From the course: Business Development Foundations: Researching Market and Customer Needs

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Lack of customer knowledge

Lack of customer knowledge

From the course: Business Development Foundations: Researching Market and Customer Needs

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Lack of customer knowledge

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- In my first job, I sold advertising to car dealerships. Now, I knew a good bit about advertising. I was AdWords certified, Hubspot certified, and Google Analytics certified. But I didn't know anything about car dealerships. Like goose egg. I hadn't even bought a car before. A lack of customer knowledge can slow down your sales process, reduce your margin, and establish a purely transactional relationship with your customers. And I learned that the hard way. When I went into these dealerships, just like a lot of new, somewhat overly excited bus-dev reps, I product dumped. I spoke about myself and what I could do to help them and how much it would cost. And I wasn't completely unsuccessful. I did have people buy. But I missed out on a lot of larger deals simply because I didn't have any customer knowledge. Here's what I wish I'd done. I wish I'd done my homework and researched my customers. Before you ever speak to a prospect, know the basics of their business. For example, when it…

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