He began his career in IT industry at Xerox Computer Services as application support. Later Mike founded and grew one of the most successful virtual businesses in the B2BB2B B2B is an acronym for Business-to-Business, a model for selling, relationship-building, or engagement. arena.
In January 2013, he founded Mike Bosworth Leadership in which he provides keynote speeches, workshops and executive coaching.
CustomerCentric Selling and Pipeliner CRM
CustomerCentric Selling, developed by Michael Bosworth and outlined in his book with that same title, seeks to empower salespeople in today’s world of web-enabled and educated buyers. The age of the “productProduct Product refers to anything (an idea, item, service, process or information) that meets a need or a desire and is offered to a market, usually but not always at a price. pusher” is long gone—today salespeople must be collaborative consultants.
Through CustomerCentric Selling, the seller is ready and able to serve such buyers—to reach them when they are ready to buy and create a superior customerCustomer Customer is an individual or an organization that purchases a product or signs up for a service offered by a business. experience.
CustomerCentric Selling consists of eight crucial aspects for success:
- Instead of making presentations, salespeople should create conversations around situations.
- Instead of offering opinions, salespeople should ask relevant questions.
- In addition to cultivating a relationship, the seller should primarily focus on the solutionSolution Solution is a combination of ideas, strategies, processes, technologies and services that effectively helps an organization achieve its goals or hurdle its challenges. or solutions to the buyerBuyer A buyer is an individual or organizational entity that purchases a product or subscribes to a service.’s issues.
- In qualifying, salespeople should target decision-makers as opposed to users.
- In order to garner interest, salespeople should promote product usage instead of simply the product.
- Quantity versus quality: salespeople should strive to be the best sellers rather than the busiest.
- The sales cycleSales Cycle Sales Cycle is a repeating process characterized by a predictable sequence of stages that a company undergoes as it sells its products and services to customers. should follow the buyer’s timeline rather than the seller’s.
- Instead of convincing buyers to purchase, salespeople should empower them to buy.
In CustomerCentric selling, a sale must result in one of three ends: the buyer achieves a goal, a problem is solved or a need is satisfied. If the product or service doesn’t fulfill any of these, the salesperson should walk away from the deal.
Pipeliner CRM Enables CustomerCentric Selling
CustomerCentric Selling requires an exact sales process and a precise methodology for moving prospects through each stage of that process.
A CRM solution, to meet the needs of CustomerCentric Selling, must be extremely flexible. Additionally, it should be highly visual and intuitive so that no sales velocity is lost due to CRM.
Pipeliner is instantly customizable to a company’s specific sales processSales Process Sales Process is a series of strategic steps or a set of activities aimed at driving sales growth through the alignment of personnel, market insight, methodologies, relevant business units, and technology., and also for the tasks and activities involved with moving that opportunity through each stage. All of Pipeliner’s functionality is aligned so that salespeople and sales managers are able to monitor and control all opportunities, without losing track and without missing any vital steps.
Find out how Pipeliner CRM can totally empower your CustomerCentric Selling efforts. Try our free trial.