Retaining customers is the number one priority of sales leaders this year, according to the 2025 Sales Leader Report.
Holding on to your current accounts is just smart business. Acquiring new customers can cost as much as five times more than retaining existing ones, and a 2% improvement in customer retention is equivalent to the profit generated by cutting costs 10%.
It just makes sense. Happy customers drive repeat business and higher profits. In addition, customer-centricity helps companies increase customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty.
According to a study of over 1,300 organizations, 84% of organizations that focused on improving customer experiences increased their revenue.
But to get these results, customer-centricity must be more than a vague idea; it must be part of your core values and integrated into your company culture and daily operations.
Here’s what you need to know to develop a true customer-centric strategy for your sales team.
What Is a Customer-Centric Strategy?
A customer-centric strategy puts the customer’s needs, wants, and communication preferences at the center of the buying process. A positive customer journey depends on helping the customer achieve short- and long-term success through every sales activity and communication.
To be fully effective, a customer-centric approach must go beyond the sales department to include your customer service, marketing, and account management teams.
How to Be Customer-Centric
Implementing a customer-centric approach to selling sounds simple, yet most companies struggle to accomplish it.
Follow these seven tips to transform your sales organization to a customer-centric model.
1. Research Every Customer
Customer-centric sales organizations take the time to understand the customer both at the industry level and at the individual level. Arm your sales team with data-driven insights on their customers and train them to research each prospect in advance.
Be sure your sellers are pre-call planning to understand their prospects on a deep level. If they do, the solutions they recommend will be tailored to the buyer and will provide the most value.
2. Be Consultative
A customer-centric sales strategy focuses first on understanding the customer’s needs and wants, then on recommending the most appropriate solution.
Train your sellers in consultative selling skills. They should be able to listen actively, offer suggestions, and tailor solutions based on what is in the customer’s best interest.
A consultative approach also improves your team’s meeting outcomes. When sellers investigate and address customers’ needs properly the first time they meet, they don’t need to follow up a second time. This shortens the sales cycle, improves customer satisfaction, and builds your brand reputation.
3. Ask Open-Ended Questions
Every customer interaction should be centered on the buyer. Coach your sellers to ask open-ended questions that get to the heart of what is important to the customer, as well as any concerns and objections.
Then, remind them to listen actively to the answers they receive. By asking insightful and open-ended questions, sellers can uncover valuable information about the customer’s needs, wants, pain points, and goals. This allows them to recommend solutions that meet their needs, making it more likely you’ll close the sale.
4. Match the Customer’s Communication Style
Active listening combined with probing questions and a consultative approach will put your sales team ahead of the competition. But to really stand out, train your sellers to identify and adapt to the customer’s preferred style of communication. Are they fast paced or methodical? Data driven or more social?
Not everyone communicates (or prefers to communicate) in the same way. Adapting to the customer’s communication style will build rapport, make them feel more at ease, and improve their overall experience with your company.
5. Ask for Feedback
A customer-centric strategy includes giving buyers the opportunity to provide feedback through a post-sale call, survey, scorecard, or other format that makes sense for your business. Your organization should use that feedback to continuously improve how you serve the customer.
Requesting feedback from your customers (and from deals you lost, if possible) can help you learn what you’re doing right and where you can tweak your approach to be more successful in the future.
6. Train on Customer Service Skills
Customer-centricity is a business strategy that doesn’t end with the sales team. Your customer service and account management teams are an integral part of the buyer experience.
Customer service skills training will help all team members find out what’s causing service headaches, fix customer success challenges, identify common pitfalls, and resolve pain points. When the teams share a common language, you’ll increase customer loyalty, retention, and referrals.
7. Have an Account Management Strategy
Account management is a customer-facing, post-sale role. Once the deal is won, the account manager continues to build a strategic relationship with the customer—ensuring they’re achieving the highest level of satisfaction and advising them on long-term growth strategies.
Account managers keep customer service and customer success top of mind. They also focus on business development and growing accounts through upselling, account management training, and cross-selling opportunities.
Some companies only give lip service to a customer-first focus. Truly customer-centric sales organizations develop a culture around their buyers. Make sure each of your team members (especially your customer-facing employees) approaches every interaction with your customers’ goals in mind.
Winning with a Customer-Centric Strategy
Using a customer-centric strategy not only improves the experience your customers have with you; it results in increased revenue—making it a win-win.
Be sure high-quality customer service turns into sales by giving your customer service and account management professionals the skills and confidence to identify opportunities and present valuable solutions with every customer interaction.
Find out how The Brooks Group IMPACT for Customer Service training program gives your team the skills to delight customers, grow loyalty, and differentiate your company from the competition.
