The authors of “Selling in the Age of Ceaseless Change: The 2018-2019 Sales Performance Report” discovered that customer centricity is key to sales success. They introduced three main characteristics of a successful sales organisation:
- Having a customer-centric culture
- Sales processes that are dynamically aligned with the customer’s purchase path
- Ability of salesmen to provide insight and perspective to customers.
Companies displaying these successful sales characteristics had deeper customer relationships and more formal sales processes, according to Seleste Lunsford, one of the authors. “The most successful companies aligned everything they did to the way customers made decisions, looking at what the customer is doing and developing strategies to help them make the purchasing decision,” she states.
The understanding of customer centricity has changed quite over the years. In the past organisations focused on the sales culture – the way salesmen treat their customers. Today, companies need to learn that co-creation is a demand of most customers. It is not enough just to treat customers in the right way. Organisations need to find ways to integrate the customers into the value creation process. It is not about a deal anymore – it is about a longer relationship that two partners want to influence. Successful organisations today also start to build customer relationships earlier in the sales process and attempt to continue the relationship with the customer after the completion of the initial sale.
To improve lead generation, the authors recommends that organizations focus on data-driven approaches, including establishing a common understanding of effective collaboration, using scoring models, integrating prospecting, and getting prospecting right.
If customer centricity is defined in that way, the authors conclude, customer centricity is the key to sales success
