What do your customers say about you when you leave?

“Sometimes it is the most basic and straightforward of advice, the kind that we tend to miss as naive, that can be the most effective...” Howard C. Cutler.
You know how you want to be treated by other salespeople, we all do, so why have we have all witnessed good and bad customer service at one time or another?
Everyone enjoys an exceptional dinner at a restaurant - the waiters must do as well on their nights off - so what makes some of them so rude when they are working?
Everybody is too busy to be kept waiting, so how can a company keep me on the phone with a message that tells me my call is important, and then leave me for fifteen minutes, it’s clearly not that important is it?
So if the above statements are true - if we all know how we wish to be treated as customers, why do so many of us forget as soon as we put on our sales hat?
Here’s another sweeping statement - we all know that you can’t trust a sales professional, right?
They’re just after the sale aren’t they? They’ll tell you what you want to hear to get what they want, then you’ll never see them again.
A little later, when you call the company because things aren’t going as agreed, you find that the salesperson has recently left and “they really shouldn’t have promised you that!”
But you’re not that kind of sales professional, are you?
So why would anyone who appreciates good customer service treat another human being so appallingly?
I’m guessing it’s the same reasons we let people down in general, even those close to us, we just didn’t care enough about anyone else’s feelings or priorities, because we were too tied up with our own.
The Win / Win Mentality
Habit number four of Stephen Coveys “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is Think Win / Win, where two people work towards achieving their desired results - in a sales situation it’s where we achieve our targets and goals while helping our customer achieve their targets and goals with the aid of our business solution.
However, the most common alternative to this is described by Mr Covey as simply “Win”, where people don’t necessarily want their customer to lose - the customer winning or losing doesn’t matter - what matters is that the sales person gets what they want.
I think in everyday business life it translates as;
“I’m going to Win / You? Actually, I don’t give a monkeys whether you win or not, or even if this product is right for you. Not that I wish you any harm! I’m not a bad person! I’m just a bit busy and my boss is on my back to find three more prospects just like you – and boy, if you had my debts, you’d be pushing for this sale.”
So, is Win / Win viable?
Covey goes on to offer some alternatives;
Win / Lose - You win, customer loses; not really a long term plan, is it! One day you just run out of customers.
Lose / Win – You Lose, customer wins; Ooops, there goes the business!
Lose / Lose – Why bother?
So, starting off with the mindset of “If that was me, how would I like to be sold to?” is actually good for business. Why?
• it increases customer loyalty
• if they need some advice with regards to your industry, they will call you first
• when asked by friends and colleagues, they will recommend you
So returning to the quote at the top of this article, putting this old fashioned, naive theory of understanding your customer’s point of view, looking at the world through their eyes, it may be simple but it is not simplistic.
It takes a greater skill set than just grabbing the business with your open probes and your well rehearsed closes.
Think about it, that bad waiter is probably not such a bad waiter really;
• he’s just being managed badly
• his girlfriend left him an hour ago
• he didn’t get into University yesterday
• he didn’t ......well you get the idea.
But all those examples are just reasons for his poor level of service, they’re not justifications.
You won’t be eating there again, you’ll tell anyone who will listen how awful the service was, and the feeling of ‘being badly done-to’ diminishes even the finest product experience – edible or not.
As customers we pay for something we want and expect to get it as advertised.
As sales people we are trusted to deliver what we promise
That’s too easy to get wrong isn’t it?

Do this now
Think of recent sales experiences you’ve had as a customer and as a third party observer.
Think about what made those experiences great and what made some of them unpleasant.
Make notes and highlight keywords that describe each experience.
Now start two sentences;
• one with “as a customer I expect ....” and finish the sentence with your positive keywords
• start the second with “as a customer I don’t expect ....” and finish the sentence with your negative keywords.

Do this from now on
You’ve just created the beginning of your customer charter, your own mission statement for what’s important to you as a customer; make sure all your customers get treated like that from now on.
And that’s what they’ll talk about when you’re gone.