“Converting prospects into customers” – which is what GrowthANSWERS calls the “Customer Gap” – should be an important issue to most small-to-mid sized manufacturers. The reason? Most manufacturers under $75M in annual revenues rely heavily on niche markets for business – which means that they generally will have a limited pool of current and potential customers to do business with. This makes it imperative that they convert as many prospects as possible into customers in these niche markets.

(By the way, this also means that keeping as many customers as possible from these niche markets – i.e. closing the “Loyalty Gap” – and servicing them in as many ways as possible, which is addressed by the “Expansion Gap” – are also important issues. These will be addressed in future editions of this newsletter.)

Given the limited nature of the prospect pool in niche markets, some market research into the needs and pain points of prospective customers may be cost-justified. In addition, it is equally important to explore the key reasons that current customers buy your products and/or services, as well as the reasons that fallen-away customers no longer buy from your company. Only then will your sales force be truly prepared to convince prospective customers that your product or service is the best solution to address their needs and areas of pain.

Whether you use a professional market researcher or decide to have one of your internal team members conduct the interviews, here are a few tips and techniques for interviewing prospects, current customers, and fallen-away customers:

1) USE OPEN PROBES: Open-ended questions allow your prospects and customers the opportunity to think and respond in ways you might not anticipate. Be ready to ask the question in another way if you meet resistance or if they have trouble getting started with their answer. Probe deeper when you aren’t certain you have a clear understanding, or if you think they might have more opinions and insights to share. Most importantly, listen. Your goal when making the phone call is to uncover points of pain that perhaps you didn’t realize your prospect or customer is experiencing. Even nuances make a difference in how effectively a piece of marketing collateral is written.

2) GET FEEDBACK ON PAST EXPERIENCES: Take the bad with the good -- and don’t get defensive. Asking for specific details regarding a bad experience will give you valuable problem solving material. Address concerns at the end of the conversation or, better yet, set up a future meeting so that you have time to prepare and offer a well thought out solution. You are just trying to pinpoint the key gap areas during this interview. But, don’t forget to ask what your company does particularly well. Good performance is just as important to know about as bad.

3) TEST SOME NEW CONCEPTS: Use the questionnaire as an opportunity to test some new concepts or approaches that you would like to explore with your prospects or current customers. It’s a perfect time to informally introduce a new idea or product/service offering.

4) KEEP IT SHORT: Do have a dialog, but don’t ask so many questions that it overwhelms your customer. Normally, 8 to 10 minutes is what you want to allow for this type of interview. Let the customer be your guide here, though. Sometimes they want to talk a lot longer. Do enough to make it meaningful, but don’t make the set of questions so long that you can’t complete it. Focus on your key objective areas, and make questions in those areas count. End the call by letting the contact know how important their comments are to you and your business.

By conducting interviews with your current customers, you are creating deeper, more meaningful relationships. Conversations with fallen-away accounts help you to discover why certain customers fell away and what steps you might take to bring them back. And, periodic interviews with prospect companies in your targeted niche markets will help you to understand what you can do to become even more valued and differentiated in that niche.

Finally, remember that current customers (and sometimes those who once were your customers) are your best source and most cost-effective business prospects.

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