Communicating better with customers is about more than friendliness or experience. It depends on how value is explained, how well the other person’s needs are understood and how the message is adjusted to the commercial context.
When a commercial conversation goes badly, it is rarely just because of the price. Very often, the problem lies in how the proposal is presented, in the lack of clarity around the benefit, and in the difficulty of answering questions without impatience. This is where commercial communication makes a difference.
If I remarried every time I heard this answer, I would have overtaken Zsa Zsa Gabor by now!
It is usually followed by other equally priceless phrases:
“I do not have the patience to discuss price all the time.”
“Clients do not realise they are going to get a very high-quality service.”
“It is very tiring to keep hearing clients’ opinions and having to explain why it is better to do things the way I suggested.”
There are so many professions where you do not have to deal with customers. It is just a matter of choosing one. This is what I feel like saying when I hear those sentences. But I do not say it.
It would not solve the problem either. Those same issues and comments would then be about colleagues from other departments, suppliers and partners.
If you have a commercial role, deal with customers and have never had training in a commercial approach, here are 3 essential ideas to help you succeed more in this area.
1. Start with what customers need
What matters is what “they” need – the clients. What need do they want to solve? How does this service/product help them?
Simple and complex. Simple to understand. Complex to do.
Many commercial conversations fail here. The company knows what it does so well that it stops noticing that the client is not yet following the reasoning. The clearer the link between need, solution and benefit, the easier it becomes to build trust.
I know that you know this is how it works, but you end up explaining everything through your reasons and not through the Other person’s reasons – the client’s.
If you are thinking, “I never do this”, I can interview 2 or 3 of your customers, and we can confirm.
2. Explain price, stages and value clearly
When customers and prospective customers ask questions, they are showing interest.
If you do not want to have to explain the price, the stages and the reasons to the client, you will often hear “I’ll think about it, and we’ll speak later”. They will not think about it, and they will not speak later.
Anyone who wants to communicate better with customers needs to explain price, stages and value without ambiguity.
3. How to communicate better with customers from the client’s perspective
People are always people. They do not change because they are buying or selling. Their perspective and objectives change, but they are the same people.
So why does someone:
explain things using words that clients do not understand?
present magnificent features of a product/service without showing the value they bring to the client?
think first about their own objectives and only then about the client’s?
Is this how you like to be received by your doctor, your mechanic or your insurance broker?
Looking from the client’s perspective is worth its weight in gold. And it works. In commercial communication, this shift helps create more clarity, more trust and better conversations with customers. Better understanding what clients value also helps show the value of what is being offered more clearly.
This does not require a rehearsed script or complicated techniques. It requires attention, clarity and the ability to adjust language to what the other person really needs to understand in that moment.
In practice, communicating better with customers consistently involves three simple changes: speaking less about what the company does and wants to say, listening more to what the client needs to understand, and checking whether the message was clear. Those who work on this skill sell better, generate more trust and reduce unnecessary objections.
Zsa Zsa Gabor died in 2016 at the age of 99. She had 9 husbands and used to say she was an excellent housekeeper. Whenever she got divorced, she always kept the house.
Updated on
