Your customer experiences, you experience…

...also after the WoTS

What a professional and well-organized fair the WoTS has become! What I was experiencing now was just an experience. In the run-up to the WoTS, FHI has organized a trade fair training for its members. Curious as I am about the effect of the trade fair training, I walked across the several trade fair floors, curious to see how trade was taking place as I passed by the various stands.

Ron Eman ISA Training & Coaching

One of the things that struck me was that many exhibitors pursued multiple goals. In some cases it was no longer about promoting the product at all, but the focus was entirely on the passer-by. It no longer even primarily matters whether I am a potential customer, but perhaps a future employee, for example. So several goals and in many cases it seemed as if the people at the stand were genuinely interested in me.

This sincerity is essential in customer friendliness: not giving the passer-by the feeling that you are standing there perfunctorily or that you are addressing him/her because that is expected of you. No, but I also really enjoy approaching or helping people. These people show that they enjoy what they do, have a good faith in what they do and believe in their employer, radiate pride and have the right attitude. It is almost not even noticeable that you do not always have the right skills to be able to complete the conversation with me, for example.

The connection with others works wonders and will increasingly become the distinguishing value in being in business. Also in business-to-business with a technical product? Correct! The competitive advantage of the sales team in the future will no longer only be in the knowledge of the product, but in generating insights based on the experiences of the sales team and interactions with customers. These contacts with customers, prospects and perhaps new colleagues will lead to the creation of new value propositions because the sales team shares experiences and insights internally and is also expected to share experiences and insights internally.

Many contacts were made and relationships were made during WoTS and the sincerity of many exhibitors will make the difference in the follow-up of the relationships established. The trick now is to facilitate the sales team and HR in such a way that genuine interest in the customer or new colleague is maintained and they can use it in concluding contracts or the deal. Now you will experience that customers would like to continue doing (even more) business with you or that new colleagues would like to work for sincere companies.