Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. He has worked in the stone sector for more than a decade. Here he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market.
Last week while I was walking down Cheapside in The City of London, a poster in the window of Nationwide Building Society caught my attention. The headline read: ‘We continue to invest in our branches because sometimes face-to-face is better’.
It got me thinking about the multitude of options for communicating with our customers.
In years gone by it was a simple choice between letters, phone calls (from a landline!) or visits. Now, in the midst of the digital revolution we can text, email, Skype, Facetime. We can use LinkedIn, Facebook or any one of whole load of other social media platforms. I expect there’ll be even more to choose from in the future.
So choose your weapon carefully – and make sure you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
Do you remember that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones contemptuously shoots his sword-wielding adversary? The man had swung his scimitar with considerable skill and looked to be about seven feet tall. But he had brought a sword to a gunfight. In a sword fight, he would have been the obvious victor. His only problem was Indie had a gun!
In combat, a gun beats a sword, and a sword beats a knife. In business communication face-to-face beats a phone call and a phone call beats writing (yes that includes letters, emails, texts and all the rest of them).
There are times when my suppliers send me long, detailed emails or texts when they should be calling me.
I’m not saying don’t use email, text, social media and all the rest.
I’m saying:
a) Choose a communication method that works for your customer. If he / she texts you – feel free to use text. If they usually email – email them right back. But don’t message them through LinkedIn if they usually call you. That would be a communication mis-match.
b) The more detailed the message, the more personal you should be with your communication method. Written communication is very easy to misinterpret. On a phone you can get the tonality and attitude of the person you’re speaking to in a way you can never do with text or email. And during a face-to-face meeting you will pick up on body language and non-verbal communication that you could never get on the phone call.
I’m not trying to put you off using these digital channels; I use them myself on a daily basis. They give us a great opportunity to attract customers.
But for the most part, they’re less effective for retaining existing customers, particularly if you sell ‘big ticket’ items such as £20,000-worth of natural stone (supply & fix or supply only – it makes no difference) to customers that buy these products and services on an on-going basis.
Key account management needs people. Particularly when you’re dealing with business owners and directors with the ability to make decisions. Regardless of future technological innovations, I don’t think it’s likely to change any time soon.
Even when you have a good relationship with your customer, the occasional face to face visit will help to develop the relationship better than texting, emails and social media alone.