The Hero of your Film - Your Customer

A common mistake that we all commit is we try to sell our product, and not what the customer wants to buy. In advisory business, positioning yourself or your product before your client is considered a faux pas. Your clients are looking forward to know how their interests are being taken care of, and not how great your product or your company is, even if you have brought the best products of the industry to the table. You must adopt a client centric approach, your clients are the only reason you exist and you have to direct all your efforts to keep him happy and satisfied. However, adopting a client centric approach is easier said than done. It is always more comfortable to talk about yourself, your company and what you have to offer. And moving out of the conventional P's of Marketing to C of the customer requires patience and can come only with time.

Client at the center approach has been adopted by many big companies as well. Let's take the example of an e-commerce company, say Flipkart, they have integrated customer satisfaction at the grass-root level. They are offering a wide choice of products, multiple brands, colours, styles, material of the same product is available, same day delivery options if the customer needs the product urgently, hassle free return and refunds, festive discounts, cash on delivery options, etc. They even surprise the clients with free goodies, quiz, lottery, etc. The recent monsoons have literally lead to floods in Gurgaon, and people are stuck in jams for long hours. Now the e-commerce companies and restaurants are offering discounts specially for the peak jam hours. While you can't move, you can shop and they delight you by offering special 'jam discounts'. They have understood the fact that if they don't care about their customers, they'll fade out eventually.

You can follow these basic steps to inculcate a customer centric approach:

Know your customer: To begin with, you must understand your hero, his skills, his needs, where did he come from, how he views challenges and how he describes success, what are his expectations from you. You should know what has he endured in the past, specifically related to financial losses and what's the reason behind his resistance to a particular product. You have to step into your customer's shoes to understand his behaviour and preferences. The best you can do is research and listen to him carefully, before you present a solution.

Devise a strategy: Once you know what the client wants, you must devise your sales strategy in line with his expectations. Your strategy must be fool proof and focused on meeting the client's requirements. You must be brisk, in the sense that if you have a strategy or a product in mind, however, on meeting the client, you feel that he would not really require it, you must be flexible enough to devise a new strategy quickly.

Create an experience: The time has come to implement your strategy, to leave an experience for the client worth reminiscing. Your interaction with the customer should be such that he is completely immersed in your speech. Is is about customer experience and it can be enhanced by keeping certain points in mind:

• Your speech must be revolving around him, you should be talking about his typical problems.
• You should sound genuinely interested in his problems and concerned about his wants and goals. You have to demonstrate that you'll be there for him in times of need.
• Create a story of his life. Place him at the protagonist's position, bring in a villain i.e. the problems he might face, give him strategies to fight with the villain and portray a picture of him emerging as the winner in the fight I.e, how he fights with the problems and meet his goals with the help of various investments.
• You must speak what he wants to hear; his appreciation and a happy ending.
• Narrate your customers' success stories. You may also also narrate some special moments of your clients, that how their investments helped them achieve something, which could have never otherwise achieved, and how it brought a contented smile on their face.
• Finally, help them understand the gains or losses that they have made. Especially in case of losses, what went wrong and what can be done to rectify it. Show them a ray of hope.

If you are successful in creating a happy investment experience for your client. He'll never go to another advisor, since you have just established a life long relationship with a happy customer. He might also recommend you to his friends and word of mouth is the best marketing strategy after all, while if you are not able to provide a pleasant experience for him, it can go the other way round as well. Remember a happy customer might tell a friend, but an unhappy one will tell the world.

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