Hey there!

This month’s TPM’s Take focuses on (re)connecting with your customers. By providing your customers with objective information to help make Smarter Buying Decisions, you are arming them with insight in a world filled-to-the-brim with information.

Here are a few tips to understand what your customers think about your organization and how to re-engage them in ways that will help you get past the competition.

How To Make An Informed Buyer Your Best Friend, Not Your Foe

http://thevarguy.com/best-practices/how-make-informed-buyer-your-best-friend-not-your-foe

Unlike years past, today’s customer no longer relies exclusively on the knowledge and direction of salespeople when it comes to purchasing a technology solution. With the internet, the process of purchasing technology has changed so much that according to research houses Gartner and Forrester, about 80 percent of the buying process at the end of the decade will occur without any direct human-to-human interaction.

Social selling can be particularly useful for resellers to help build up their reputation as subject matter experts and pioneers. Resellers who use social media should add value to potential buyers by helping them understand technological solutions on offer and filter through the vast amounts of information that everyday buyers must contend with.

TPM’s Take

With the advent of the cloud, the “democratization of data” has resulted in questions about the current and future role of the channel. Buyers have more need than ever for objective information that helps them make smarter buying decisions. For resellers to remain relevant, buyers must be presented with a range of solutions in what should effectively be a two-way conversation — not a one-sided pitch.

In addition to social selling, there are four key things the channel can do to drive success. Check out our blog post 4 Profitable Secrets to Help Create MSP Success Stories to learn more.

5 Effective Customer Satisfaction Survey Methods

http://mspmentor.net/best-practices/5-effective-customer-satisfaction-Survey-methods

Do you know whether your customers are satisfied with your business relationship? It can be challenging to know exactly what your customers think about your current service offerings.

Khali Henderson and Casey Freymuth of BuzzTheory Strategies highlight four key survey methods that will help you understand where you stand with your customers:

• Lost Customer Surveys: These surveys help minimize customer attrition and maximize competitive performance when done right. They help you understand why your customer chose your organization, why they left your organization, whom they went with instead of your organization, and what it would take to get them back.
• Gap Measurement Surveys: These surveys help you identify your organization’s performance in key areas by asking customers how often you perform to their standards. Their responses can help you prioritize areas of improvement.
• Moment-of-the-Truth Surveys: With these surveys, you get customer feedback within 72 hours of a key interaction with your organization so that you can better understand their perception of their experience and satisfaction.
• Key Customer Surveys: Interview customers that are valuable to your business, i.e. customers who, if lost, would impact your business in a negative way. Check in with them often to see if their needs are being met and take their feedback to drive forward improvements in your business.

TPM’s Take

Although it can seem daunting to get customer feedback in addition to doing everything else you need to for your business, it’s essential that you know how your customers feel. In doing so, you can actually help to promote your business through improved referral, or word-of-mouth Marketing. In case you missed it, we cover a lot of what you need to know about customer happiness in our blog post, How to Optimize Your Referral Marketing Campaign with Technology and Data.

5 Content Marketing Tips for Small Businesses to Revisit

http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/5-content-marketing-tips-small-businesses-revisit-01873911

It’s becoming a crowded market in the world of content marketing. Content marketing is key to driving conversions — but how can you optimize your time and investment if you’re a small business? To beat the competition and claim your market share, you need content marketing tips that can help you stand out.

Disha Dinesh of Business2Community.com gives five great tips to get you started:

• Identify benchmarks for progress.
• Create goals for your content marketing plan (e.g. increase website traffic, grow your brand).
• Account for intent by ensuring your content matches what you know your website visitors want to see.
• Build content resources that are targeted, relevant and plentiful for your users.
• Measure your results against content marketing success metrics, so that you can continue to drive improvements.

TPM’s Take

It’s getting more important than ever to create a well-thought out marketing plan to drive your organization’s success. The aforementioned points are especially useful and fairly simple for resellers to adopt. To understand how your MSP business can create a winning marketing plan, check out our blog post Creating a Winning MSP Marketing Plan today.

The post TPM’s Take: August 2017 appeared first on Total Product Marketing.