What A Salesperson Can Learn From A Customer Service Problem
A basic fact of business that a likable salesperson is always going to outsell someone who is not likable.
After all, selling is a people business, and people have got to like you if you expect to succeed.
The same is true for a business - we have to be likable.
The other day I talked about how I strategically repel customers who aren't a fit for us, but for the rest, we do our best to be well-liked! Inevitably though, customer service problems arise.
People make mistakes, or UPS delivers a package to the wrong address.
It happens.
We go out of our way to fix those problems, but we can only help customers who approach us properly.
Here's an example: Yesterday someone posted on my Facebook page about how he ordered something a week ago and still doesn't have it.
I deleted the post - my Facebook page isn't the place for that - and forwarded his information to my support desk, but a few minutes later, he did it again.
Looking up his ticket history, it appeared that someone responded to him within minutes, but his email apparently went to his spam folder, since auto-generated support tickets do that a lot.
(ALWAYS check your spam folder!) As far we knew, the problem was resolved.
But, it wasn't, and instead of trying to contact us by ticket, or instead of picking up the phone, the customer resorted to trash-talking me on my Facebook page.
That's not an example of a customer helping us to help him.
Now think about your role in sales - your job is to make sales.
That's it.
To clarify that even more, your real job isn't to 'sell' to people, which implies convincing someone who really may not want your product.
Your real job is getting people to 'buy' because when someone buys, as opposed to being sold, they're a lot happier in the end, and you get to deal with less headaches and more referrals! Unfortunately though, few salespeople help customers to buy.
Instead they continually sell.
The problem is exacerbated by books and seminars that continue to tell salespeople to pester prospects until they either say yes or no.
Why? How is THAT productive? Isn't it better to spend time with people who WANT to buy, instead of fighting an uphill battle with people who DON'T? Place that concept into the context of how YOU are doing your job every day, and think about whether you are getting people to buy, or if you're merely stressing yourself and your prospects out by trying to sell them.
Once you achieve that new way of thinking, that you're not a salesperson as much as someone who gets others to buy, you'll be a lot happier and your commission checks will be a lot bigger!
After all, selling is a people business, and people have got to like you if you expect to succeed.
The same is true for a business - we have to be likable.
The other day I talked about how I strategically repel customers who aren't a fit for us, but for the rest, we do our best to be well-liked! Inevitably though, customer service problems arise.
People make mistakes, or UPS delivers a package to the wrong address.
It happens.
We go out of our way to fix those problems, but we can only help customers who approach us properly.
Here's an example: Yesterday someone posted on my Facebook page about how he ordered something a week ago and still doesn't have it.
I deleted the post - my Facebook page isn't the place for that - and forwarded his information to my support desk, but a few minutes later, he did it again.
Looking up his ticket history, it appeared that someone responded to him within minutes, but his email apparently went to his spam folder, since auto-generated support tickets do that a lot.
(ALWAYS check your spam folder!) As far we knew, the problem was resolved.
But, it wasn't, and instead of trying to contact us by ticket, or instead of picking up the phone, the customer resorted to trash-talking me on my Facebook page.
That's not an example of a customer helping us to help him.
Now think about your role in sales - your job is to make sales.
That's it.
To clarify that even more, your real job isn't to 'sell' to people, which implies convincing someone who really may not want your product.
Your real job is getting people to 'buy' because when someone buys, as opposed to being sold, they're a lot happier in the end, and you get to deal with less headaches and more referrals! Unfortunately though, few salespeople help customers to buy.
Instead they continually sell.
The problem is exacerbated by books and seminars that continue to tell salespeople to pester prospects until they either say yes or no.
Why? How is THAT productive? Isn't it better to spend time with people who WANT to buy, instead of fighting an uphill battle with people who DON'T? Place that concept into the context of how YOU are doing your job every day, and think about whether you are getting people to buy, or if you're merely stressing yourself and your prospects out by trying to sell them.
Once you achieve that new way of thinking, that you're not a salesperson as much as someone who gets others to buy, you'll be a lot happier and your commission checks will be a lot bigger!
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