Patrick McFadden — April 20, 2017 Constantly seeking feedback from your customers!
Customer feedback has always been like a secret cash hideout. Generally, when entrepreneurs and business owners talk about marketing, they only talk about direct mail, email, copy, Facebook, LinkedIn and promotions — you know, more tactics.
But many ignore that Customer Feedback is actually a very indispensable step, where you can learn how to market your business more effectively = boost sales.
Before you determine whether Facebook is better for your organization than LinkedIn or if direct mail is still an effective way to boost sales, start at the point where you will ultimately create the greatest possible impact — strategy!
Listening is the best way to develop strategy
Everyone knows they should develop a marketing strategy before diving into to every tactical marketing effort they can. The problem is, few can tell you how to do this because any real marketing strategy is highly personal and involves your:
- customers
- market
- competitors
- suppliers
- products
- services
The best way to approach discovering a strategy for your marketing, and perhaps all of your communications, is to listen really, really well.
Customer feedback interviews are one of the greatest listening tools on the planet. Your customers are telling you about what’s truly important, they’re telling about what they like about your products and dislike about the competition, they’re telling you what they wish someone would make — and now you can hear it.
Effective sales and marketing decisions
What products and services to offer, how much to charge, where to advertise — all should be based on customer feedback. After all, you’re not going to boost sales if you don’t offer something customers want to buy and show up in the pathway that they purchase.
Get better and plug gaps
What kind of feedback should you get from customers? There’s no limit — it can be any kind of information that would help you get better and plug sales and marketing gaps. Get started with these 5 questions:
- Why did you decide to hire us or buy from us in the first place?
- What’s one thing we do better than others you do business with?
- What’s one thing we could do to create a better experience for you?
- If you were to refer us what would you say?
- Can you tell me about three other companies that you love?
Far too often businesses create advertising campaigns around irrelevant pain points and features, referral programs that don’t create referral motivation, and optimize their websites around industry specific jargon and terms when their ideal customers really pay attention, engage and respond to other communicating factors.
Remember, asking for feedback is indispensable, but it’s just the first step. To truly help your sales and marketing strategy, make sure you listen to customers’ responses and find ways to implement their suggestions.
Don’t skip this listening (strategy) step for tactics!
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