JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has 5000 JPMorgan Chase branch operations to manage. You can apply Dimon’s unique approach to manage customers to manage your customers. Here’s more about Dimon’s unique approach.
Have a unique approach to your sales call to make it special.
You might have read about Jamie Dimon’s annual bus tour to visit remote branch operations. Each year he takes a summer tour to meet with his employees at their locations. He enters each location through a “tunnel of love’ formed by his employee’s raised arms. This festive environment is just one aspect of his approach to better serve his customers.
You might not be able to charter a bus and form a tunnel of love. Instead, consider making your sales call special in other ways. Bringing along senior management shows your customers that you consider your customers to be special. Your most important customers deserve the attention of senior leaders.
Have a plan when you meet face-to-face with customers.
Dimon is there to work, not just have fun. He says, “You see your home team in action, how they meet people, talk to people.” He wants to see what’s working and most importantly what’s not working. At the end of one trip he had over 1,000 things to fix.
Be sure you are learning at each sales call. You can ask specific questions of your customers when you meet with them. Here are a few questions you should be asking: What’s working well for you? What’s not? What can I do to help your reach your goals? Is there anything I haven’t asked that could help you in your work? What’s changed at your company since we last met?
Use the sales call to implement sales strategy.
Dimon goes to parts of the country where he wants to grow his business. He wanted to grow business in the Deep South. He planned to go to struggling cities where he could embed Chase in the local economies and grow alongside them. He schedules meetings with local officials in those cities because he believes they can help him cut red tape.
Your sales calls should be with strategic customers where you want to increase business. Which departments do you want to increase your business? Do you have the contacts there that you need to increase sales? Plan to either go to lunch with your existing contacts and invite the ones you want to meet to join you at lunch.
You can talk business during lunch and let your customers get to know more about your work and what you’re trying to do. Be sure to be positive about your work with your current customer and compliment him on how he’s helped you achieve results. You want the new department contact to want to help you succeed.
You might not have 5000 customers or a bus to visit them, but you probably have customers where you want to increase sales. Your customers probably want help to achieve their goals. You’ve got nothing to lose when you make important sales calls. As Dimon says, “I have never been to a place, anywhere in this country or the world, where just showing up isn’t a sign of respect.”