Human after all

The fact that customer relations are built on humans dealing with humans is often neglected in the B2B world. Dieter Morath, Songwon’s Executive Vice President Sales, sees embracing this as pivotal to growing a business – no matter what the industry.

Dieter Morath has a wealth of experience in product selling. The customer focus he’s helped to embed in Songwon follows a key principle – that fundamentally, we are all consumers with consumer behaviour. The decision-making process we follow in our private life carries over into our business life. Business to business (B2B) is therefore actually business to consumer (B2C). By keeping this in mind, companies in the B2B sector can take a fresh approach to selling their product – whatever that may be – to customers. Developing strong relationships lies in applying this different way of thinking to business processes.

Dieter shared his steps to success in a recent visit to the EMG HQ:

1. Learn from the consumer field about how a product is sold.
   To sell a product, they start by reading the mind of the consumer. They then use buzz words that fit with a consumer’s way of thinking. Find the buzz words to reach your customer.
2. Benchmark permanently: learn from others every day, both inside and outside your industry. No company can be the best at everything. Look for your weaknesses and learn how you can improve by looking to what others do successfully in that area.
3. Challenge the status quo: complacency is dangerous. Generate a think-and-do-tank to see where you want to go one step further to make your product / company even more appealing. Do you even know what the market wants? Do you match market expectations? What concerns might your customer have? You can only improve by listening and responding.
4. Generate excitement: be special rather than interchangeable.
   If you bring advantages that differentiate you from others you will win a customer’s attention. This could be projects, your people, speed of delivery, service ideas, creativity, product features….the list is endless. Find out, from the individuals you deal with at your customer company, how you can be special in a globalised world where products are increasingly standardised. And act on it.
5. Get the right people on-board as your customer interface.
   A self-motivated team, instilled with your new philosophy and an understanding of what you are trying to sell, can make all the difference.

We agree with Dieter. While delivering quality work is a given, for us so much is down to the relationships we have with our clients. This is at the centre of everything EMG works hard at and why we are taking these wise words to heart.