How do you build customer loyalty, especially when today’s financial climate makes winning new sales more difficult than ever? This is a serious issue integrators struggle with on a daily basis, particularly considering the time, effort, and resources necessary to establish a new customer.
Why You Lack Customer Loyalty
The mainly transactional sales model most integrators still use is the largest contributor to this struggle. That sales model is the historical approach of providing a proposal of itemized parts and pricing with the expectation that the customer will write a check for an upfront purchase of the solution. Customers know they can get the same cameras, storage devices, VMS, and other components from any reputable integrator. It is no wonder they get several quotes, ask everyone for their best pricing concessions, and in large part treat the entire solution process like a commodity purchase. If an integrator is lucky enough to win a sale, they rarely if ever have a multiyear service component included and so customer engagement ends immediately after install completes.
Why You Must Change Your Sales Model
To win and retain customers, smart integrators have recognized that the marketplace is changing in several ways that creates an opportunity to remove themselves from this old school commodity sales approach. Why is it important to shift your selling approach:
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Ownership is becoming less important for many customers.
Over the years they have become disenchanted with several iterations of technology solutions that they own but continue to replace as needs and technology advance. -
We have become a subscription economy.
Even to the extent that organizations are implementing commercial use technology solutions via use based monthly payment programs.
So those smart integrators have flipped their sales models from selling a cash purchase-to-own solution, to selling a subscription payment-to-use solution. This sales approach is much more conducive to recommending a comprehensive bundle of hardware, software, install, potential obsolescence protection, ongoing support and other services. Furthermore, the integrator can now keep customer attention on value and outcomes rather than have them hung up on the per unit cost of 7 cameras or a cheaper model of server.
Cultivating Customer Loyalty
While the subscription approach becomes a great differentiator upfront, it is even more powerful with regard to cultivating customer loyalty. The reason is obvious and logical. Some form of multiyear maintenance, support, monitoring, concierge, or other integrator services are built into the monthly subscription payment by design. This creates ongoing customer engagement at least for the term of the subscription. Often, this engagement also results in customers presenting other needs to the integrator to solve. Ultimately, the combination of service engagement and additional opportunities creates a deeper, broader relationship that is rarely possible with cash sales.
Interested in learning more about how to execute this sales model shift? Read more here:
