Everyone likes to feel special. One of the best feelings in the world is a friend saying, “This made me think of you.” And customers want that same experience. The research shows that 80% of consumers say they’re more likely to make a purchase after a personalized sales experience, and 60% of customers expect brands to understand their particular needs.

A personalized sales experience can truly take your sales to the next level. But how exactly do you achieve that? Here are a few of our tips.

Take Time To Get To Know Your Customers

The last thing you want is to try to make a personalized sales approach blindly. You can’t. So take some time to get to know your customers. Write out a profile. What are they interested in? What are their biggest challenges? 

Take a look at customer data that you may have collected to see trends in their activity, and use this to inform your sales approach. For B2B customers, consider looking at their website or their blog to learn more about the customers. 

Include Personal Details About the Customer

When you reach out for a cold call or a promotional email, don’t give your customer the same old script. Tailor your pitch based on that customer. Maybe you’re reaching out to an office services company about your workflow SaaS offering. If they have a blog, you can mention that you read their blog post about working more efficiently. Show your interest in them first, and then tie it into how your product can help them.

Another example would be to note a customer’s previous purchases in your sales pitch. If they have purchased from you before, you likely have customer data detailing the products they purchased or even viewed. Send them an email, letting them know why those past purchases and interests make you think they’d like your new offering. This will show your customer that you understand them and that you’ve cared enough to pay attention to them before making your sales pitch.

Figure Out Why Your Customer Should Make the Purchase

If you don’t know why your customer will want to purchase your product or service, you’ll struggle to convince them. Talk to them and get a sense of the challenges that they seek to resolve. Ask what solution they’re using right now. What do you offer that this solution does not? Is there any special, personalized offer to them that could really go above-and-beyond in meeting their needs? 

You may be able to get a better sense of customer’s needs by putting out a survey to your current customers, often in exchange for a discount. These answers can help inform you about why many of your customers make purchases, but for an individual customer, you may need to just ask. When you know what their situation is, you can frame your pitch around that.

Use References Relevant To the Customer

References are a great way to make yourself and your brand more relatable — if they’re actually relevant to the customer. Referring to statistics within your business or to your niche interests will do very little for a personalized sales experience if your customers don’t share those interests. Instead, do some homework to reference the landscape of their industry or reference things that you know them to be interested in. This will also help your sales pitch seem less like a general script and more like a personalized conversation.

Be Prompt and Communicative

It’s not unusual that your customers will have questions about your products or services. If you leave them hanging for too long, they may look elsewhere. Running a business can be busy, of course, but taking the time to respond to your customers promptly and answer any of their questions in a helpful, informative fashion is sure to pay. 

Prompt communication helps your customers to feel heard, and builds trust with them. When your customers know that they are a priority for you and your business, they are much more likely to do business with you. 

Take Notes

Whenever you meet with a potential customer, make sure to take notes or record the conversation to take notes later. These notes will help you to remember the key points that your potential customer brings up — any issues they have, interests they engage in, and things they might be looking for in your brand. You can bring these points up in future meetings, which will make a big impression on your customers.

Consumers want to be heard. Like everyone else, they want to be paid attention to. If you can prove that your brand does that, you’re more likely to make the sale.