Connecting Emotionally With Customers
The British have a love affair with tea that most Americans do not understand. When you start to research the reasons why, you discover that the tastes of tea, similar to beer (think Coors), coffee and other brewed beverages are influenced by the quality of water used.
It’s difficult to differentiate tea, coffee and beer based on the facts. That’s why Coors aligns its brew with the Rocky Mountains. Starbucks is about the experience and not the coffee per se. It’s not about the product. It’s about how products make customer feel and that lesson is valuable for kitchen and bath showrooms.
Most K&B showroom customer don’t care about the difference between partial or full overlay cabinets, five-panel or slab construction or single or double-bowl sinks. Features and benefits captivate industry insiders who deal with similar products daily, but they are not effective in making emotional attachments with customers. That does not mean sales professionals should not relate features and benefits of the products that are sold in the showroom. They are one piece of the sales puzzle, but far from being the only piece. Emotional connections are created when sales professionals describe how the products and the benefits that they deliver will make customers feel. Imagine the reaction of a customer who comes to the showroom for a new primary bath, and this is what is said, “We will create a personal haven that is all your own. Imagine having your place where you can wash away the stress of the day, put down your iPhone, and shut out the world. We can make this happen.” Would that resonate more with a harried mom, working full time with a couple of young kids better than “this faucet comes in 32 different designer finishes and delivers 1.8 gallons of water per minute.”
Create emotional attachments with new customers by relying on past customers to be your best salespeople. Have a testimonial book in the showroom and a tab on your web site featuring customer ratings of your service and their experiences. Show and describe how customers use the products that you have specified for them to make their lives easier and better.
Meet with your team to discuss how you want customers to feel when they use the products that you have specified.