Remember the first post on customer interactions where I shared essential tips on how to find customers to talk to? Great! Here’s the follow-up and I’ll be talking about how to effectively find customers to interact with.
Just in case you missed the first post (part 1), you can go over it here. It’ll help you understand how to define the profile of a customer and the general strategy to approach them.
Let’s move right into the focus of this content, which is customer interactions.
5 ways to generate fruitful customer interactions
Once the profile of the customer and the approach strategy is well defined the next step is to find an appropriate number of customers to speak with.
Here are 5 practical examples that show you how.
1. Medical conferences and congresses
Any event, congress, trade show, or course, involving the defined customers is a great opportunity to produce effective customer interactions.
You should take advantage of the gathering of individuals with the same interest in one single place. This is because access is normally easier, since they are not working, and are there to learn and socialize,.
Having a small booth can also make your life easier.
If you don’t have a budget for it you can work in the hallways. However, always be respectful of people’s time and follow the general rule mentioned in part 1 i.e., approaching the customer and asking for advice.
Another good place for fishing customers is any queue, for example, the buffet or the registration desk. Most of the time people are happy to talk to pass the time while waiting. Finding bored people stuck in lines is a common suggestion for customer interactions not only at congresses.
Sometimes during a conference, you just need to build a first contact and ask for their time afterward. Then right after the conference while their memories are still fresh, you must call them to remind them where you met, and ask for an interaction.
Finally, because you can get access to the program ahead of time, you can contact the speakers directly and arrange to meet them at the event.
2. Referrals
You need to take advantage of your network. For example, we all know that doctors are busy and have very efficient gatekeepers. However, a doctor can connect with other doctors making them easier to access.
Moving on, you should use referrals as much as you can to find the first customer.
Once you have interviewed the customer, ask if he/she knows others who are dealing with the same problem. If you were respectful and the conversation was interesting, he/she is more likely to introduce you to others.
3. LinkedIn
I don’t have strong experience in using LinkedIn to connect with potential customers asking for advice.
However, in my opinion, the size of the database and the search functionalities make LinkedIn a powerful tool to target specific users.
Today, people are used to being approached directly on LinkedIn and after a few messages, you can generate a few people to talk. So go ahead and leverage LinkedIn’s professional network.
4. Salespeople
Your sales organization, direct or indirect, is an extremely valuable source of potential customer contacts.
As long as you are clear with the requirements for the selection, and you set expectations upfront you can have fruitful conversations with customers through your sales organization.
5. Proxies
Sometimes it is difficult to find the exact match for your customer.
For example, if you are looking to talk to head nurses working in an academic burn center since the target is very narrow it could be difficult to access the exact target.
In these cases, especially at the beginning of your search, you might consider proxies.
To do this, target head nurses working in burn centers or nurses that used to work in burn centers, retired nurses, etc.
Another proxy that I consider very valuable is salespeople.
If you find it difficult to access the customer, you can start with someone that knows the customer better that anyone else. That way, you can have better access and collect advice generated by the interaction of a large number of customers.
Conclusion
These examples are only a few ways to find customers to speak and interact with.
In fact, there is not a single way to get to people and often it takes some creativity.
If a method isn’t working, try something new but do not expect people to come to you.
Your customers are definitively harder to find and reach than for a B2C start-up.
However, it still doesn’t mean that it is impossible to gain qualitative customer insight into your medical business.
What other methods have you used to find and interact with customers? Put them in the comments and if you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it with colleagues and suggest they subscribe or follow me on LinkedIn.