Felicity, my miracle worker is an astute observer of business happenings and this story from her makes an excellent point!
I’ve had 2 salespeople try to convince me to switch to their company in the last month, and neither experience was positive.
Firstly there was the guy who stopped me in a shopping centre car park with a promotional offer for a mechanic nearby. I paid a set amount upfront that gave me access to a certain number of services for free over the next 12 months.
Secondly, a gas company. When I moved 6 months ago there was an error with the gas meter numbers, meaning I’ve been paying my neighbour’s gas account, thinking it was mine. And the pre-existing gas company was sending bills to the Occupier. When I finally twigged what was going on, I started the process of getting the correct gas account transferred to my preferred supplier, as I’d originally planned, which triggered a call from the pre-existing gas company, trying to convince me to stay.
What do both these experience have in common – apart from being unsolicited by me? The salespeople didn’t listen to me. Both times they set out their offer, I said thanks, but I was happy with my existing mechanic/supplier and didn’t want to change. So then they started again. And I stated again, I was happy and didn’t want to switch.
One of the salespeople even said at one point “don’t you want to save money?” in an incredulous tone, which made me feel like the stupidest person on the planet.
And yes, I do, but there is a thing called customer loyalty, and they didn’t care about that.
Instead of listening to what I was telling them, and retreating, or changing their approach to fit what I was saying, they just kept going on about the price.
Six times I said the same thing to the mechanic’s representative, 4 times to the gas company. And in both cases I ended up making up a story about why I couldn’t do anything right then just to get away from them.
So not only didn’t they sell me their particular offer at that time, they also made me quite determined never to deal with their company again in the future.
It’s all about WIIFM, isn’t it?
And a final comment from Winno: We have one mouth, two eyes and two ears for communication of which 80 percent should be used for listening to, and observing, the customer. In a nutshell, shut up and listen. You’ll be amazed at what it does for you… and your customer.
Footnote from Felicity – Since I first started to get my gas account sorted out over 3 weeks ago, I have received 3 phone calls on my home phone from the gas company. All starting with “we’ve just received notification that you want to transfer….” blah blah blah, and trying to convince me to stay. The calls are getting shorter, as I get more fed up.
I’ve also received at least 4 text messages saying they’ve tried to call but been unable to reach me.
2 missed calls on my mobile.
And a letter.
Is it just me, or is this getting ridiculous? I should never have been their client in the first place, and this is almost getting to a level I’d label harrassment.
Perhaps if there was some variation in the approach I’d be a little more forgiving, but how many times do I have to be told they’ve just received a request to transfer my account away from them??? Script, anyone??
The “how’s things?” call is one of those techniques every businessperson should use. It works beautifully for anybody who is serious about making their business successful. In fact, if you’re not using it you should be. Want to learn more? Buy Winston’s downloadable discussion on the “How’s Things?” call here. “Part of the Winno’s Wise Words series”.
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