Building Customer Loyalty

The key to success in sales is to develop strong relationships with clients. Focus on how you can solve the customers problems and listen intently to their needs. Fill customer needs and strategize with them to build loyalty.

By Kelly Burkart, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: March 15, 2008 - 5:13 PM

What do you do after you land a big sale? The first answer that comes to mind might be to celebrate, but remember, in sales, success breeds success, particularly when you learn to build loyalty in the sales relationship with your customers.

Follow Up

Most initial sales promise to solve a short-term, critical problem for the customer. Before you consider the sales cycle complete, however, you should have a plan for developing loyalty in that customer relationship, suggests Tim Murray. Murray is president of the Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based company that provides sales training and sales skills certification.

"The best way to deepen the sales relationship and create loyalty with a customer is to do what you did to earn the business in the first place," Murray explains. "On every call, you should learn about the customer's needs, present solutions and gain agreement to move forward."

Ask Questions

Murray trains salespeople in the Action Selling method, which encourages asking open-ended questions that help customers reveal their greatest and most significant needs.

"Open-ended questions are the crowbars of the mind," says Murray. "You can get a tremendous amount of information and identify a significant number of needs by asking questions like: 'How confident are you that you'll achieve your sales target this year' or 'What are the most significant challenges your department is facing this year?'"

Murray advises salespeople to listen twice as much as you speak. The sale isn't about your needs, but your prospects and customers. You should pay close attention to their comments and repeat back what they've shared in order to confirm that you've understood them correctly.

Establish A Partnership

As you learn more about your customers' problems, you'll see more ways to solve them with your products and services. "True customer loyalty is moving from being a product or service provider to a strategic partner," says Murray. As you establish the credibility of a trusted consultant, customers will more likely welcome introductions of new products or services as well as upgrades and add-ons that make sales more profitable.

Demonstrate your insight by describing products and services in the context of how they meet the customer's needs. Avoid laundry lists of facts. Instead talk about what you and your customer can achieve by working together toward the same goals.

Earn New Opportunities

"If you feel that you've exhausted sales opportunities with a customer, ask what other departments or companies might benefit from your product or service," says Murray. "Loyal customers are more than happy to help you expand your business."

Finally, Murray advises, "If you approach every follow-up sales call as a chance to build loyalty, the natural outcomes will be referrals, up-selling and cross-selling. That's because genuinely loyal customers have stopped shopping and have become your business partners, too."

Kelly Burkart is a Twin Cities-based freelance writer.

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