Would Your Customers Be Willing To Pay For that?

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

No business is completely free of dysfunction and most of us try our best to be both efficient and effective at work, but we’re also human and we fall short. However, sometimes we can spend too much time on things that aren’t really serving our customers.

The fact is, by paying for our products and services, our customers are funding our business. Unless you’re a start-up with an angel investor or support from a private equity firm, our customers’ purchases fund our operations, pay for our facilities, help us invest in research, and provide for our employee wages and benefits.  

Aren’t we called on to be good stewards of those funds? On any given day, how much of our time is spent doing things that benefit our customers?

One way to help us answer that question is to imagine our customers, or buyers, at work with us. Whether you’re brainstorming a new product idea, finding ways to simplify the proposal process, or considering raising prices, how would it go if your customers were in the room?  

Would you still give that “always be closing” speech each Monday morning to your sales team? How about that guidance to only offer discounts to the big, well-known brands because we really need them? Or what about those fabricated deadlines to create urgency?

Buyers aren’t so naïve to think those things don’t happen and that they are condoned and even directed by business leaders at times. But customers also want to believe that their business partners are better than that and don’t we all want to be better than that?      

So, the next time you feel like having an hour-long debate between marketing and sales over lead attribution, imagine one of your customers sitting in the room. And ask yourself, “is this something they would be willing to pay for?”

I hope you have a great week!