The True Currency of Guided Selling Is Trust

Louis Columbus
Cincom Systems

From the first bid, estimate or quote produced to the accuracy of each order status update, to the delivery of the finished product, trust is the fuel guided selling strategies run on.

Violate it once and you may have lost it forever.

Exceed it, respect it – and customer loyalty can happen.  Trust is the fuel, the catalyst, the currency that makes guided selling strategies succeed.

Growing Trust through Accuracy

In essence a build-to-order or product configuration strategy is one of the greatest commitments any company can make in these times to its customers.  It is a promise to tell a customer they can have a specific version of a product, customized version of a service, specifically tailored to their needs.

Guided Selling systems have to deliver on that promise daily.

Clearly guided selling and product configuration strategies require companies to wade into the deep end of the trust pool – and stay there.  It’s no secret we live in cynical, skeptical times – with good reason because so many firms, especially those financial services promising so much and delivering so little.

Trust: The Strongest Differentiator of All

What if your company really does want to go into the deep end of the trust pool, stay there, excel there, and grow a reputation for exceptional performance there?  Even in cynical, skeptical times where schadenfreude seems way too commonplace for anyone’s good – why take the risk?

Because once you earn trust you have earned the strong differentiator of them all.  Price will never replace it, and no amount of adjective-laden hype can either.

Lessons Learned

So how are companies creating trust, even in these cynical times, through the use of guided selling and product configuration?

• Make each step of manufacturing transparent.  Give customers the opportunity to check on the status of their orders 24/7. This is a much simpler application to create than a distributed order management system for example, or even online ordering.  Invest the time with internal programmers and do it.  Give visibility freely about order status.  Earn trust through being open about orders and where they are.

• Go hunting for broken processes that cause your customers pain, from user interface design to the really big issues like service management and have no mercy on them. In this economy customers don’t complain they go to your competitor and get better pricing to jump suppliers.  Go hunting regularly for what makes you a pain to do business with.  Have no mercy on these processes as if you are just finding them they have already lost you customers.

• Put some C-level weight behind new ways to listen. There is so much hype about social networking right now and the collaboration it can provide, but all of that is meaningless unless companies actually adopt the technologies and make a difference in their customer relationships with them. Be smart and use social networking apps to connect with and provide exceptional service to your customers.

Realizing that how a company sets and keeps commitments is their greatest differentiator of all puts product configuration strategies into an entirely new light – at the deep end of the trust pool.

Bottom line: For those companies who have decided to excel at keeping commitments and earning trust, attaining best practices in guided selling and product configuration is the way to do it.

Flickr attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600072071@N01/22226879/

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