How does your customer help you?

Many companies are cutting back and delaying new projects after the recent election. As a new solution provider, how do you create a win-win situation for customers who might worry about:

• quality of the solution
• satisfaction with the result
• cost

How can you add value for the customer by reducing risk or cost?

I propose 4 types of customers:

1. Regular customer: straight work for hire.
2. Reference customer: provides a private reference for my work to a potential customer.
3. Sponsor customer: the company is publically promoted as a user of the product.
4. Partner customer: actively promotes the product within their market.

Regular customer

The customer receives a proposal for their project. Engages in discussions regarding the scope of work, pricing, and other details. Once the contract concludes, there is no continued relationship with the client.

Reference Customer

A reference customer starts as a regular customer. As part of the contract, they agree to talk with potential clients to discuss:

• the project scope,
• the benefits of the solution,
• and the overall business impact of the work performed.

Contracts are protected by a non-disclosure agreement to safeguard the confidentiality of references. This allows prospective clients to better understand the value proposition. But it prohibits them from sharing any proposal-related information outside their organization.

In exchange for serving as a reference, these customers receive discounted rates on their contracts.

Sponsor Customer

A sponsor customer is a reference customer who has consented to publicly associate their company name with the solution/product. This association includes prominent visibility on websites, emails, and various marketing materials.

Sponsor customers receive a greater discount on their contracts compared to reference customers. They may enjoy other benefits, such as enhanced support agreements.

Partner Customer

A partner customer can be in any of the other customer categories. Unlike the other customers, who take a passive approach to supporting the product, these customers actively advocate for the product.

They share their positive experiences with others in the same industry. This strategy is particularly effective when the product offered is not a primary focus or distinguishing factor for the customer's business.

Rather than receiving discounts on contracts, these customers benefit from additional revenue when a client they refer decides to purchase the solution.

Conclusion

Offering customers an ongoing role in the success of your business can reduce their concerns about your solution. This win-win approach to negotiating contracts can also reach new clients and help answer the concerns of new clients.

What are your thoughts about these customer categories?
What tools/techniques do you use to help customers get
to yes?

(A good reference on negotiating is https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-Without/dp/0143118757.)