7 Steps to Earning More Partners by Shifting Your Mindset
Focus on retaining good customers, convey your value and personalize their experience. Grow your businesses together.
April 3, 2023
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By tailoring your interactions with each customer based on their unique needs, interests and preferences, you can create a more meaningful and enjoyable experience for them. This approach could include personalized product or service recommendations, customized content, or tailored communication channels. Set up quarterly relationship reviews that account for the business as well as the experience and help your customer view you as a business partner rather than a vendor.
Exceptional service is key to building strong relationships. Respond promptly to inquiries and complaints and always strive to find a solution that meets their needs and accounts for the business outlook. Offer multiple channels for customers to get in touch with you, such as email, phone and chat, and take note of what engagement they prefer. When mistakes are made, learn from them, adjust, and communicate the solution back to the customer. Also, track the experience using feedback systems, surveys or measured inquiry and share the results within your team and with your customers.
You’ve heard it before: A little appreciation goes a long way in strengthening your customer relationships. Recognize their loyalty and celebrate their milestones with special offers, discounts and handwritten thank-you notes. Showing appreciation can make customers feel valued and help them form a positive emotional connection with your brand. It also humanizes the experience for everyone.
In addition to your core solutions and services, consider offering adjacent resources your customers would value but may not expect from you. This could be free training, educational materials, exclusive content and access to relevant events. Providing additional incentives and insights further demonstrates your commitment to your customers, opens the lines of conversation, and helps you stand out from your competitors.
Building a sense of belonging around your brand can help you and the company create deeper customer relationships. Encourage them to interact with each other in and around the community, as well as through social media, forums or other online platforms. Offer opportunities for customers to share their experiences and offer feedback, which can help you improve your products and services. By fostering a sense of community, you can create a loyal and engaged customer base more likely to recommend your brand to others.
Ask your customers about their business, their goals, and their challenges. Be interesting to them by showing them you’re interested in their success now and in the future. Pay attention to what they say and how they say it. Listen for opportunities to offer help or support. Stay informed about their respective industries, business changes, challenges, and trends. Be an ally and a partner in their growth.
A managed services provider is not just another vendor selling solutions or even services. You’re a trusted adviser, an insider, and a source of end-to-end solutions that solve real challenges, bolster productivity and create opportunity. According to the LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2021 (registration required), 89% of buyers agree the salespeople they do business with are “trusted advisers.” MSPs who look beyond services and strive to be trusted advisers offer relationships and results.
Bringing more value into your current customer engagements is essential for maintaining strong, long-lasting relationships. It’s also foundational to your business’ growth and will open doors to more actionable dialogue, earned business and, ultimately, introductions to your customer’s inner circle for new opportunities. Word of mouth, whether verbal or written, is still a top draw for new business and what better way to earn new business than to grow with the customers who love what you do and will advertise for you.
Another resource to utilize that touches on this topic is a blog where I address the seven lessons to help you sharpen your sales skills. It identifies habits I’ve learned in many years of customer service and sales success.
Bringing more value into your current customer engagements is essential for maintaining strong, long-lasting relationships. It’s also foundational to your business’ growth and will open doors to more actionable dialogue, earned business and, ultimately, introductions to your customer’s inner circle for new opportunities. Word of mouth, whether verbal or written, is still a top draw for new business and what better way to earn new business than to grow with the customers who love what you do and will advertise for you.
Another resource to utilize that touches on this topic is a blog where I address the seven lessons to help you sharpen your sales skills. It identifies habits I’ve learned in many years of customer service and sales success.
By Stefanie Hammond
Stefanie Hammond
The numbers show it costs managed service providers (MSPs) five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Added to the business case for customer retention is the fact it’s likely more profitable to keep current customers than hunt for and onboard new ones. Studies have shown that, on average, existing customers spend 67% more than new customers, helping to lead to longer-term value. But how do you get there?
The key is to go beyond the traditional mantra of “always be selling.” It’s a volume mentality that works for a time but leads customers to feel targeted versus valued.
For those who are customer-obsessed, the mindset is equally focused but more genuine in nature, taking an “always be earning” approach to the customer experience.
Mindset Shift from Customer to Partner
Both approaches can net sales, but an earned effort can create a better experience and more opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. It should also lead to more referrals and references. It’s that “earning” approach that can help you shift the term, and the mindset, from customer to partner.
With economic uncertainty looming, there’s no time like the present to steer your team’s focus to retention and growth. If IT spending proves to be recession-resilient, MSPs need to be ready. Now’s the time to convey your value, retain good customers and grow your business together. Seven ways to make it happen are in the slideshow above.
Stefanie Hammond is chief nerd at N-able, where she has been leading training programs most recently and previously was principal account manager. You may follow her on LinkedIn or @Nable on Twitter.
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