Published March 11, 2022 | Updated February 13, 2024
Transactions get you to your quarterly goals. But it’s relationships that make a business.
The problem is, more than 82% of customers see the equipment and technology buying experience as transactional. And with that kind of thinking working against you, it’s hard to build a relationship that goes beyond a one-time purchase and extract a full return from the heavy investment often required to turn a prospect into a customer.
Here are four tips your team can use to help get customers out of the transactional mindset and drive real business growth:
- Emphasize not just the value of the solution, but the value of the partnership. Your customers can buy equipment and technology anywhere. It’s the added value of your expertise that keeps them coming back.
- Encourage customers to think in terms of solution ecosystems, not just equipment. More than ever, equipment and technology need to play nice with others. Customers who are aware of this tend to develop relationships with dealers they can trust to ensure it all works together seamlessly.
- Lean into as-a-service. When customers think in terms of solutions as services with an ongoing monthly payment model, they’re focused less on any particular part of the solution and more on their long-term relationship with your business.
- Leverage your finance partnership. Ask your finance provider about programs, customizations, strategic insight, and other resources to help move customers from a transactional mindset to one focused on long-term solutions and ongoing relationships.
