Triggers and customer needs
Featured in the Selling through Customer Service training manual
By Tony Gillen
Category: Sales Skills
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Many organisations have long-standing, regular customers. A number operate customer loyalty schemes – bonus cards, discount points, and so on – in order to entice customers to return. One of the most powerful motivators of customer loyalty is the customer knowing that their needs, both immediate and long-term, will be satisfied. This only really happens when customer contact staff see a person and not merely a transaction in front of them. The transaction is a one-off, product-or-service-for-money exchange. The customer can (and will) rely on the advice, ideas, suggestions and help they receive from the person serving them. The advice, ideas, and so on, will only flow if staff know how to read and interpret issues, conditions and changes in the customer’s life. They become ‘triggers’ for purchase. Some of these are obvious and typical of a segment of the population – they can be used and applied all the time. Others are specific to individuals and either rely on staff observation or customer conversation – for example, an engagement ring on a customer’s finger is a ‘trigger’; a customer, in conversation, referring to their recent engagement or forthcoming wedding is a ‘trigger’. Depending on the organisation they are visiting (a bank, building society, travel agent, DIY store, car showroom or department store) the ‘trigger’ would enable a staff member to suggest additional offerings or, at least, suggest that the customer discusses possible future needs, thus giving the organisation a head start over competitors. Using triggers at the coal face maximises the value of loyalty schemes, mailings, advertising and other corporate processes. This training activity enables sales staff to support marketing initiatives. All too often sellers ignore marketers at the point of customer contact – unless it is to capitalise on store-wide price reductions! This training activity uses a mix of whole group work, syndicate discussion and presentation.
This training activity begins with a whole group session where the participants decide the main groups or categories their customers fall into. You then help participants decide what major interests or significant events are common in these groups (for example, young singles = first job, leave college, first pay-cheque). In syndicate groups, the participants explore the ‘trigger events’ for selected customer groupings. Following whole group discussion, the syndicates are then reformed so that triggers can be explored further to enable the needs and wants caused by these triggers to be clarified. The needs and wants are then related to products and services offered by the organisation. Syndicates then present and justify their ideas and so strengthen the link between triggers, customer needs and wants, and increased sales opportunities.
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to show participants how to look for and recognise the ‘triggers’ in customers’ lives that make them open to what’s on offer.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:30:00 |
| No of Pages: | 14 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training activity is intended for use by trainers will all customer contact staff. It can be introduced into general training or used as a lead-in to a sales campaign. Experienced and successful staff welcome the confirmation that what they do naturally with regard to exploring customer needs is sound. Experienced but less successful staff will welcome new ways to introduce sales conversations when, ‘Would you like a leaflet?’ is failing. Inexperienced staff will welcome the power of the trigger in building their selling skills.
Download the training activity, Triggers and customer needs as featured in the Fenman training manual; Selling through Customer Service