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The customer meeting
evaluation concept is built on the foundation of many years of
experience from more than 200 customer relationship projects,
cutting edge technology and best practice in survey and
questionnaire design.
Recent empirical studies find that data from
5, 7 and 10 level scales show very similar characteristics in terms
of mean. The same studies also show that the more levels on the
scale, the more accurate results. However, experiments have shown
that people are not able to indicate their point of view on a scale
greater than seven. The 7-point scale incorporates the best of both
worlds.
In general the longer the questionnaire, the
lower the response rate. Since the sales meeting evaluations goes
out to potential customers, we need to be cautious about the length
of the questionnaire. The last thing we want to do is to upset the
customer by wasting his time with a long questionnaire.
The questionnaire with only 15
straightforward questions is designed to ensure that the potential
customer will spend no more than 2-3 minutes filling out the
questionnaire.
Why do we ask the questions we do?
We ask meeting attendees about their purchase
intentions. But we don't use this as a measure of success for the
sales meeting. This is because the potential customer doesn't want
us to know his real preferences due to tactical reasons.
Instead we measure the benefit of the meeting
by asking the customer whether he/she left the meeting with a
positive impression of our organization, whether he/she have
confidence in our organization, whether he/she felt that the time
was well spend and finally if the customer want to recommend us to
people in his/her network. In this context liking and trust are the
keywords as like leads to trust and trust leads to buying, buying
leads to relationship.
In order have actionable feedback for
coaching and development of our sales personal we need to know
whether the seller was able to create an atmosphere where people
want to buy. You can only create that atmosphere if the
customer...
- Like his/her sales rep
- Understands what he/she is buying
- Perceives a difference in the person and the company that
he/she is buying from
- Feels that there is a fit between his/her needs and the
product/service that our organization provides
- Perceive the price as fair. But not necessarily the lowest
- Thinks that our product/service will increase the productivity
and profit of the customers organization
- Perceive the sales rep as valuable resource who is trying to
help the customers business
The questions asked in the questionnaire
reflects these considerations about the prerequisites for creating
an atmosphere where people want to buy.
Inspiration
The methodology behind the questionnaire and concept of "Customer
Meeting RI" isn't just grabbed out of thin air. It is based on best
practice and the latest litterature. You can see some of the
research, papers and books that make up the foundation of CMRI
here:
- Stephen R. Covey: The Speed of Trust (2006)
- Wiliam J. Lundstrom og Ashutosh Dixit: "Is trust "trustworthy"
in customer relationship management?", Journal of Academy of
Business and Economics (February 2008)
- Angela Hatton: The definitive business pitch (2006)
- Jeffrey Gitomer: The Sales Bible (2008)
- Harvard Business Review on Sales and Selling (2009)
- Fredrich Reichheld: The Loyalty Effect (1996)
- Fredrich Reichheld: The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits
and True Growth (2006)
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