CHAPTER 11

The Borderless Bazaar: Creating a Sense of Community with Your Clients

As we mentioned in chapter 2, today’s marketplace is in the midst of a profound transformation in how sales are generated and sustained, and nowhere else is that more apparent than in the changing relationship between sellers and buyers.

Gone are the days of pure transactional selling. Buyers don’t wait for you to come to them anymore. Instead, they seek what they are looking for. When they’re prepared, they choose to do business with those who best meet their needs. More than ever, the strength of communities determines how successful you’ll be in positioning yourself in the minds of your buyers as that top pick.

That’s why the Leverage state is centered on community building.

History can teach us something valuable about communities. Think back to when you were young and you were enchanted by Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Sinbad the Sailor of One Thousand and One Nights. Commerce in the ancient world of that book took place in the merchants’ bazaar. Bazaars were the places that lay the foundation for the modern marketplaces we know today. Part of their power was in their community structure.

Being part of a bazaar meant that sellers shared what they knew and pooled their resources, as did their customers—banding together into a connection-rich network selling goods and services. Just like the changed landscape of today, this was good news for current clients and new buyers. Whether they needed a merchant, a craftsperson, a food seller, or a banker, someone could confidently connect them to what they were looking for. This was the origin of the referral process, testimonials, and word-of-mouth marketing. From the beginning of history, merchants have been leveraging their connections to find new business.

In other words, success at the bazaar hinged on the relationships forged in the marketplace from these networked communities. The structure of the ancient bazaar matches what I’m seeing in the marketplace today. Today’s selling and buying communities are where relationships get forged. And, to be part of a community requires that you and your client collaborate on communicating value, to help the market grow. In doing so, you expand the community and attract new prospects.

Think about it this way: Building communities helps you to leverage your current clients to find new buyers.

OCCUPY SPACES AND CREATE COMMUNITIES

Today’s bazaar is without borders. This means that buyers all over the world can find what they are looking for in spaces where people congregate. I’m talking about spaces rather than places! Spaces don’t occupy a fixed location, nor do they have limits on who can join or what they can contribute. Spaces can be created online. They can be found in professional associations. And they can be forged in the content that you create for others, addressing topics that people are thinking about. By occupying spaces, what you are doing is creating a sense of kinship and shared purpose among current clients and allowing them to communicate your value to prospects that are also present in the same space.

Choose the spaces where your clients prefer to congregate.

In cyberspace, for example, the Flyer Talk forum is a unique and very active group of frequent fliers from all over the world. People communicate with the forum administrators and others directly about airline policies, programs, seat sections, and destinations. They share pictures, thank-yous, and, of course, complaints. And they tend to associate with others who are clients of their preferred airline. Most importantly, those who love their airline and frequent flier program use this forum to fervently defend their airline of choice, convincing others to join in as well. Because this is a community of peers, all frequent fliers, participants trust the other members’ recommendations and are more likely to do business with new airlines based on recommendations and testimonials. As a frequent flier myself it’s the first place I go for research on a new route I might be flying or when having to choose a new airline. The feedback on the forums has a direct influence on my choice of route and carrier.

In a live environment, Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce Conference has grown to be the “must attend” community event for sales operations for clients of Salesforce.com and for prospects. Once a year, thousands of current clients, as well as prospective clients wanting to learn more about the product, take over San Francisco for this user conference that features best practices from sales thought leaders, exceptional sales teams, and Salesforce.com. They have created a unique physical space as a world’s best learning and networking environment for all sales operations professionals whether they are Salesforce.com clients or not.

Dreamforce has developed a cultlike status within the sales community and many potential customers attend as part of their research and due diligence because they know that they will be able to speak personally with current Salesforce.com customers to receive real-life examples about whether the software is as good as the “sellers say it is.” This community event works to convert prospects because prospects feel they are in control, learning about the software on their own terms rather than being “sold to.”

Communities establish a sense of permanency and socially tested credibility that resonates with prospects. They provide the potential for a Nonstop Sales Boom because they create a steady flow of new prospects that are already predisposed to want to do business with you based on the recommendation of your current clients. There are two different communities you need to develop to fully leverage your clients.

TWO BASIC COMMUNITIES: KNOWLEDGE-BASED AND EMOTION-BASED

The concept of community is built around common values and needs fulfillment. While we can probably cite scores of community possibilities (profession-based, hierarchy-based, affiliation-based, and so forth), the knowledge-based and emotion-based communities will prove vital to your success, and will fill your Sales Radar beyond all others.

Knowledge Communities: United by Information and Experience

Information and field-tested insights are highly valuable commodities in today’s marketplace. People have a hunger for good ideas, and that’s why it’s important to share what you know. I don’t just mean you personally. Sharing what you know applies just as much to groups of people adjacent to your sales organization, such as customer support, marketing, product development, and professional services. Today, many businesses are building knowledge communities to better engage their clients and generate loyalty while also enticing prospects to research and ask questions about their products.

Knowledge communities are spaces where clients can go to learn more about the products they own and how to use them for maximum value. They are also spaces where a prospect can interact with a product before buying. The best knowledge communities contain testimonials and use case studies from real clients showcasing to everyone how the most successful companies are implementing the solutions. They can also include training videos, how-to guides, live discussion, video testimonials, online streaming of live events, and live meetings.

Some companies, for example, software as a service (SaaS) businesses, such as Infusion Software and Salesforce.com, house their knowledge communities in a secure area on their website to control access. They limit premium learning materials to clients only. In these closed-door communities company specialists regularly post videos, publish case studies, develop white papers and e-books, and announce product updates and events—all designed to help software users gain maximum value from their system.

Besides providing exceptional access to the best information, knowledge communities have a secondary value to you, and your clients. They enhance both the tangible and intangible value we discussed in Chapter 8. Tangible value is enhanced because the documents and training are helping clients use the products more thoroughly and thus gain a higher return on investment, and intangible value is enhanced because these value offerings are not available to the public.

While keeping your knowledge community behind closed doors might not seem like the right way to leverage clients, it is in fact a smart strategy for lead generation. Why? Because when current clients are treated as exclusive insiders and receive exclusive benefits they become more successful. And, when they achieve success they communicate more passionately about you publically. Infusion and Salesforce both benefit from a very passionate public constituency of clients that they can leverage to attract new prospects because this constituency advocates on their behalf every day.

Think of your knowledge community as a library or repository of information to ensure the highest value is extracted from your products. Today, the content that you generate for your knowledge community has more than just new-release shelf appeal. It also creates a valuable catalogue backlist—just like a publisher. The more you add to your knowledge backlist—especially if you post your content online—the more valuable the information becomes for your audience today and in the future. Massive knowledge repositories are attractive to your community of clients because they have instant access to the information they need to be more effective.

Ideally, knowledge communities offer the opportunity for clients and prospects to interact with you as well as each other. You can begin by doing all, many, or some of the following—and more.

Host a regular webinar on best practices, announcements, or advanced skills related to your product. These can be recorded and distributed for ongoing use. Consider interviewing a top client during each of the sessions and have them share their knowledge with the attendees. These webinars can be hosted by various experts in your company such as trainers, product specialists, customer support, or the leadership team.

Conduct a series of regional meetings. Before it was bought, restaurant point-of-sales software company Posersa hosted six annual meetings across the country to train its best clients on how to use its system more effectively to generate more restaurant sales. The events were free and provided a chance for clients to interact with each other as well as with company experts to learn to use their systems more profitably. Further, these elite clients were also taught how to attract new diners and grow their business. Finally, in attendance were a small selection of key prospects invited by the local sales team. At these meetings they had the chance to interact with both the clients and the experts presenting.

Client knowledge forums are another type of knowledge community required to create a Nonstop Sales Boom. For example: InfusionSoft, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software company, hosts a support forum for clients to learn about and resolve issues with their software; car enthusiasts attend forums hosted by the manufacturers to discuss enhancements and performance; agroscience companies participate in Ag chat forums to discuss issues around world food supply and grain prices. These communities (forums) are critical to new client attraction because potential buyers are more likely to believe the words of another client than they are a salesperson. My mentor Alan Weiss has perhaps the most effective and dynamic forum in the world for his particular constituency of consultants and professional services providers (AlansForums.com). He has extended this to the mobile world with an app, AlansWorld. One way leverage is achieved in these communities is that existing customers encourage prospects to participate in their programs by discussing the success they have had. You don’t create a knowledge community without your ongoing, active involvement. It’s better for you to be a part of the conversation than separate from it.

Enhancing Knowledge Communities with Expertise

No matter what line of work you’re in, you’ve been honing your professional skills throughout your career and have built up a library of know-how. Multiply that by the number of people in your company and you’re looking at an incredibly deep pool of expertise. On top of that, there are experts outside of your company—consultants, speakers, trainers, authors, and other corporate executives—who complement the work you do and whom your clients find compelling. This expertise enhances your knowledge community by broadening their scope and increasing the value your clients receive from their relationship with you

For example, speakers at the 2013 Dreamforce Conference for Salesforce.com users included Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Deepak Chopra. In 2012 Tony Robbins spoke at the event. These are experts outside of the company whom Salesforce.com users care deeply about. They are also celebrity speakers whom prospects are drawn to.

Other examples of using experts in knowledge communities include:

   Bankers inviting accountants to speak at an event with clients and prospects present.

   Agricultural retailers inviting state agronomists to discuss success on client farms with prospective clients.

   A feed company partnering with a local veterinarian to discuss equine health for thoroughbred breeders.

   A manufacturer partnering with a business coach to help their resellers run more profitable businesses.

   A staffing company interviewing a consultant on teleseminar, webinar, or seminar applications.

   A shipping company holding a seminar for its customers and prospective customers and inviting a customs and brokerage specialist to speak.

The experts in your communities can also be your clients, giving them the opportunity to share their expertise and even to talk about how they have benefitted from doing business with your organization. Prior to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Workopolis (an online jobs database) was awarded the contract to recruit the volunteers for the games. They showcased this work in a case study and invited their client, the vice president of human resources for the Olympics, to speak at a series of cross-Canada events. I attended the event in Ottawa along with over 300 of their clients and prospective clients. What made this event unique was that the room was filled with executive-level buyers (from clients and prospects) who stayed late to engage with the hosts and the speakers. As a result, new prospects entered the Sales Radar and existing client relationships were strengthened, making it easy for the sellers to build community, identify ISOs, and leverage the account for more referrals and testimonials.

Expertise complements knowledge. It adds proof to the promise of good ideas. That’s why experts help nurture client relationships. They enhance trust, proving your competence and adding value so you can build loyalty and leverage your clients profitably.

View yourself not as the center of the knowledge universe, but as an enabler, leveraging the universe of knowledge to reach your clients, improving their condition and enhancing your value to them, and to get them talking to your best prospects.

Emotional Communities: Connections of the Heart

Emotion-based communities provide affiliation and support through common bonding and experiences. Many soldiers, athletes, even students often consider their initial training a “boot camp” or ordeal, which they later take common gratification from (“Remember when we had to go on that 20-mile hike in the rain?” “Do you remember the incredible credit load that first semester?” “We used to train preseason in 105-degree heat”). Personally I notice that my husband, Chris, has a much tighter bond with his college classmates from the small military college he attended than I do with mine (I went to an enormous liberal arts university)—no doubt because of their unique shared experience.

Organizations such as Salesforce.com, Apple, Southwest Airlines, or Ben & Jerry’s have formed these emotionally based communities through distinctive involvement of their client base and a manifest demonstration of listening and interacting.

As we know, people (clients and prospects) line up for hours and blocks just to get a new Apple product before others, and the store sends out coffee and donuts while they wait. The other day I walked by a lineup so large I just had to go in to see what was new … and potentially buy something! That is the power of leverage. Apple’s Genius Bar is a fantastic example of becoming emotionally involved even in the face of an offering’s dire technical problem.

Southwest Airlines customers write letters to the airlines’ president thanking them for their in-flight experiences. Ben & Jerry’s diehard fans drive out of their way to tour the production facilities in a small Vermont town, and Salesforce.com users share success stories publically at the Dreamforce Conference about their switch to cloud-based CRM.

Emotional engagement creates commitment, not merely compliance. When you design the Apple computer online (as people once designed the Dell computer), there is a personalization. Auto companies provide “configurators” that allow the customer to experiment with various color combinations and options online. Airlines provide personal recognition cards for their best customers to present to their favorite employees.

Most important, emotional communities create evangelists, which is a highly visceral and voluntary undertaking. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, they are suddenly stunned by a new insight, and can’t wait not merely to share it, but to convert others. (This is why you should “seed” all hosted events and presentations with your delighted clients.)

Creating evangelists is exactly what the Leverage state is about. The more evangelists you have in the market, the more leverage they create for your business. By evangelizing, not only do they help create loyalty with your existing clients, they attract new clients through word of mouth and the power of their referrals. As a result, these evangelists attract increasing numbers of new prospects into your Sales Radar.

Emotional communities also give you the power of the benefit of the doubt. They forgive errors, mistakes, and omissions. That’s why Apple’s iPhone can have antenna problems without losing sales, but US Airways is blamed for everything from conspiracy to incompetence when one of its flights is delayed or canceled.

CREATE A COMMUNITY OF PEERS

Leverage is further strengthened when you create a community of peer groups by connecting small groups of clients who can help each other succeed. Create a community of peers composed of clients from separate companies who can talk about how they have solved challenges, or how you have helped them make more money, save money or time, or retain their employees.

You can bring peers together in many ways. It can be as simple as taking two clients to lunch so they can meet and talk about their businesses together. Or hosting an advisory group or a user forum specifically with complementary clients (not competitors) in the room. You can bring a small group together to share best practices or case studies, each person underlining the advantage of doing business with you and perhaps even doing business with each other.

Where possible, try to connect peers who could benefit from knowing each other because they might be able to do business together. You will increase leverage, which will lead to referrals, when you retain current clients for a long time. And, what could be better at helping you retain clients than when they credit you for helping them expand their business or find a new partner?

Recently, an Engage client in industrial sales purchased a table for a local high-profile fundraising event. He invited the CEOs of his seven biggest customers to join him at the table and they were able to network with each other. After the event he reported to me that it was a bigger success than anticipated because although they all were CEOs of local companies in similar markets, none of them had ever happened to meet personally. My client had created that opportunity. The connections made at the event strengthened the seller’s community and led to direct referrals to many other—and widely disparate—CEOs with whom these powerful clients thought he should be doing business.

Another Engage client in the business products market makes it a habit to have lunch each week with two clients who don’t know each other but who should. By connecting his clients he creates a small but powerful community that his clients can leverage to create more value in their markets and that he can leverage to more referrals, more testimonials, and ultimately more sales.

These corporate peer connections are invaluable for business to grow. When you facilitate them among your best clients either internally among themselves or externally with partners you create leverage that converts into a Nonstop Sales Boom.

Smart, successful companies today recognize the power that results from bringing people together. They don’t settle for sales teams who operate in isolation. They create communities where everybody can learn from each other and gain from that expertise.

WHY COMMUNITIES MATTER MORE AND MORE

So why do communities matter so much now? Because just like in those ancient bazaars of the classical world, buyers today are looking for more than a transaction: They want to do business with people who can offer knowledge and insight in addition to their products or services, knowledge that will ensure the greatest success in the shortest period of time. The success your clients are demanding can only be achieved if you take the time to build communities. That means putting client needs first: helping them learn and grow and delivering value above and beyond what your product or service provides.

Leverage is created through their success. Success attracts success. Only by making your current clients successful do you attract the best and most interested new prospects.

Consider the following case study, which reveals the power of leveraging community and relationships.

A few years ago, Engage Selling Solutions began working with a small-business telecommunications manufacturing company. At the time their business model hinged on having their clients interact only through their reseller network, and never with the manufacturer directly. As a result, product development stagnated because there was no opportunity for actual users to provide feedback or make suggestions for new features. Any changes to product were made slowly, in reaction to market changes rather than based on client request. With help from Engage, this company decided it was time to do things radically differently.

A senior executive within the firm spearheaded a bold initiative to create a client-focused community. Doing this meant confronting one of their biggest fears—that their clients would just use this new forum as an opportunity to complain about what was wrong with their product.

Instead, three interesting things happened. First, the clients began offering suggestions about product features, leading to entirely new applications that had never been considered before. Second, the company suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves with a wealth of success stories as their customers began to share with them and with each other all the ways that they were using their product. Third, the firm’s clients became deeply loyal, not just because they felt their input was valued, but also because they had a new sense of personal ownership in the new direction of the firm. The outcome of this community and relationship approach was immediate. Referrals skyrocketed, leading to increased sales; and sales boomed nonstop quarter after quarter for several years.

Amazing things can happen when you embrace change as an opportunity to work differently from the past. Find ways to build your own communities. Think about how you can become a trusted part of that borderless bazaar in the marketplace today. Where is your location in the souk?

Return on Customer Relationship: The Value of Clients Beyond What They Buy

Are your communities working to create a Nonstop Sales Boom for you? You can tell by annually measuring your return on client relationship (ROCR).

So what is this ROCR?

ROCR is the true worth of clients beyond simply what they buy. When you calculate this worth and track whether it is growing or shrinking over time you will know if you have achieved leverage or not. Here are the factors that you should consider when determining your ROCR:

1. Total sales. This is the easy one and often the only thing sellers measure. While it’s easy to calculate, it only shows a small portion of the client’s true value. You need to calculate the total value of the client’s original order plus all the incremental sales you have made to them over the years.

2. Referrals. What is the value of all the business they have referred you to? A customer who provides direct referrals for your company multiplies the effect of their purchases. For example, if a customer refers two other customers—whom you didn’t have to pay for to acquire—then they can be worth three times their original sale, boosting their ROCR. Don’t be surprised if you find that the value of the referrals is higher than the total value of the client’s own purchases. I have a client I work with in Louisville, Kentucky, who has only spent $10,000 with Engage directly. But, he has referred over $250,000 of new business to me over the last five years. I consider him a key account! Client retention is the key to repeat referrals. When a seller closes on a piece of business, he or she makes two sales—one is the immediate check and the other is referral business. Too many sellers don’t pay attention to retention and never completely reap the rewards of the second sale.

3. The value of the customer’s brand. While references are the most powerful selling tool that any company has, they are even better if your client has a powerful, well-respected brand. When Marriott became a client of mine at PS Software, their value to me soared because they brought a powerful brand to our client list in a targeted market (major hotel brands) that we wanted to pursue. We actively promoted our work with them and quickly received interest from other hotel chains because of Marriott’s strong brand. At the same time, I was also managing Enron. Their ROCR dropped like a stone when their company was rocked by scandal and investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice that same year. The reputation of your client is critical to creating community. Great clients want to be around other great clients. And, if prospects believe that if you are adding value to already well-respected companies in the market then you will be able to add value to them as well.

The power of your client’s brand has a direct effect on the value of the buzz the client can create for you in the marketplace. “Buzz” or advocacy can be defined as the power for a well-known client to act as a reference, providing testimonials or referrals that make it easier for you to sell. They shorten your sales cycle, ensuring profitability.

Figure 11–1 is a diagnostic that shows your success at creating the best ROCR for each customer. When you plot your clients on the chart based on their retention rate and referral generosity you can see clearly what the ROCR is for each client: high, low, or nonexistent.

Figure 11–1. The Return on Client Relationship Matrix

Working clockwise from the top left of Figure 11–1:

1. If you have a client with low retention but high referrals you have a flash in the pan. This is because the client buys quickly, refers quickly, and then moves on. While you might have a few months or a year of profitable activity it dies off quickly, leaving you an empty space in your Sales Radar.

2. If you have high retention and high referral you have a dynamic client with the highest ROCR. If this client also has a strong brand, then this is a platinum client! These clients buy from you often, refer business when you ask, and also refer proactively on their own.

3. If you have a client with high retention and low referrals you have a missed opportunity. In these cases you have a very loyal client who is not referring. While there may be some very rare cases where the client wants to maintain confidentiality, in most cases I find the reason these missed opportunities exist is because the seller is not asking for referrals. When was the last time you asked your most loyal clients for referrals?

4. If you have a client with low retention and low referrals you have a transient client. They buy from you, keep to themselves, and move on. These clients never become part of your community, stick to themselves, and offer no opportunity for leverage.

Take some time now to diagnosis your top 10 clients. Where do they fit on your ROCR matrix?

Understanding your clients’ ROCR and where they fit on your ROCR matrix will help you understand how much leverage each client is providing you. For example, clients with high ROCR and who sit in the dynamic quadrant of the matrix are your best referral sources. They are those who speak most generously about you and whose success is likely to be shared publically with your prospects. These are the clients who are most willing to advocate on your behalf and fill your Sales Radar with hot new opportunities. These clients need to be rewarded.

Clients that sit in the missed opportunity quadrant are those who can be identified for future leverage. They are willing and able to provide referrals, but you have not fully unlocked their leverage potential! Identifying this group of clients is powerful because you can now put plans in place to ask for referrals and solicit case studies.

On the other hand, with your transient and flash in the pan clients your ROCR matrix shows you clearly those who are never going to be valuable beyond their initial sale. Perhaps, these are not the right types of clients to be attracting in the future. Look at this group closely. Are there commonalities among the clients? Is there a pattern emerging that proves a certain demographic is not the right demographic for your Sales Radar?

 

Selling successfully in today’s tough market is critical to your long-term success. Balancing your sales and service efforts in all four quadrants of the Sales Radar so you place emphasis on both new clients as well as retaining and growing existing ones will make selling a lot easier. This is what creates a Nonstop Sales Boom.

Throughout this book we have talked about what it takes to build up your Sales Radar. Beyond methodical steps what this is really about is building a community where you help make a difference in the lives of your customers and share those successes publically with your market. Leveraging your current clients in turn ensures you will grow your business.

Remember that growth doesn’t happen unless you’ve made a difference to your clients!

Communities blossom where trust is earned and added value is revealed steadily. They are the glue that binds our sales efforts. Work hard to achieve this and your Sales Radar will reward you many times over with a Nonstop Sales Boom.

In Chapter 12 we will look at what is perhaps the most valuable tool in the Leverage state on your Sales Radar, the testimonial.