Customers, dealers and franchisees are the toughest audiences of all. There is money on the line and they want something valuable. Here’s how to communicate with your customers, dealers and franchisees and get results.

Stakes are High

Employee and other internal audiences are easy to prepare for. They are paid to be there. It’s part of their job to attend, listen and applaud at all the right times when the top executives speak.

But fill the audience with people who pay you and the stakes go sky-high. You can’t use the same strategy, content or experiences with a high-level group.

First, customers, dealers or franchisees have to be invited and persuaded to attend. In their minds, you work for them and not the other way around. There’s always the fear that they have seen and heard everything before. So, instead of trying to communicate most companies pile on the food, ladle on the beverages, dazzle them with high-priced entertainment and hope for the best. (Or maybe, temporary amnesia.)

It’s Lonely at the Top – It Really Is

Second, you have to understand them. Have you ever wondered what the people at the very top of the organization do all day? Their job is to do anything that can’t be delegated – all the big decisions that impact the overall health and success of the organization. Hey, no stress there.

Who do top leaders talk to about their jobs, companies and goals? That’s the problem. The heads of the organization are usually the most isolated people in the company. They don’t have anyone to talk to who lives in their worlds. Successful customers, dealers and franchisees are like professional athletes. There aren’t very many of them at the top.

So, the people who lead the business you depend on for success want to get together with other leaders to just hang out … and be productive. They want a safe environment to share some camaraderie with their peers, swap ideas, offer insight, and receive some honest understanding and advice.

What They Really Want

Why would top executives and owners take time away from building their businesses to attend your meeting or event? Roughly 70% of the time it isn’t your actual company or your product or services that attracts them. The elite leaders come to meet and spend time with people just like themselves. They come because of the other attendees.

When you are dealing with the high C-level, your biggest impact will come from simply getting them together. Then you need to make sure all the people they want and need to speak to are also there and available. These top executives don’t want or need engineering details, specifications, operational procedures or marketing overviews.

Their Dream Meeting

Top executives and owners know all about the company and its’ products and services. That’s why they do business with you. In their dream event they would find:

Insight

Information

Connections

Influence

Ways to grow the business and profitability

If they are going to show up at your event, conference, meeting, trade show or summit, they expect specific information, action and results.

What’s In It for You?

Connecting directly with customers, dealers or franchisees lets you control the information and the experience and gives you greater opportunities to market directly to the most important people. Do it well and it pays off big time. But, remember: You absolutely can’t communicate in the same ways you do with your employees.

•  The information doesn’t apply.

•  The format doesn’t apply.

•  The experience doesn’t apply.

•  You can’t reuse your PowerPoint presentations.

If you want to outdo your competition, forget the traditional approaches of big-bucks guest speakers, long general sessions, even longer cocktail receptions, and dozens of workshops that don’t accomplish any work. It’s time to do things differently by keeping things simple and focused.

Think Like the CEO

Put your event objectives on the back burner for now and research the audience. Since they are your customers, dealers or franchisees, you should know their businesses very well. Where do they want to go? What are their objectives? What are their challenges?

They all want to make more money and be more profitable. Okay, that’s a start. How does this happen? What are their sales and revenue realities? What is their competitive or market situation? What do they expect you to do for them? What can you do for them that they don’t expect?

The Uncomfortable Truth

Unless you are a C-level executive yourself, just accept this uncomfortable truth – clients, dealers and franchises are not like you. They aren’t like the sales force, or the marketing and support teams. You have to treat them differently.

•  They don’t care how hard your organization worked.

•  They don’t care about how your brands are growing unless it impacts their growth and profitability.

•  They don’t care about your success; they want you to be a partner in their success.

•  If they have a choice between “good for you” and “good for me,” they’ll pick number two.

The bottom line is that every message, engagement, activity and experience you deliver must communicate the positive impact to their business.

They Don’t Want to Enjoy the View; They Want to Communicate

High-level executives, owners and franchisee don’t need views from 30,000 feet. In a growing economy they are down at ground level looking for new ways to compete. They are more hands-on than they’ve been in decades. They don’t need broad generalities and overviews – they want details. Provide them with specific information about their businesses and their business with you.

Let Them Work Together

Cut the General Sessions to the bone. Make them 60-90 minutes maximum. Eliminate the reviews and the overviews and make the experiences business-specific and actionable.

Let them work together. What are the realities they face? Break them up into groups and then tackle them. Your management and event team can facilitate the discussions. They want to learn, work and share with each other. Let them work together to develop ways to stimulate business, increase market share be a more successful competitor.

Be sure you have a recommendation ready. If there is a problem, challenge or opportunity, make sure you provide several solutions that directly benefit them first. Clearly present the pros and cons and the options. Then back off and let them discuss those ideas with the other executives. The goal is to have all of these critical leaders engaged in a discussion over the actions you can take together and the positive results they can expect. You are part of the discussions and the source of the solutions. Communicate it!

Make It Results-Driven

I hope you’ve noticed the big difference in this approach. It’s focused on their business and the positive value of doing business with you. Your customers, dealers or franchisees are generating real-world ideas and solutions with people just like them: Executives with similar challenges and needs. Your strategy is to ensure that every item in their action plan produces a definite result. By the end of the event, the audience will have generated best practices and suggestions on how to handle many issues they face every day. And your company will be a strong partner in those solutions.

Make It an Active Consultation

Above all, remember that there can’t be any top-down presentations because this is an audience of peers. They’re at the same level as your CEO, President or Vice Presidents. They don’t want to watch a video of your CEO welcoming them to the event – they want to talk with your CEO. Communicate at their level.

Give them access, opportunities and time. Go 1-on-1 and review their business-specific information, agree on the key recommendations and back it up with the results. Instead of hangovers, the people you rely on for your success will have greater confidence in your organization. You will become their working partners because you have given them definite, positive, real-world answers to their big question:

“What are you doing for me – now?”

Let’s spend 15 minutes talking about your next project or challenge. Just click on CONTACT US or send an email to andy@ideagroupatlanta.com and get in touch.

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