Thinking

Maximising customer satisfaction

Written by The Clarasys Team | July 21 2015

We all know that selling to an existing customer is easier and more profitable than gaining a new one.

However, many companies we speak to express frustration at the fact their sales teams are hindered in their efforts to do this.

The reasons can be quite broad and varied, but usually boil down to a lack of appropriate data or an inability to access it. For example, it’s easy to see what a customer has already purchased. What you don’t have is enough information to understand which other products could be relevant and whether they’ve already been offered them. Another common issue we come across is specific to organisations that have recently undergone a merger or acquisition. In these cases, the sales teams from what were originally two different companies simply don’t know about, or fully understand the new products, services and customers now available to them.

So how can you help your sales teams sell more?

At Clarasys we start our consultation with a completely open mind. We listen to the problems and concerns of the different stakeholders and to what they think the causes are. Then we go back to basics and review the complete end to end marketing, sales and billing process. By doing this we can examine how systems, processes and people interact. This highlights where the problems really lie and often this is not where the client initially assumed.

Once the problems have been recognised we can start to devise the remedies and required actions. For each action we will look at:

  • The effort required to complete it
  • The value it will produce
  • The problems caused by not completing it
  • Any dependent activities that will be affected, either for better or for worse

By rating activities on these four factors we can create a roadmap for implementation where benefits are quickly obtained and the final solutions are long lasting, producing real value.