You may recall a blog I wrote about the importance of following up with your customers after project completion (see “After Project Completion: Why You Should Follow up Immediately”). Following up with your past customers allows you to not only confirm they received the benefits that you promised them originally, but also discover if they experienced any unexpected benefits.
I was privileged to do a training session for a group of home performance contractors in New England and I asked the audience, "How many of you go back and talk to every customer to make sure that they received the benefits you promised them when you sold the job?" Less than half the audience raised their hands, which is not surprising. I then asked, "How many of you ask your customers if there were any benefits that they realized in the wake of the improvement that you had not promised them when selling the job?” Even fewer hands went up.
One of the few people who raised his hand said that he had presented this exact question to a woman who had hired him to do a whole-home insulation project. As expected, the insulation reduced her heating bill in the New England winter… but what she said next really caught this contractor's attention. She said, "You know, I'm all about the energy savings, and seeing that come true was great. Everything worked out just as you said it would, but what's really interesting is that after you put that insulation in my wall, I could no longer hear the street noise… I can now watch my TV shows with the volume set three notches lower!"
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have an abundance of non-energy benefits for each of your products or services that you could use to convince new prospects to buy? Make an effort to discover what unforeseen benefits your customers are appreciating, and use that information to strengthen your value proposition for your next prospect.
