies clients use to get these results . In this lesson, you'll discover what a customer relationships group should really do , and it's not what you might suspect.

Hope you were surprised by the last lesson and what was said about those things you should know before starting a new department or project. Now you know how to get the results you deserve from new projects.

In the next lesson I'll share some of the strategies I've used to help clients produce sustainable growth with the sales and marketing people they already have . As someone involved with sales or marketing management, stay tuned for what might be the most revealing lesson this year.

As many have discovered, I'm not accepting additional clients at this time. But, if you want real answers, limited phone consultations, and a library of actionable insights from real consulting experience, then become a Gold Member . To get started right away (and for additional details) visit http://applyingstrategicrelations.com/

Thank you so much for being a part of this newsletter. Let's leave no question unanswered, so . . . What is your big question about building profitable business relationships that you must have answered to reach your objectives?

Sincerely,

Justin Hitt
Consultant, Author & Speaker
https://iunctura.com/

What Your Customer Relations Group Should Really Do To Generate Sales

By Justin Hitt, Strategic Relations Consultant, https://www.justinhitt.com/

With the push for better customer relationship management, the last thing you need is another committee holding useless meetings and wasting corporate resources. Its bad enough most customer relationship management systems are still sucking up valuable information technology dollars with little or no results to show for it.

How does can a customer relationship group overcome these problems while still creating strong profitable customer relationships?

The objective of this group isn't more rules, processes, or executive level initiatives . You, the sales or marketing manager, don't have time for such nonsense -- budgets are already stretched to their limits.

First, you must define what your customer relationship management group really does . To make it solely self sufficient a customer relationship group must generate sales. That's hard profits, not just top line revenue.

That's why your customer relationship management group needs its own profit and loss statement , and clear objectives before you go one step further. This lesson will assume you have those things, or that you are still investigating this way of improving customer relationship value.

Here is a quick list of some of the things your customer relationship group needs to do (after it understands that it's responsible for creating profits!):

• Advocate for the customers interest. As companies get larger, add more employees, or have personal changes, certain aspects of the customer's best interest are lost. This group educates employees about what customers really want, provides advice on how to provide it, and measures progress in fulfilling expectations.
• Discover challenges facing customers. Unless you ask, you'll really never know what problems customers face, and which of those problems you could solve for them. This is a business development aspect of the customer relationships group. Look to align your business around finding and solving problems for customers.
• Understand customers concerns. There are certain things that make customers lose sleep, they aren't challenges to overcome, but worries and concern individuals have about what they do each day. These emotional factors influence buying decisions and include behavioral characteristics. Your customer relationships group uses this information to help marketing design a more relevant message.
• Help customers be more productive. When customers accomplish more with your solutions, they become more loyal (addicted) to the results they create. As a third-party, your customer relationship group will study how customers work, how you can help them work better, and where your solutions can improve for stronger overall results.
• Drive demand for product or service. In identifying customers challenges, concerns, and helping them be more productive. A customer relationships group does these things in a way that increases the demand for what the company offers. Brief sales, marketing, and service departments on the insights gathered, particularly outlining the connection with existing services offered.
• Monitor communications with customers. What are customers saying and what are they not? At times your customer relationship group should measure answer response time, the context of customer communications, and the overall consistency of message. Do customers understand the meaning and importance of what is being said, or are you not talking in their best interest?

Your customer relationship group doesn't have to be big . In fact, you should start small, very small; even just three people are fine. If you want to add bulk to your customer relationship group, consider bringing on board customers.

See, your customer relationships group doesn't replace sales, marketing, or service departments. Their role is more oversight than directive . That's why a panel of top customers is more important than many staff members.

A customer relationship group will delegate through local sales, marketing, or service managers. This means for a customer relationship group to be profitable it must work well with both customers, and internal business elements .

Why this is so critically important is beyond the scope of this article. If you have any questions or want additional information, write CUSTOMER RELATIONS GROUP, Dept CK-0603B,PO Box 3123, Martinsville, VA 24115 for a fact sheet that extends this article.

You don't need more overhead, and with this strategy a customer relationship group will pay for itself hundreds of times over. To be sure they are doing something for your business to business technical firm, start with a profit and loss , then roles described here.

© 2006 Justin Hitt, All rights reserved.
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