Be Customer-Centric or Die | David Henzel - 1498

The Sales Evangelist

It’s the golden rule of life: treat others the way you want to be treated. As sales professionals, you do this by playing the long game, building relationships rather than focusing on the sale. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald interviews David Henzel to learn David’s approach and strategy to being customer-centric in modern selling.

What does it mean to be customer-centric?

• In essence, a customer-centric salesperson sets customers up for success.
• It’s helping your customers succeed (or positioning them to be successful) instead of worrying purely about making a sale.
• Selling out of fear only provides mediocre results. If you sell to make a commission, the customer’s problem might not be solved, and they might not want to be your advocate as readily.

A happy customer tells their friend, but an unhappy customer tells the world.

• To close customer success gaps, you can either write copy on your website to inform potential buyers (as a facet of content marketing) or partner with a sales coach to teach proper outbound messaging.
• To understand your client’s needs, you must play the long game.
• Don’t give the customer what you think they want; find out what they need and give them that.

You’ll naturally get referrals if you sell what the customer needs instead of what you want them to need.

• People won’t typically brag about a platform or service they use, but they will brag about material things.
• Try giving gifts to your clients to generate more referrals and word-of-mouth marketing.
• The key, however, is to give stuff people will use. Otherwise, it’ll end up in someone’s closet (or trash can.)
• If your rapport with the customer is strong enough, simply ask!

David’s major piece of advice: act out of love, not fear. It’ll change not just your professional relationships but your personal ones as well. For more great content from David, check out his podcast How We Solve. The questionnaire on Understanding the jungle that will help understand your customer better. You can also learn more about his portfolio companies on his personal website https://www.davidhenzel.com/, and connect with him on LinkedIn to stay updated on everything he’s doing! (And be sure to mention you came from The Sales Evangelist.)

This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio.

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Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.