Vendors Need To Ask Customers Where They Are In The Sales Relationship

Great post by Marcio Saito, "Men are from customerland, women are from vendorland", in which he discusses a recent Harvard Business Review blog article by Matt Dixon and Lara Ponomareff where they suggested customers don't want social relationships with vendors.

I was thinking about myself in the role of customer, especially as a Marketing Director for several companies over the years. If I have a relationship with a vendor that's successful I would want to spend more time getting to know the vendor especially if they were providing me with good marketing ROI. But if I'm unsure that I still want to do business with a vendor, the jury is still out, then I think it's better to keep them at arm's reach because I might have to find another vendor.

Maybe the issue here is that companies think they have made a sale and have a customer, when the customer believes they have just made a purchase instead of finding a vendor that fulfills all of their needs in a category.

If you think about your own relationships with vendors. There's a stage we all go through where we might buy from someone but they are still on trial.

Perhaps the mistake vendors make after making a sale is to assume they have gained a loyal customer. One way to find out is to ask the customer where you are in the stage of the relationship.





http://community.coffeebeantech.com/blogs/social-business/posts/men-are-from-customerland-women-are-from-vendorland