A Customer 360 Meeting is an annual event during which all points on the circle of your relationship with your customer are discussed. These meetings deepen partnerships and can transform your relationship from transactional to strategic.
Three key meeting components
A 360 Meeting should include these three key components:
- Account Support Activity. Use AI to collect call reports. Then have AI list these by date and the activities and cost reductions your company has executed to support your partnership during the last two years. This gives the customer details on the time and effort you have invested to keep their business running smoothly.
This section should include technical support calls, emergency deliveries, training sessions provided, custom solutions developed, problem-solving initiatives, and cost-saving recommendations implemented.
- Sales History. Be transparent with your sales history. Openly review the last two years of sales. AI can provide annual and year-to-date total sales broken down by category, including totals for deliveries, invoices, back orders, and sales rep visits.
Data transparency demonstrates your commitment to the relationship. It reveals trends in customer purchasing patterns, identifies optimization opportunities, and showcases the full scope of your partnership.
- New Action Plan. Developing a new action plan is your opportunity to collaborate with the customer on growing their business using your consultative abilities. Transparency in account support activity and sales history encourages customers to share new insights about their business challenges and opportunities.
This is your time to listen actively so that you understand the customer’s evolving needs. You need to identify new ways to add value and align your offerings with the customer’s strategic goals. Remember to commit to specific actions and timelines.
Serving Multiple Purposes
Customer 360 Meetings serve multiple critical purposes. They defend against competition by making switching costs psychologically higher. They reveal revenue growth opportunities through open dialogue. They provide early warning signals when customer engagement changes and they elevate you from vendor to trusted advisor.
Take action
Don’t wait for problems to emerge or competitors to attack. Engage in activities that proactively demonstrate product or service value and build trust with your clients. I suggest you have a Customer 360 meeting with each of your Top Ten Accounts annually. Book it now!
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