Ask Not What Your Customer Can Do For You…
Ask Not What Your Customer Can Do For You
Relationship management seems to be the singular focus of most industrial marketers today. However, when I talk with colleagues and read about relationship marketing techniques, I can't help but think we're really missing the point. That is, the relationship that you develop with your customer is not for your benefit it is for theirs.
It is unfortunate that so many companies think that a relationship is defined by the number of fields completed in the customer database or number of golf tournaments attended. These supposed indicators are not what make an effective relationship marketing campaign. These are merely some of the tools that are used to collect and store data.
What makes a really effective relationship marketing program is what a company does with the data once it has acquired them. And the true test of whether your relationship marketing elements will be effective or not lies with the customer. In other words, determine whether your program creates some real value for the customer and if you have not created some value in the relationship itself, it's not worth doing.
Take a look at the average sales person turned relationship manager'. Sales people are now encouraged to get to know the buyer and the company he or she is selling to. Take the buyer to lunch or a ball game, ask the plant manager for a plant tour, and record as much information about the account as possible in the contact management database. And what is all that effort used for? Looking for opportunities to sell them more products and perhaps to send a Christmas card once a year.
Granted, many companies are doing more with their data than this. Some are using it in the product development process and some even use it to create communications elements. But relationship marketing won't have a significant impact on the business unless it adds specific and demonstrable value in itself.
For example, when you take a buyer to lunch, what value have you created for the customer? That is, beside some needed calories to write a purchase order that afternoon? That lunch should have a purpose, such as informing the customer about some new products or technologies that will help their business. If you always ask yourself what you can do for your customer, your efforts will show and they will be valued.
While I've focused on relationship management, the same test goes for all of your marketing elements. For instance, some of the best trade advertising is done with very long copy that not only sells but also educates the reader. Industrial buyers appreciate and take note of the value you are providing in your communications.
All marketers have, at one point, written a features and benefits list for their various products and services. My challenge to marketers is to do the same exercise with the marketing campaigns themselves. For instance:
Feature: Most knowledgeable sales force in the industry.
Benefit: Personal application support that is available everyday.
Feature: Monthly advertising in industry trade magazine.
Benefit: Reliable source of up-to-date product and application news and information.
If you go through this exercise with each element of your marketing program, you will likely find a number of items that really shouldn't be there anymore. Using this rationale, I have opted out of many trade shows that haven't really been providing value. And for those shows I continue to attend, I never support handing out trinkets that are irrelevant to my customers' business.
Think for a moment about the power of this mindset. Instead of going onto a sales presentation thinking about how to close the account, you will be thinking about ensuring that the customer is better off having sat through the presentation. Your brochures are not specification sheets, but a collection of ideas. And your web site is a resource center, not a catalogue.
It is most useful in analyzing your advertising. The next time your ad agency pitches some creative, ask what value it creates for your customer. You will know very quickly if the creative team was really thinking about the customer or just what looked good.
The bottom line here is that the marketing department is a value creating function of the business as much as any other. We are not here just to get orders since there is an easier way to achieve that dropping your price. The key to a high-margin, loyal customer base is a focused and all-consuming commitment to creating value for those who pay the bills.
(originally published in The Industrial Marketing Practitioner, September 2000)
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