Tailoring Your Sales Approach to Each Customer
When it comes to sales, one size definitely does not fit all. Your customers are individuals who come to you for different reasons. Therefore, your sales strategy must be individualized and unique for each person. In the words of Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank, “Strategy is determined by your environment.” In business, sales is often an overlooked forum to engage your customers as individuals, but doing so can set you apart from your competition (who may treat customers merely as potential buyers).
Your correspondence, such as direct email, is a perfect time to individualize your sales plan.
Sales Correspondence
Flyers, direct mailings, newsletters, and all customer-oriented sales correspondence are great opportunities to individualize your sales approach. It’s easy to fall into a trap of relying on boilerplate templates. But if you can individualize each mailing to every customer – or at least to every repeat or potential repeat customer – you can set yourself apart from a world inundated with letters that begin “Dear Resident:”.
Social Media
Your online marketing – specifically online marketing done through social media – presents a unique opportunity for individualization that didn’t exist a generation ago. It is in this arena that the business power of Facebook and Twitter meet the personal networking appeal for which they were designed. Find, friend, and follow your customers on Twitter and Facebook; mention them by name; and reach out to them publicly with promotions and deals. But make sure to also give them personal invites to your business pages, and don’t forget to thank them after sales instead of just pitching.
Your customers are individuals – sell to them that way.
Your customers are individuals, and therefore, your sales strategy must cater to the person, not the sales demographic in which that person happens to fall. A personalized sales approach can lead customers to become repeat customers. Use the power of social media to reach out to customers not only with deals and pitches, but with follow-ups after the fact.
NOTE: These personalized strategies apply well to arranging interviews for your next job.
Andrew Lisa is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. He writes about small business management and customer relations.
