Delivering a Winner: Know How Your Customers Want to Buy

Editor’s note: “The Angel Connection” is a regular feature in WRAL Local Tech Wire. LTW asked consultant Bill Warner to share advice for entrepreneurs seeking angel investors and/or venture capital investment. He is chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over 100 members throughout the Southeast. The Angel Connection is published weekly.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - Investors need to see that you know how to deliver your product or service once you have closed a sale.

If it’s hard to buy or receive your product or service, the customer may decide to go elsewhere. Know how your customers want to buy the product.

That means everything has to match the customer’s way of doing business:

• Purchase price

• Usage terms

• Distribution channel

• Fulfillment channel

• Installation assistance

• Ongoing support

• Maintenance

You may also have to align your product or service with other partners for purposes of integration, and you may have to insure your consistency with their distribution channels and support services. Having a cohesive and well thought out process of delivery will help to insure that your product or service is perceived as a winner.

I. Make sure it works

Nothing can be more dissatisfying than to deliver a product or service that does not perform as advertised. The quickest way to a returned product and a bad reputation is a product or service that doesn’t work. It is very important that your product or service be fully tested for all its features and capabilities. Of equal importance is making sure your whole delivery process works as well. Your early adopter customer programs needs to insure that your product or service does what you say it will do, and that you can deliver the product in the manner you intended.

II. Achieve a good first impression

Your customer’s first experience with your product or service will probably create a lasting negative view of its acceptability. If you mess up the delivery and installation process, you will have a very hard time getting yourself out of the ditch of dissatisfaction. Make the product very easy to sell and install. It is OK to charge a fair price for installation and implementation services. Use that money to put people on the installation, customization and training tasks that will make it as close to transparent for your buyer to start using your product or service. Having your customer satisfied from the very beginning will produce some great rewards in the long run.

III. Continue to satisfy your customer

A winning product or service is delivered with a winning attitude about customer satisfaction. You want repeat business. You want your customers to be a positive reference for potential customers. Make sure that you have done what it takes to meet and manage customer expectations. Successfully deal with customer issues and suggestions. Provide responsive ongoing customer support and maintenance. Doing these things will go a long way towards creating satisfied customers. A lot of future business can be won by positive referrals, word of mouth, and having a great reputation. Create a culture that fosters the creation and nurturing of satisfied customers, and you will be viewed as a winner.

So, delivering a winner means a lot of things. They all have to be in place. You should have a checklist of those things that make you a winner. Check them all off your checklist before you go to market. Having done that, proudly stand before your customer and against your competitors with the best product or service in the markets you serve, and sell it with all the energy and know-how you can muster.

About the author: Bill Warner is the Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.