Use customer feedback and see the future.
Business owners and managing directors predict the future sustainability of their business by forecasting an increase or decrease of sales.
I would tell any sales proffesiona to use their sales pipeline and sales funnel to aid you in your sales forecast.
Read The Sales Pipeline
But how can you forecast for external factors such as industry trends, product popularity, the way people use and interact with your product or service?
For me, it’s customer feedback.
By regularly asking customers for their feedback on your product and services you’ll quickly see when your consumers are getting bored of your products.
Maybe they are finding that your services aren’t providing the same return as they once were, or when market trends are drifting away from what it is your company offers.
Even the most powerful get it wrong
Over the past several decades we’ve seen many large companies lose market position because they didn’t work with their customer base.
Companies such as Nokias sales declined because of their lack of an efficient operating system, the Nokia 3310 was awesome but outlived its own need.
Sony lost out to JVC in the VHS wars due to trying too heavily to control and regulate the market and did the same with consumer cameras and mobile phones.
And then there are companies that are no longer such as Blockbuster, Woolworths, Toys’R’Us, and Debenhams. All who thought they knew more than their own consumers.
Customer feedback is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to understanding your sector, your weaknesses, and your opportunities for future growth.
Let’s look at how it can help your customers.
Building confidence through reviews
95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase.
Reviews play a large part of your prospects buying cycle and is not something that can be taken for granted.
Reviews work because they give confidence to the prospect in you and your service. They explain how you serviced previous customers and how well your product and service worked for them.
Although the product is important reviews should explain the benefit that product or service has brought that company and more importantly how well you worked with and provided that service.
Most of your services can be provided by your competitors so use reviews to explain how and why your personal approach is different and beneficial to them.
Remember that for every 5 star review, it can increase the likelihood of a prospect buying that service by 270%
Answer your customers questions
Wouldn’t it be great if your customers could answer your prospects questions?
In a previous blog, I discussed the benefits of making customer feedback automated.
Now imagine if your feedback forms are set out correctly and your customers can answer the key questions that your prospects might be asking.
Making those reviews available for prospects to read via social media, on your website, or using third-party websites/apps such as GMB will help sell your products or services.
But if you are able to position Q&As, on your website, in a way that informs the reader, like Amazon successfully does, it can do a lot of the hard work for you.
Upsell or cross-sell products
Maybe you’ve been in a situation where a customer buys a service you offer from a competitor because they didn’t realize you offered the service yourself.
Maybe you’re a marketing agency providing social media support and the customer buys video production services elsewhere.
Or you’re a refrigeration company providing industrial merchandisers and the customer goes elsewhere for blast chillers.
Displaying customer feedback can help.
It can inform your prospects of services and solutions that you’ve provided others without overly selling your services.
Sometimes it’s hard to change the narrative to what the prospect wants, to what they might want, customer feedback offered as reviews can and will help.
Showing customers how other people like them use additional products or services from you will help you sell more.
More The Sales Mindset Coach resources
Join my Facebook Group ‘The Sales Mindset Group’ and interact with me and other like-minded individuals who are on exactly the same journey.
You can also read my latest sales book, Funnel Vision.
