Do you know who your customers sell to? You might say they don’t have customers, but stop and ask yourself, “Why are they buying from me?” Everyone serves someone, and who they serve is their customer.
A few years ago I was in China talking to the owner of a manufacturing facility, and I asked him who his customers sold to and he responded he didn’t know. He immediately shared with me how he didn’t need to know, as his job was to sell as cheap as possible.
Are you guilty of not knowing who your customer’s customers are? Clearly this Chinese business owner didn’t know. To him, selling cheap was the only thing he needed to know.
Check out this 43-second video where I share about a Chinese business owner:
If we fail to dig deep into understanding who our customers are serving, we will never be in a position to pro-actively help our customers. You owe it to your customers to help them by bringing knowledge to them that will allow them to take advantage of changes in the marketplace.
If we fail to do this, we’re telling ourselves we’re happy being on the backend of what happens in the marketplace. Being on the backend means we will be more reliant on having to offer price reductions like the Chinese business owner.
When we bring knowledge and insights to our customers, we are increasing our value. And when we increase our value, we become less reliant on price.
Don’t think for a moment there’s nothing you can share with your customer about their customer. You’ll be surprised at what they themselves don’t know, and you’ll be surprised at how much they respect you.
Copyright 2017, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
2 Responses
Great post, very inspiring. Thinking that one level deeper to gain more insight into your customers needs, to fill his customers needs.
That’s insightful, Mark. I feel as though there are great products from China that could be reasonably priced a little bit higher, but them not understanding their market hurts their profits unnecessarily.