We’ve all been there before when we’ve realised the biggest and most common mistakes when understanding your customers, and to make it easy for you, let’s switch places for a moment.

We’ve all been customers. In fact, we are customers every single day. Research shows the average person spends up to 3.5 hours per week shopping, either online or in person. All this time is interaction as customers.

So thinking about this, what is your pet peeve when being ‘sold to’ by a salesperson? The top response of customers we surveyed told us that they didn’t like being treated like just another sale. The customers told us that they are individuals, with different ideas, needs and thoughts, so why is the salesperson trying to sell me the same thing as the person in front of me.

This leads me to the biggest mistake when understanding your customers, is assuming you know what your customer wants when they haven’t told you. If you haven’t asked the questions, you haven’t earned the right to proceed with the sales call situation because you really don’t know the needs of your customer.

Assume

verb

1. suppose to be the case, without proof.
   “topics which assume detailed knowledge of local events”

Synonyms: presume, suppose, take it, take for granted, take as read, take it as given,

presuppose, conjecture, surmise, conclude, come to the conclusion, deduce, infer, draw the inference, reckon, reason, guess, imagine, think, fancy, suspect, expect, accept, believe, be of the opinion, understand, be given to understand, gather, glean

Without questioning, you have no knowledge of what where they are now and where they want to be, so you know how you can ‘fill the gap’ between ‘here’ and ‘their chosen situation’ or their ideal outcomes.

Knowledge

noun

1. facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
   “a thirst for knowledge”

synonyms: understanding, comprehension, grasp, grip, command, mastery,
apprehension;

Remember, your customer is the reason we need salespeople, they are the ones who buy our good, services and wares. Without them, we wouldn’t be in business.

Customer

noun

1. a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.

“Mr. Harrison was a regular customer at the Golden Lion”

synonyms: shopper, consumer, buyer, purchaser;

1. a person of a specified kind with whom one has to deal.
   “He’s a tough customer”

synonyms: person, individual, creature, fellow, man, woman;

Thinking that you know what your customer wants is a rookie salespersons’ biggest mistake. Even if they’ve done it this way for xx years, doesn’t mean its how it will always be. They need you to keep up-to-date with the changes happening in their world, just as quickly as they are going through them. The best way of keeping yourself up-to-date is to strategically align yourself with them so they will talk to you when changes occur, and you need to ask incredible questions so you gain more knowledge from them so you can see how your services/products/wares will match their evolving needs.

Understanding your customer is a specialty of The Training Establishment, we help you to work together with your customers so you don’t make these mistakes when understanding your customers.