Customer Intimacy. Who really cares???!!

When working in Sales or Business development, one listens all the time about the importance of knowing everything about your client. But does it really matter? Have you lost a business that you thought you had because of your great product/service???

In a world that changes constantly and extremely rapid, you need to understand exactly what keeps your customer awake at night, as most likely, it will not be what you think it is, if you don't know your customer well. This is exactly as in your personal life, with your life partner, or any other relative. If you fail to know what is really happening with them, most likely you will be, step by step, increasing the emotional distance that keeps you together.

So knowing your customer intimately is really about reaching out more than just trying to push a new product or service because it fits its operation. It is far more.

How should you take the extra step for that necessary involvement in your customers' business, so they embrace you as a strategic partner? Here are some steps (there are more tough):

1. Know by heart your customer's mission. It is not for fun that companies spend so much time building the Mission statement: what do they want to achieve and how. If you ignore this basic concept, most likely you will be lost. Do your homework by reading and living it to give you confidence when engaging into customer interactions.
2. Understand its competitive environment, and how can you help them succeed to achieve its Mission. Again, just by pushing your things, won't take you there. You really need to make sense when presenting you solution, so your customer will UNDERSTAND the benefit of having it, and HOW it will be beneficial. Nobody really cares about your product, but its benefits.
3. In large corporations, you MUST know who is who. Frequently, when trying to sell your product/service, that you will jump into the formal Decision Maker. Yes, I understand the importance on meeting your quota this month, and trying to shortcut time. But keep an eye: there might be someone in the organization that can be your best ally, and that can bring your solution to the decision maker, smoothly, if he is the right Influencer. On the plus side, you will have more time to spend with the Influencer, as typically will have fewer obstacles to reach vs. the Decision Maker.
4. Keep up to your promises. No matter what, your ambition is not just to win a business, but also to be there, first hand, when your customer needs you again. This is the way to gain space, reduce Customer Acquisition and Costs to make business, and finally, repeat it. This can only happen if you can live up to your deliverables. If you fail to do so, make sure you have a back-up plan, because most likely, it will cost your customer relation, and worse, maybe no more business. Customer expectations and your promised deliverables must be in sync. Otherwise, if you are below its expected outcome, you will have an unhappy customer. Previously decide in agreement with your customer key performance indicators, as objectively as possible, to avoid misunderstandings.

Following these steps, most likely, will put your company at the desired relationship level to be called, instead of "supplier", a true "Business Partner".