Create memorable experience for your customers

I’m really excited about the changes I see in the business world. More and more businesses are realizing that the key to long term relationships is to act from a core belief that customers matter, not just their wallets. They seek to make an emotional connection with their customers, to give them a memorable experience.

“Connective Marketing” Webinar Detailed Marketing Changes

Renee Miller and Bill Williams of The Miller Group put on a free webinar yesterday for the Los Angeles Region of the California SBDC. In their excellent presentation, "Connective Marketing: A Culture of Intimacy," they presented both figures and stories to reinforce their message: marketing is changing radically. Bill called it a secular change. I call it a paradigm shift. In other words, whereas fads come and go quickly, this change will spread and become stronger.

Customers Love Those Who Care and Connect

People want to make connections. They want to do business with vendors and merchants who actually understand them and care about helping them. They want the approach soft sell salespeople and marketers use, a way of doing business that respects prospects and involves them in developing solutions to fit them. Customers want to be in communities of like-minded people. We all hunger for emotional connections and memorable experiences.

To Have a Memorable Experience, Try Cruising

Dorothy and I love cruises because everyone makes an effort to ensure that we have a vacation to remember fondly. The cabin stewards elevate making up your cabin again and turning the bed down before you return from dinner to a higher level by creating a different towel animal to greet you every night with your chocolates and next day’s program. The waiters find out what your food sensitivities are and seek to provide substitutes so you have as complete a selection as possible. For instance, on the Disney Magic a couple years ago, the waiter had the kitchen provide wheat-free and salt-free dinner rolls for my sister-in-law because of her sensitivity to salt.

How Soft Sell Sales and Marketing Look in the Real World

The point here isn’t to create towel animals for your customers. The point is to find a way to show customers you care about them, above and beyond their value to your wallet. Here are some examples to show how soft sell sales and marketing look in the business world:

• Taco Real on Airway in El Paso redefined Mexican food for me. Taco Real’s buffet is different because it goes beyond tacos, burritos and enchiladas. They serve chili rellenos, vegetables and ribs. And the owner, Hector takes pride in getting to know his guests. I feel like part of the family when I eat there.
• Airstream Travel Trailers — Although I’m not into travel trailers, I have heard for years that the owners had a community of their own. I just found a website for the Vintage Airstream Club.
• Industrial Sales Example — I previously wrote about my client’s employee, Jeremy, who told me about a sales rep he worked with at another company. This sales rep who told Jeremy, an engineer, that he had nothing in his line which would work as well as a competitor’s product for that particular application. Jeremy said he was so impressed by his rep’s honesty and concern for their interests that they tried to redesign so as to use this rep’s product. That salesperson demonstrated the true meaning of soft sell sales. And as a result, he earned a really loyal customer.

Soft Sell Sales Are Fun, Fulfilling and Mutually Rewarding

Smart companies strive to create communities. They are going beyond listening to their customers by actively engaging them. They ask questions to really understand what’s important to their customers and co-create the solutions. Soft sell sales and marketing go beyond gimmicks and techniques to mindsets that really care about connecting emotionally and developing long term relationships. They want to help their customers get memorable experiences from buying, again and again. For the soft sell salesperson, sales are fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding.

If you have a memorable experience in business or in your personal life you could share, please post it in the Comments.