YES. We create added value for our customers.
Who buys our products and why? On the surface, these are two super simple questions. However, if I look back, a whole range of answers pops up. The fact that the decision-maker on the customer side was simply presented with the best - or let’s say - a perfectly suited product is definitely not the only answer. In my opinion, there's really no such thing as the "best product" - but there is certainly the best possible solution for a customer's ongoing or specific needs. Sometimes there’s a single decision-maker on the customer side, and of course it’s always possible to see who signed the order - but in most cases it's really an entire network of people that ends up influencing the final decision. That's what makes it so interesting.
Responding to individual needs and personalities
In our business that means there's not just one key to success, but rather a whole bunch of keys. That also includes intercultural competence, that goes without saying, but to a large extent also an intracultural distinction. By the latter I mean the ability to respond to diversity within a cultural group. In a company that means taking both a vertical and horizontal view to be aware of hierarchies and the departments in question, including the rich varieties of personalities involved. As an international player, CHT really leans in to how important that is from a sales perspective, both externally and internally.
Strategically bundling know-how
The demands of the market on our customers are increasingly complex. That, in turn, calls for increasingly differentiated solutions and often entirely new approaches to meet the challenges of today’s textile industry and to be able to successfully participate in shaping it. Our customers have extremely specific requirements that can often only be solved technically by absolute specialists in a long-lasting way. It doesn’t really make much of a difference if I find those specialists at my own site or at one of the numerous other CHT locations across the globe. That’s where one of our strengths becomes apparent time and again, namely our willingness to support each other and really going above and beyond the call of duty. That makes it easy for me to integrate our know-how from markets I might not be directly connected with. And our customers benefit from that added value because it goes beyond the products themselves.
Trust takes things to the next level
Our intercultural and intracultural competencies shine brightest when we work with our customers. Whether it's working together with technical staff, when negotiating with managers or company owners at the table or on the phone, it’s always essential to find the right communication to jointly reconcile needs and solutions. If the technician isn’t fully convinced by a product, the manager is never going to close a deal. And if the management isn't convinced by the business or the business partner, it doesn’t matter how technically valid our solution is. So in my experience I’d answer the initial question like this: customers buy our products not just because they represent the best possible solution for their particular need, but also because we reach decision-makers and co-decision-makers with targeted content that creates a fundamental framework of mutual interest in doing business together. What we get right at CHT is consistently succeeding in communicating the quality of our products as well as confidence in ourselves as an organization - and that’s something we can really be proud of.
