We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the traditional mode of business operations was disrupted, many companies found themselves forced to rethink their business model and marketing strategies.
While staying afloat in tough times can be a challenge, but it’s possible. The key lies in learning how to remain agile as a company, so you can pivot in ways that meet the needs of your customers.
More often than not, this agility requires making a specific kind of shift – from a sales-driven mindset to a service-driven one. But it’s this single shift that can help you stay afloat, build customer loyalty, and keep your business running smoothly.
In this article, we will look at how to transition your business from a sales-focused mentality to a service-oriented one, enabling you to continue to thrive in tough times.
The Sales Vs. Service Mentalities Defined
Before you can pivot from one to another, it’s important to understand the difference between the sales and service mindsets. Here’s a quick and easy breakdown for you:
- sales-driven mindset – characterized by a strong focus on creating sales, closing deals, and earning revenue
- service-oriented mentality – focused on meeting customers’ needs, providing value, and earning trust
How To Pivot From A Sales Mindset To A Service Mentality in 5 Steps
Transitioning your mindset from a sales-driven mentality to a service-oriented one is often a viable solution during hard times. It allows you to focus on providing value to customers rather than trying to simply sell something to them.
It’s a quiet shift – but one that will eventually speak volumes to your target audience.
As you start to incorporate the small changes that support your new service mentality, you’ll notice that, in the process, you’re also cultivating important relationships. Establishing a relationship of trust and connection with your customers, employees, and stakeholders will go a long way toward growing your brand and retaining loyal customers.
1. Understand Your Customer’s Needs.
As you transition from a sales mentality to a service mindset, start by exploring customers’ needs. This will help you to uncover ways in which you can provide value rather than simply focusing on selling products and services.
Understanding your customers frustrations and pain points can help you figure out how your offerings fit into the bigger picture of your customers’ lives – which is a valuable insight in itself.
Here are a few ways to dig down deep and unearth your customer’s real needs:
- Use qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Qualitative research will harness information through observations and interviews with current and potential customers, whereas quantitative research relies on numerical and measurable data.
In short, your quantitative data will tell you what is happening among your target audience; qualitative data will explain why. Together, they give you a more holistic picture of your customers’ needs and pain points.
- Ask customers questions directly.
There’s no better way to gain a better understanding of your customers’ needs than going straight to the source.
- Look at the broader picture.
Understanding the needs of your specific customers is important, but it’s also useful to look at the big picture. What are the wider trends in your industry? What are the needs of your customers’ friends and family members?
2. Identify Opportunities To Meet Those Needs.
Your next step in the process is to identify opportunities to provide services to your customers that meet those needs.
Look back at the needs you’ve identified and think about how you could meet them.
- Is there anything you can do to make your customers’ lives easier or better?
- What can you do to provide value?
In this step, it’s time to stop focusing on selling products to your customers based on your preconceived ideas of what you think they need or want. (They may not actually want or need them!) Instead, focus on providing the services that meet their current needs. In doing so, you’ll provide value and build trust with your customers. Trust is what cultivates a loyal fan base, ensuring your business’s long-term success.
3. Leverage Technology to Enhance Your Service Model
In transitioning your business to a more service-oriented model, don’t neglect the invaluable help that comes from today’s technology.
You can leverage various technologies to streamline your operations and provide better customer service: CRM software, marketing automation software, and analytics platforms, just to name a few.
With some of the technology available, you can:
- save time and resources without sacrificing the quality of your service.
- track data and manage your customers’ experience for improving the experience from start to finish
- share helpful content, such as blog posts and videos
- build an online community where you can cultivate relationships with customers
4. Create a Customer-Centric Culture
Adopting a customer-centric culture allows you to cultivate long-lasting relationships with customers and provide better service. (It can also help you to weather even the toughest of economic times.)
Start by training your employees to focus on the needs of customers, and then continuously use customer feedback and data to inform your business model and decision-making. One way to cultivate relationships with customers is to create special offers and discounts for loyal customers. You can also ask customers for their feedback and recommendations, which can help you to learn about their experiences with your business.
As you remain focused on what is best for your customers, you may find your customers become raving, loyal fans that will stick by your business when times get tough.
5. Evaluate and Refine Your Service Model
As you implement new strategies to move from sales to service, it’s important to regularly evaluate your progress and make adjustments as needed. You can use a variety of metrics and data to get a better understanding of how your efforts are impacting your business.
By reflecting regularly on your operations and customer interactions, you can get a better sense of areas for improvement. You will probably also discover sometimes surprising new opportunities to provide service and value to your customers.
One more note: Finding yourself falling back into a sales-driven mindset is not uncommon! It can be easy to slip into old ways of thinking – especially if the change is drastic. When this inevitably happens, simply recognize and correct the problem.
Some Final Thoughts
In order to stay afloat in tough times, businesses of all types and sizes must be flexible and ready to adapt to changing market conditions.
When times are tough, moving from a sales-driven mentality to a service-oriented model can help you to provide value and build trust with customers while saving money on operational costs.
If you’re worried about pivoting your messaging in hard times, our team is here to help.
Our Fractional CMOs are skilled in taking what can be a complex process and distilling it down into the exact hands-on marketing help you’ve been looking for.
Best of all, when we partner on the C-Suite, our marketing experts fully engage with your company, aligning your sales with your marketing efforts, and giving you clarity for continued, predictable growth.
