By Team Alyce on July 2, 2020
The Three Rs of customer service marketing are Relatable, Relevant, and Respectful and they are vital to the success of your ability to grow and scale your business.
Modern marketing and selling practices emphasize grabbing the attention of your target customer under the false assumption that attention automatically leads to action. But building programs around attention, trying to be the loudest voice in the market, or spraying and praying with content about how amazing your product or service is, will not build the rapport, trust, and loyalty needed to move your business forward.
It’s not that your prospects don’t want facts, data and case study examples to help them make their decision. It’s just that facts and numbers don’t always or even mostly influence a purchase.
In fact, 95% of our purchase decisions take place unconsciously according to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman.
The research shows that subconscious decisions are not irrational or wreckless but that they simply follow a logic chain all their own based on our subconscious mind’s ability to perceive and process lots of data with ease. Whereas most logical decision making is naturally restricted by the capacity of our working memory.
What do the Three Rs Mean for your Business?
Well, the research shows that rational pitches are best for simple products while emotional play is the preferred approach for more complex products and services. If you try to market and sell to an audience with only logic and numbers, you’re going to be left with a lot of deals that stall, never close, or have a longer sales process.
On the contrary, you can close the gap by controlling those pieces of information your subconscious processes to deliver a buying experience that creates the desired emotional bond you’re after. For marketing and sales, those emotions usually trust and “likeability.” Buyers first have to like the companies they do business with, then ‘rationalize’ their purchase decision with data and logic. This is the art and science of persuasion.
So how do you trigger trust and “likability?” If numbers aren’t enough, how can you pull the emotional levers?
Personal Experience emphasizes empathy and authenticity, scaling the quality of your outreach by how you treat your prospects and customers throughout the process in order to create moments.
Calling these interactions “moments” – in lieu of traditional terms such as “touchpoint” – orients the objective of our connection: to create and solidify bonds with our audiences.
Moments are defined as an interaction between two people when an emotional resonance is created by being Relevant, Relatable, and Respectful.
Relatable:
Building bonds over the #5to9.
Why Be Relatable In Your Moments?
Building relatable moments taps into the subconscious of buyers and builds likeability. Similar to the concept of mirroring in the sales process, humans want to interact with other humans who have the same interests and tendencies that they have on a conscious and subconscious level.
When you understand and relate to the passions and priorities of your buyers outside of the personas you’ve defined, you have the opportunity to connect with them one layer deeper than companies who do not.
Not only does this add to your likeability, being relatable helps you close more deals and build better relationships with your buyers.
In a study done by Linkedin, 50% of B2B buyers are looking for more personal value in their purchasing decisions, not just corporate value. B2B buyers are struggling to see the main differentiators in features between vendors, that’s why trust, relatability and reassurance in vendors are what brands need to start relying on
There’s the old saying that “People buy from people they know, like, and trust”. You do not start off your relationship with a person without building rapport and being relatable to them.
Questions to ask yourself as you build moments that are Relatable:
What is your audience passionate about? What are their priorities in their non-work life? What do they spend their time doing or pursuing from 5:00 pm – 9:00 am? How are this person’s passions acknowledged? Have you built a bond based on mutual affinities?
Relevant:
The 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Why be relevant in your messaging?
Peter Drucker once said:
“The perfect advertisem*nt is one of which the reader can say, ‘This is for me, and me alone.”
Every marketer, seller, or customer success manager wants their message to resonate with their audience but the fact of the matter is that there’s a high probability that your message will fall on deaf ears.
In fact, marketers waste an estimated 26% of their marketing budget on the wrong channels or strategies.
When your messaging is not relevant to an audience, there is no incentive for that person to act on your offer.
Too often, brands will make their messaging all about why they are the best, rather than how they can solve the problems that their buyers are facing.
If relatability comes from understanding your buyers 5:00pm to 9:00am interests, relevance comes from understanding your buyers 9:00am to 5:00pm problems and goals.
Predictable Revenue has a Chain of Relevance framework that can help you better understand the obstacles, goals, and motivations your buyers have to make sure that your messaging is relevant to the person on the other side.
Sometimes, your messaging is relevant, but the timing isn’t right for your buyer to take you up on your offer.
That’s where intent tools, retargeting, and patience come into play. If your messaging is relevant to a buyer’s problems, but those problems are not currently a priority for that buyer, being relatable and respectful in your outreach will leave them with a good feeling that keeps you top of mind when they are looking to solve their problem.
Questions to ask yourself as you build moments that are Relevant:
What’s important to your audience right now in their role? What are the priorities of their organization? What are their goals, their challenges, and their measurements of success? Where is the progress of the relationship ( ie, deal cycle, customer cycle, etc. )? What information was discovered in your last conversation with them?
Respectful:
Follow the “Golden Rule:” Treat your prospects the way you’d want to be treated.
Why be respectful in your messaging?
There’s a reason it’s called the golden rule – carrying a respectful and caring attitude is hugely valuable when you’re building relationships with those around you, in your network, and in your life.
As mentioned in the relevance section, your outreach may not hit on a pain that your buyers are experiencing in that moment.
Rather than force the relationship, understanding and empathizing that your future customer may not be ready to buy yet will help you connect with them later on down the line when they are ready for a solution like yours.
The process of becoming a customer is a commitment on both sides. If there’s a lack of commitment from one side, then the deal will fall apart later on down the line when there is more at stake.
Respect can also come within the process when someone is willing to enter into a commitment with your brand to become a customer.
Showing up on time to meetings, being prepared, actively listening, following up in a timely maner will make the initial relationship stronger through mutual respect.
Questions to ask yourself as you build moments that are Respectful:
Am I being as buyer-centric as possible? What’s in it for them? Has empathy been built into this moment? Is now the time to be over-communicative? Is the tonality appropriate for the situation?
If done right, adding the 3 R’s and personal experience in your approach of talking to buyers allows your business to Build Rapport, Earn Trust, and Increase Account Retention throughout the Customer Journey.
The greatest differentiating factor for businesses in the personal experience era is not the only functionality of your product, but the nature of how it’s marketed, sold, and leveraged. Those who take a personal approach
July 2, 2020
