Becoming indispensable to your customer

Jane Rowe looks at upselling opportunities as the financial year-end approaches

Rowe: Adapt your knowledge to better meet customer needs across the board

Increased demand on resources, reduced budgets and shrunken staff numbers have all affected purchasing patterns in the financial year now coming to an end.

Resellers should review their business models with the aim of maximising the customer relationships they already have. As a result, we are now seeing many traditional office products resellers expand into business machines and managed services.

Resellers like these are looking to become more consultative in their sales approach and take away some of the IT and office management pressures from the customer. As well as reacting to industry trends, resellers need to become much more proactive in their product offering and use key events throughout the year to generate sales.

I think it is worth expanding the customer database to include the person who handles responsibility for traditional office products, like stationery, and work out what they need.

Meanwhile, consultancy and strong relationships with key suppliers will help you guide customers through the procurement process, without them drowning in too much information.

If you supply a customer with cartridges and other compatibles, find out who provides their business machines. It may be that you can provide a managed print service or deploy a series of multifunctional printers offering the continual management, servicing and support of the machines, providing ongoing revenue opportunities.

Continually suggesting products that build on what a customer has already bought from you should help you stay one step ahead of the competition.

Manage product categories carefully, though, only suggesting appropriate products that will help your customer’s business become more profitable and save costs in the long run. Do not bombard them with every new product launch you come across.

Linking marketing activity with calendar events can also help you to generate demand for products on top of existing orders.

Many businesses may be looking to upgrade old machines and spring-clean their offices. You can help them select the right products to improve their efficiency, reduce their environmental impact or save them money.

The aim is to ensure that customers have no need to go to your competition. Building the knowledge required to diagnose and serve customer needs will enable a tailored approach to procurement.

While this sounds simple, it is only by providing the relevant information on the product itself, how it fits into their business strategy and the risks, financial or otherwise, of not investing in it, that the customer will find it hard to say no.

It will also provide the evidence and feedback you need to expand your product offering, serving the customer better and attracting new ones.

Jane Rowe is marketing and communications director at Spicers