How to Empower Your Customers

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A lot of the high-pressure sales tactics of yesteryear say that the salesperson should always be in control, be all-knowing, and most importantly, always be closing. 

Realistically, using brute force to get to the sale isn’t going to work too well in  B2B sales. That is not to say that a salesperson shouldn’t guide the customer, and direct the conversations to stay on track, but the “always be in control” mentality won’t serve you well in the long run. 

Rather, the salesperson should always try to put the customer in a position of empowerment by letting them seemingly call all the shots and make the decisions. 

Sure, but how are you supposed to do that? 

Make Them Part of the Decision Making  

I know, I know! This sounds absolutely dreadful because the customer will just say, “no”, right?

Not exactly! 

What I mean by making them part of the decision making is to always put the ball in their court when the opportunity presents itself. This could be anything from scheduling a future meeting, or figuring out when you should call them back. 

For example, let’s say you’re working on a really great project with a customer, and they are totally on board with everything. Then, they get distracted by another project that is taking priority over yours. 

Rather than trying to grab their divided attention and continue on with the project anyway, you could try saying, “hey customer, while you’re working on that other project, why don’t we put this one on hold so you can focus on the priority. When would you like me to call you back?” 

First of all, you are showing them that you respect their time and are willing to give them some space while they are busy. That’s always a plus. 

But, rather than just waiting a couple weeks, and trying to get them back on the phone randomly, you can simply ask them when you should call back! Now it’s their decision when you get to speak again, and they’ll be more willing to take your call then. 

If you want to get fancy, you could even ask them if they want to schedule a date and time and get it on the calendar! That will significantly increase the chances of getting them back on the phone!

That was just a very simple way you can make the customer part of the decision making process, and we could always brainstorm a few more if you want to send me a message on LinkedIn!

Tell Them They Are Right

You obviously already know that the customer is always right. If you’re good, you make sure to show them that. If you’re great, you actually tell them!

This is a rather straightforward one, but the point is to verbalize the fact that they are right. Generally speaking, people have a fear of being wrong. That includes customers as well. 

For example, let’s say that a customer calls you because their order is delayed. This is just hypothetical, of course, because your customers’ orders are never delayed, right?

You get the call and they’re pretty pissed off since the delay is holding up a project their boss is screaming at them to complete by the end of the week. 

We can make this situation even worse for the customer… 

Let’s say you look into it, and the order isn’t delayed at all! It was never actually scheduled to ship until the following week, but it’s just that your customer needs the parts now, and they got confused and thought it was meant to arrive by the time they called you. 

Well, guess what? Remember how I said people have a fear of being wrong?

Do you think your customer would be just a little bit afraid of being wrong about the ship date and being responsible for delaying their own project?

In this case, your response could simply be, “you’re right, this is ridiculous. Let me get on the phone with the factory and sort this out for you…” 

You could have easily told them that the order was never scheduled to ship until the next week, but how well do you think that conversation would go? They would probably get even more upset, and they will most likely ask you to try and ship it sooner anyway. 

So, beat them to it, and offer up the solution before they can even ask for it. While you’re at it, you can also tell them what they want to hear; they’re right!

Ask For Their Expertise

This is one of my favorites, personally. I’m just a curious person in general, so I tend to pick someone’s brain if they know a lot about a certain subject with which I am not too familiar. 

Asking for their opinion also falls under this category! I’ve said it before… people are generally opinionated and they love to voice them. So, asking their opinion will actually get them talking, and you will have a more meaningful conversation. 

Through the course of any conversation with a customer, a topic or subject will come up with which you won’t be too familiar. Well, since you should always be curious anyway, you should also ask them to explain something you don’t understand! 

People typically respond well to this, and they will try to help you understand what they’re talking about. Not only do you get to treat your customer empathetically, but you get to learn something at the same time! 

Another way I use this tip is for selling purposes! 

For example, let’s say there’s a new product I’m selling, and it’s something that I genuinely think a customer of mine would be interested in buying. I will call them up, and “pitch” the product like, “hey customer, thought you would appreciate this. We have this new product and it… and I just wanted to know what your thoughts are on it. Do you think this would be useful for somebody to have?” 

I’m not necessarily asking if they’re interested in buying it, but just asking them if they think it would be useful for somebody else. Chances are, they will see some sort of value in the product, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked their opinion anyway!

However, in the process of explaining to me why somebody else may use it, they are also convincing themselves why they should use it themselves. Think about it. They are probably thinking about the problems it would solve for them in order to create a scenario for the “someone else” I asked them about. 

More importantly, you are asking for their opinion. Their expert opinion, and people love that feeling. It makes them feel like an authority figure in the subject, and making the customer feel good about themselves is what putting them in a position of empowerment really means! 

Empathizing With Their Situation 

This is geared toward customer complaints or issues. There is almost nothing worse than an angry customer. I mean, can you think of anything worse? Maybe a lost customer, yeah?

Anyway, customer complaints are pretty much a guarantee, but they aren’t the reason for a customer disbanding their loyalty. It’s almost never about the actual mistake that would make a customer leave. It’s almost always what you do, or don’t do, to resolve their issue that really matters. 

Let’s take a look at a very common customer complaint. Let’s take a look at a price increase complaint. As a manufacturer, it happens. Costs go up, so prices must go up! It’s just the natural order of things. 

When a company implements a price increase, there is almost always going to be a few customers who call in to complain about it, or ask if the old pricing can be honored for an upcoming project. 

Your business may be different, but I work with an extremely long sales cycle. A lot of times, the quotes I send out are for projects that won’t close for another 6 months to a year. 

So, when we have price increases, a lot of people get worried that when the project finally drops, the cost of the project will go up, and then even more people will be upset. 

So, how do I personally handle this situation when a customer calls up and complains about a pricing increase?

Well, I could say, “we haven’t raised prices in a couple years, so I’m sorry, but it is what it is”, but do you think that would make the customer feel good? Would that put the customer in a position of empowerment? 

No, it wouldn’t. What that response would do is simply open a can of worms that will lead to an argument and an upset customer. That’s NEVER the goal of sales. 

Rather, I will typically respond with, “you’re right, it’s less than ideal to raise prices right now, but my hands are tied. If this is going to cause an issue with your project or customers, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do to honor the pricing on the quote I sent you.” 

So, what does that response do? 

Well, first of all, I told the customer they are right. They love that! I also validated their experience, and offered to make it right without making any promises. No, that response doesn’t instantly solve the problem, but it certainly makes the customer feel better about the issue, and they now know you are on their side and will build a strong case for management to honor the “old” pricing. 

There is a major difference between the two example responses we went over. 

In the “bad” example, I apologized to the customer, but didn’t offer a solution. I tried using sympathy to solve the problem. 

In the “good” example, I used empathy, and offered them a potential solution to the problem, again, without making any promises I wouldn’t be able to keep. 

There are plenty of other ways you can empathize with a customer’s situation, and it usually involves saying things like, “you’re right”, “that must be difficult to deal with”, or something similar to that. Basically, you want to avoid saying, “I’m sorry”. 

Use empathy, not sympathy! 

CONCLUSION 

While the salesperson is responsible for guiding the customer through the buying process and leading any meeting or conversation to stay on track, that does not mean the customer can’t be given the opportunity to be in control as well! 

At the end of the day, they want to buy your product to help themselves, solve a problem, or complete a project. Regardless of what you sell, ideally, your product serves the customer in some way. 

So, if your product is meant to serve the customer, shouldn’t they be the one making most of the decisions during the purchasing process? 

Bottom line is, by putting the customer in a position of empowerment, and validating their thoughts and experiences, you will make the customer feel good about doing business with you as a person. It makes for a more harmonious buying process, and your customer will tell others to check out your product and encourage them to do business with you. 

That type of customer referral is the most powerful resource available to a salesperson. 

If you’d like to come up with some other ways that you can help put your customers in a position of empowerment, just send me a message on LinkedIn, and I’d be more than happy to help!