What if I told you that as you’re reading this, someone in your company is stealing from your customers?
What if I said that no one knows it’s happening and that most likely no one will ever find out, but as a result, the losses for you, your business and your customers will be significant.
Who is stealing and why? If you have a product or service that you believe in - one that truly helps others - it’s your responsibility to do everything you can to ensure that people are using your product and seeing value from it! If you don’t, you’re stealing from those who need you most. You’re stealing their potential to succeed…
What is value? Customer value is the perception your customers have of what your product is worth to them vs. the cost they are paying and the possible alternative. Simply put, Value = Benefits-Cost. If customers don’t see the value of your offerings, they will look elsewhere.
Who needs the value you’re offering most? Your customers! They NEED what you have to offer! They’ve made that evident by choosing to purchase your product and it’s up to you to make sure they see the value your company is providing. They need you to help them reach their goals and resolve the problems they are struggling with.
Usage for Value: To show true value, you MUST first make sure that your customers are using your product to the absolute max.
While not every customer will have the same goals for using your product, the way they use your services or product may range from customer to customer. However, one truth will stay consistent throughout your customer base, if your customers don’t use your product, they will never see the value of it.
Here are a few tips on how to encourage your customers to use your product:
Understand the need - Ensure that you and your team understand the journey that brought your customers’ to purchase your product. Why were they interested in your specific product? What problem were they trying to solve? What goals are they trying to achieve and how can your product help them achieve those goals? Once you understand your customers’ “why” and “what” you can start speaking to them in the “language” that will be most effective and meaningful to them.
Implementation - If customers are not able to get your product operational, there is no way for them to see value. Prioritize helping your customers implement your product by providing them with ALL the support possible so that they can start seeing immediate value and not lose the momentum and excitement of working with your product. Direct support, knowledge base articles, community access are all ways that you can speed up the implementation process and start showing customers value.
Onboarding - One of the main reasons that customers don’t adopt usage is simply because they don’t understand how to use a product and/or how the product fits in with their day-to-day… I just got a new car (YAY!). It comes with a lot of bells and whistles, but I have everything turned off because I don’t know how anything works and my immediate need is just to drive my kids to school… So essentially, I’m not really “using” the car as it’s intended to be used and not experiencing the true value it can provide. When it’s time to replace this car, if I don’t see the full value, I will probably replace it with a less expensive model. It’s your responsibility to make sure that your customers are incredibly clear on how to use your product, how your product affects their day-to-day, and how to overcome any roadblocks preventing them from using your product. Make sure your customers feel comfortable and confident enough to change their work habits to include your product so that when it’s time, they’ve had a chance to test out all of the bells and whistles and see the true value of what you offer.
Present Actionable Insights - Share relevant insights and solutions that drive measurable impact for your customers. These insights can be related to your customers’ usage of your product OR can be associated with your company's core value proposition (ie: industry strategy, marketing best practices, sales processes, etc). These insights will be incredibly meaningful to your customers and will create a sense of trust and loyalty with you, eventually converting into trust of your product.
Leverage Successful Customers - Capture success stories of what other customers did to be successful with your product. Evaluate what features are driving value and focus on greater user adoption. Once you know what brought other customers to successfully adopt your product and see the value in it, you will be able to easily encourage others to do the same and/or respond to objections from your new customers by referring back to how your others dealt with that problem.
Resell Your Customers - Sell the opportunities! Opportunities for additional value, for revenue, for growth or for whatever caused your customers to sign with you to begin with. Make it a habit to show your customer the value they are currently getting vs. the value they can expect if they maximize the use of your product. Intrigue them, like you did during the sales process. You must get the customer’s buy-in if you want to increase their usage, and the best way to do so is to constantly remind them of the return on investment (ROI) that they can expect to see from putting in the time and resources needed to adopt your product.
Always Lead with Data - As often as possible, lead your conversations with data! Concrete data insights are hard to argue with and help customers visualize the value they are either receiving or expecting to receive from using your product.