Know your customer: the 6 questions you should be answering

Having invested and embedded Salesforce as your CRM, the benefits of having a platform that underpins distributed working and collaboration have come to the fore. Whether you have a proactive or reactive focus on target prospects, the challenge is the same – where do you put your focus in uncovering exactly who you should be talking to within those organisations?

You’re a Salesforce user, you likely have some level of bespoke process or approach to working through all the stakeholders you – or your account team – need to speak to or get onboard for any given opportunity. But could you improve this for faster and more successful results?

Asking the right questions within your sales function is key to getting to the crux of your ongoing stakeholder mapping and relationship building:

1. Do you have an existing process or tried and tested-method within your team for stakeholder mapping or visualising your prospect or customer organisation?

2. Who is responsible for exploring and finding the lay of the land with the stakeholders in any given prospect or customer account – or those specific to a particular opportunity?

3. Is there a specific map of ‘ideal’ contacts within your prospect or customer accounts, perhaps specific to your target sectors?

4. What do you know about their buying process – are you solely at the mercy of submitting proposals or quotes to a procurement manager?

5. Are contacts being logged sporadically into Salesforce or with some level of regimen behind this process?

6. How do you manage change within your prospect or customer account – or within the knowledge in your own sales team – what about when someone leaves or moves or a new person comes onboard?

Refuse to play the guessing game

Our practical ‘Know your customer’ guide outlines our pragmatic approach to answering these questions, and removing any guess work; getting to the heart of understanding your customers and prospects to build deeper relationships, accelerate opportunity development and ultimately win business, faster.