Customer experience as your competitive advantage

In highly competitive markets, relying on the position of the brand being sold seems to be the go-to strategy for most employees. Brand value is conveyed to potential customers as a main buying reason. This, however, leaves selling to chance—customers are left to decide which brand to give their business to, rather than deciding which salesperson they want to work with. By letting only the brand shine in the transaction, sales consultants take themselves out of the buying journey for customers and leave profit, repeat, and referral business on the table. Most of the value created comes from the brand, and very little is created on the front line of the business.

To be competitive, however, companies need to change how they connect with and serve customers. In a transformation process, companies need to implement a customer experience approach throughout their business, engage in sales training, align the company with the overall goal of the business, and finally integrate everything into day-to-day tasks. The customer experience approach needs to be holistic, a mindset change for everyone in the business. The front line has to adopt a sales process that can convert more potential customers into loyal customers.