Why it pays off to be unreasonable
Personal customer contact is an important factor for Vanessa Weber in acquisition. Here, the impulse blogger explains why she swears by irrationality and picking up the phone.
Young woman in the male-dominated field of
tool trade quintuples turnover after a successful
company acquisition - that's my story in a nutshell.
For myself, what I have achieved in the past ten years was initially not seen as anything special. Yes, the company grew, and yes, the turnover increased. But I was just doing my job.
However, it was not without strategy. There are several reasons why my approach is successful:
1. Irrationality
I still remember sitting in front of the television and watching a report on a regional channel. It was about a corporation that moved with 1000 employees from Hesse to Bavaria. Back then I thought, "They probably still need a tool supplier."
Upon closer inspection, this assumption was rather illogical. A company with 1000 employees surely already has a tool supplier with long-term contracts. Most likely, there are already strong personal relationships with existing suppliers. Nevertheless, I made the call - and indeed, the management was interested.
This showed me that one should do things even when they seem unreasonable. One should do them even when one's own mind and business partners advise against it! Even though it may not always work out perfectly, it is worth breaking patterns and giving chance a try.
2. The Telephone Receiver
In addition to spontaneity, one object, in particular, has helped me succeed as an entrepreneur: the telephone receiver.
One day, I received a large inquiry for a tender from Oldenburg in my email inbox. Full of enthusiasm, I showed it to my father: "Look, a huge inquiry via email."
His sobering response: "It's not worth it. You can throw written inquiries in the trash. Such inquiries go out to hundreds of providers. They mainly focus on the price, which leads to providers undercutting each other's prices. Invest your time in something more meaningful."
But I decided to give it a try anyway. I examined the tender more closely. I thought about changes and questions. Then I picked up the phone. I was lucky to speak directly to the owner. He was surprised at first and then thrilled that I sought a personal conversation. The tender was sent to 50 providers, and I was the only one who called. I presented my proposal to him. He liked it and awarded the contract to us.
Six reasons for direct customer contact
Of course, you can also send your inquiries to customers via email, but then you miss out on direct dialogue. Through a personal call, the presence is much stronger, and the owner had the following experiences with me, which are a great advantage for me:
- Someone responds quickly.
- Someone recognizes my problem.
- Someone understands their craft.
- Someone tries not only to please me or eliminate their competitors by offering a sensational low price.
- Someone who cares about quality - with the benefit for me that it lasts a long time.
- Someone who seeks the perfect solution for my problem.
Seek personal phone conversations
Observe how you, your employees, or your salespeople act. Do you mainly communicate in writing with your customers and prospects, or do you seek direct conversations?
It is very important to build relationships through personal contact. That's why on our website, under each product, there is a note saying "Do you have questions? I am happy to advise you," plus a telephone number. This invites prospects to personal contact and makes each individual feel important to us, more than just any customer.
90 percent of customers actually call before making a purchase - this shows us how much people appreciate this. Of course, it involves binding employees because someone has to answer the calls, but our revenues prove us right with this strategy.
Communicate through the website
Send people you trust or customers you have close contact with and who are not afraid to give you their honest opinion, to your website.
Ask these individuals to visit your homepage as potential customers for your products and ask them if they feel positively and welcomingly addressed by your website, what might be missing, or what makes them want to leave the site as soon as possible.
Because only when you view and evaluate your external appearance through the eyes of the prospect or customer - and yes, it can be painful if the result is less positive than hoped - do you have the chance to make it more customer-friendly.
Conclusion: Being unreasonable in business is often not that bad.
For more information on becoming unreasonable, visit your profile:
http://www.excellente-unternehmer.de/redner/vanessa-weber-werkzeug-weber.html
