We often hear tales and tips about how to get through the door and make a sale. But what about staying on the inside and continuing a relationship? How do you maintain a new relationship with your audience?
You see, it’s one thing to persuade an audience to buy your product or service, but how do you turn them into advocates for your brand?
By not losing sight of what got you through the door in the first place.
That could your product, customer experience, or (hopefully) both. Let’s dig a little deeper.
So you’ve kicked down the front door – what next?
A great product
Getting through your customer’s door in the first place can be hard. You have to win them over, either through marketing or simply by being the best in the market. But staying there is even harder – and arguably the most important part of your product strategy.
Staying on the inside makes it infinitely easier to sell again and turn customers into advocates, but to stay on the inside you have to consistently and continuously iterate and improve your product.
Okay, so there are exceptions to the rule.
Think Bic biros – they haven’t changed in fifty years, but that’s mainly because they’ve cornered the market.
But on the other hand, think Apple. Did they leave the iPod, iPhone, or iPad where they started? Not on your nelly.
It’s about getting feedback from those that have already bought into your product or service, and finding out what made it stand out, what could be improved, and why they chose you in the first place.
If you know this information, you have a basis from which to improve.
If you can improve, then you’ll be able to stay on the inside and continue to sell.
A seamless customer experience
Thinking about what we’ve said above about your product or service, the exact same principles apply to your customer experience.
You should have a CX North Star guiding you anyway, but your customer experience may well be the thing that got you through the door in the first place.
Iterate on that. Improve. Elevate. Find another level and ways to impress your audience and customers. It’s a surefire way to keep the sales coming in.
Combine that approach with the iteration of your product, and you’ll be on the winning road to staying on the inside – not on the outside looking in.
Let’s wrap this up
Kicking down the front door is hard enough, but that’s a topic for another day. What’s really important is staying on the inside once you get there.
The advice here is about iteration, improvement, and talking to your customers. It’s not a one size fits all approach, and is pretty light touch, to be honest. But it should be enough of a steer to make you sit up and think “oh, yeah, I maybe do need to review my product strategy”.
And if you do, we’re on hand to help. Just shout and we’re there.