From selling technology to building customer loyalty

At the 2014 Chief Sales Executive Forum, keynote speaker Kelly Londy, executive vice president and CCO of Accuray, shared her experience in transforming a sales force from pushing product to building customer loyalty…and turning a nice profit in the process.

Some highlights:

• Customer business challenges – Know your customer’s biggest challenges cold. Plan how to make them realize that you can help. For this sellers need stories, cases that articulate what can be done and which offer proof that they have answers.
• Ease the customer experience – Align resources with what matters most to customers. Get the jobs, reporting relationships and metrics right. Create a “happy to help culture.” Make yourself easy to do business with.
• Train and coach for skills that will meet customer needs and build loyalty – Assess the skills needed from top to bottom. Then build the skills that are lacking; reinforce the ones that already exist. Coach in the moment to ensure these skills are honed.

Assume that when a customer says “NO,” you didn’t ask the right question. Come at it from another angle. Make it the sales force’s mission to solve customer problems. That’s hard work, but it is the only way to build lasting customer loyalty.

The illustration below from graphic recorder Kelly Kingman illustrates Londy’s presentation in a most innovative way. Enjoy!

We look forward to sharing more graphic recordings of more keynote presentations from the 2014 CSE Forum in the coming weeks.

Don’t miss the 2015 CSE Forum Series. Reserve your spot today!