Been an interesting summer so far what with lots of hospital visits, more docs than I want to know, surgery and now recuperating through Labor Day.  As my Facebook friends know, I decided to reward making it through the surgery and receiving very good news from pathology by buying a new Corvette Stingray.  Seemed to be fitting in keeping with the whole beach and ocean thing, plus I've always wanted to own a sports car.  Not to worry, the garage still houses the Subaru Outback and the Acura MDX since the Stingray will never see one flake of snow or ever travel on an ice covered road.

Maybe it's an age thing and that time in my life; maybe it's the reality of surviving cancer and realizing that I may not live to my planned and expected 135, but, quite frankly, for me, it's about the personal experience.

I still remember from high school having one of my friends let me drive his new Corvette (a very short distance), and that experience has stayed with me.  When I looked around at what type of a sports car to buy and assessed every possiblity in terms of features, looks and price, the decision came down to buying the Stingray largely based on the perceived experience of what it would "feel" like just driving down the road.  And then there was the added experience of buying an American car, something which I had never done, and I now wanted to do for all of the right American reasons.

And the experience is awesome...

• the sound through a four pipe exhaust is indescribable 
• the electronics, which are all voice command, are easy
• the speed, redlining at 225 is frightening
• the execution of the styling is perfectly sculpted

...and then there's the perfect customer care experience evidenced by everything from introductions to OnStar, polite and friendly emails announcements and post-purchase gifts of accessories that arrive unannounced and enhance the experience even more.  And then there's the experience of being part of The Corvette Tribe of other Corvette owners who wave, flash their lights, and have their own language of terms, acronyms and arcane design knowledge.

Buying should be about the experience

I buy a new Subaru every 12 or 13 months given that I drive around 50,000 miles a year.  I choose Subaru because it's dependable, economical, and I arrived at a great deal with the local dealership that delivers it to my house, already registered, and picks it up and drops it off at the house when it needs service.  A perfect experience!  

The car itself is a pragmatic purchase.  It fits my needs, but quite frankly, it's the experience of both the local dealership (appropriately,"Ocean Subaru") and Cheryl, (who's a lot like Flo at Progressive), plus the online experience of Subaru that makes it easy.  The result is that owning a Subaru means that I have reached a well-negotiated balance between my right and left side brain decision points of price and practicality which overweight the emotional experience of "reasonably ok" styling. That balance is the reason that I'll order the 2015 model in a couple of months.  

Selling should also be about the experience.

A friend of mine, Dede Cadieux, is co-owner with her husband, Brian, of Mombo-an absolutely superb restaurant in Portsmouth.  In a town that boasts that it houses 167 restaurants, and where there are more restaurants seats than registered citizens, Mombo remains one of the very few most highly rated restaurants on the coast of Maine and NH. Dede appropriately comments that her mission is to provide each of her guests "with an experience, a mini-vacation" when they dine in her restaurant. And that experience is present everywhere at Mombo from the food to the extraordinary artwork down to the style of the plates and napkins.  A wonderful personal experience!

Which raises the question of just how many of us really think through the customer's experience of buying our products and services... from the customer's side of the table.

• What do we do to make the sales experience "Staples-Easy"?
• We're "customer-focused", but are we focused on their experience?
• Post-sales, what do we do to thank and engage the customer?
• Have we implemented a "customer-for-life" experience?
• Do we make the experience "personal" for our employees?
• Do we make it personal for the customer?

The management of one of our customers, Reiser, a leading capital equipment distributor in the meat, poultry and bakery processing markets, constantly thinks about its company totally in terms of its customers.  With a very long term vision stretching into the future for ecades, Reiser's slogan of "Built on Trust" totally defines how it sells, how it services, how it prices and every other management strategy and tactic of the business.  This ultimate guideline of building trust in the customer experience in everything that it does simplifies many of the decision points that typically slow other companies down. No question as to why Reiser is the benchmark of the industry.

The next time that you gather your Sales, Marketing or Customer Success team together, use that meeting to begin to put together a 2014-2015 Customer Experience Plan.  

• Plan out two or three longer term customer success strategies.
• Define a quarter-by-quarter tactical game plan.  
• Then get right down to your month-by-month acvitivity planning 
• Make it personal with takeaway assignments for every team member.  
• Focus on the personal experience of the actual buyer and of the user

You won't get this done in one meeting, but this half way point in the year is the perfect opportunity to engage your team in the experience of focusing on what really counts-the customer's experience.

Good Selling...and Planning