The sociologist Alvin Tofler in his work The Third Wave introduced the term “prosumer” to speak of the convergence between the roles of producer and consumer. From a consumer who recovers his identity and who wishes to establish a two-way communication with the brand, forcing it to be coherent, transparent, complete and authentic.
In this context, customer relations become more important, organizations must act proactively, capturing relevant and usable information to share it through all points of contact with the customer.
There are three keys to establishing an effective relationship with customers: an economic metric to calculate the rate at which customers create value, implement management tools that allow us to make better decisions and execute more effective actions and, finally, develop strategies on the basis of winning customer trust.
Relationship with suppliers
The success of a company, among other factors, lies in being able to build a service or product that meets the needs of the client. For something so obvious, we must understand who our client is, what they want, what role we play in the relationship and how we achieve it. If our client is a vegetarian, giving him a vegan hamper can help!
We must create an adequate structure for customer-supplier relationships as a key element in any strategy for creating and consolidating competitive advantages in the production chain. An efficient management with suppliers produces a better product or service. Similarly, the ability to adapt to a changing market will be key to maintaining a beneficial supplier-client relationship.
We are facing a new approach to relations with suppliers. As the global environment becomes more competitive, relationships with suppliers based on trust become more important. The will to create a beneficial commercial relationship for both parties, an attitude of seeking solutions beyond the dividing lines that may exist, the importance of the integral cost, the search for continuity and multiple intercommunication, gaining great relevance.
We must improve communication with suppliers and share a methodology with them in order to optimize the supply process.
Commercial force and sales objectives
The commercial force is the bridge between the company and customers, both current and potential, acting as a catalyst between both. Our commercial force must have an analytical mindset, with in-depth knowledge of each product and its benefits and customer needs, trying to balance previously defined sales objectives with excellence in customer service.
Generation of business opportunities
The commercial behavior of our clients, our intermediaries and prescribers, and our competitors thus becomes one of the main keys to the profitable success of companies. If we are able to get to know it thoroughly, we will already have a lot to gain in relation to the concretion in our favor of the preferences of our clients.
Social networks, although used to expand information and detect opportunities, still have a long way to go. 30% of the commercial force uses social networks for this purpose in an integrated way in the system, 25% does so in an unstructured way and 45% does not use social networks to generate business opportunities. Numerous studies show that the use of Social Networks in the commercial process has a strong impact on sales. As an example, a Forbes study estimates that 78% of sales professionals who use social networks achieve better results than those who do not.
On the other hand, the follow-up and attention to opportunities is the majority, 91% state that they do not lose sales by not attending to them, while 9% confirm doing so. Finally, customer information is the key to business, 92% state that customer information is not lost when a salesperson leaves the account.
