What is customer collaboration?

Why Customer Collaboration is Important

Before we talk about customer collaboration, we should first talk about why it’s important. 95% of a customer’s evaluation process is spent NOT talking to sales. In a self-serve world, where you can buy anything from insurance to cars to houses online, customers are conditioned not to speak to a sales rep.

Why would a customer talk to a sales rep if they believed their job is to push them through a canned sales process? Sales Leaders and AEs themselves aren’t really taking into account the needs of modern buyers and how they wanted to evaluate and purchase.

To change this perception, sales reps have to be a guide for buyers in the complex buyer journey. This means being a partner rather than a vendor, and truly collaborating with your customer.

Through customer collaboration, sales reps will decrease their time to close and increase average deal sizes.

What is Customer Collaboration?

Customer collaboration is when sales reps are truly focused on solving their customer’s problem, regardless of whether or not they close the deal.

• It’s when sales reps become a trusted guide for issues outside of your company’s typical scope.
• It’s when sales reps make understanding their customer’s challenges and goals their first priority. 
• It’s when the customer texts the sales rep to ask for advice based on their team’s feedback.
• It’s when sales reps include their company’s leadership to make sure everybody is aligned for the vision of the partnership.

Through collaboration, sales reps are able to focus on the modern buyer’s needs and expectations. It’s no surprise that top performing sales teams reinforce this customer-centric philosophy across their entire organization.