<p><strong>Be an Invaluable Resource to Your Customers</strong><strong><br /></strong>A good friend and fellow consultant and I were sharing stories about always doing the right thing for the customer and prospect, even if it means we do not profit from the assistance we offer.&nbsp;&nbsp;Years ago&nbsp;he knew of an electronics project that would have been a terrific sale for him, yet due to the prospects requirements, a competitive product was a better choice.</p> <p>Given this scenario what would you do? Let's make it much more interesting with this reality - you are behind in your quota Y-T-D.&nbsp; Would you sell something acceptable and live with the consequences of possible under-performance of the product for the application? Or would you admit a better solution is available based on the customer requirement?</p> <p><strong>How This Unfolded</strong><strong><br /></strong>The prospect bought the competitive product, meaning a sale was lost in the short term.&nbsp; Within the same year however, the same prospect needed other electronics products, made my colleague aware of them and bought them from him, which alone made his annual quota. &nbsp;Why did the customer buy from him? It is because the customer saw my colleague as an invaluable resource - one he knew would shoot straight with him. Thus because of this trust he became the 'go-to' priceless resource person.</p> <p><strong>Additional Thought - Check Your Ego at the Door</strong> <br />Once hearing the customers' desperate need for additional products this colleague could easily have fallen prey to being filled with self-importance.&nbsp; Instead of acting smug and arrogant, he moved his company to fulfill these new needs - which incidentally required him to fall just short of moving heaven and earth in the process!</p> <p><strong>NET/NET</strong><strong><br /></strong>Far too often customers see salespeople as only interested in making a sale, not truly committed to customer problem resolution. Notable periodicals continuously point out that trust and sales rarely, if ever appear in the same sentence.&nbsp; Yet the one characterization of the most respected salesperson is when customers trust them.</p> <p>Unlike other professions selling is neither black nor white, it is shades of gray. Doing the right thing for the customer or prospect and doing the right thing as a salesperson need not be mutually exclusive, however.&nbsp; The customer expects the &nbsp;&nbsp; sales person to be truthful and forthright; trickery and subterfuge get identified -&nbsp;&nbsp; sometimes during the dance of sales, at other times after the sale.&nbsp; Take this one&nbsp;to the bank: after the sale the customer sees the sales person differently, never quite the same - whether higher in esteem or lower than a sunset.&nbsp; If it's higher,&nbsp;count on repeat business. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but certainly eventually. If it's lower? Well, you already know the answer!</p> <p>Getting into the ethical and moral considerations of sales is a very complicated subject.&nbsp; Yet one thing is sure: doing the right thing takes courage, especially during recessionary times when the numbers we are posting do not align with our quotas.&nbsp; Intestinal fortitude to stand in the face of underperformance is what it takes.&nbsp; When we do the right thing for customers we become invaluable resources to them, the ones customers trust.&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;then customer confidence and integrity are built right alongside.&nbsp; What a perfect position for a sales rep to be in!</p> 2009-11-13T17:16:39Z -3.20065 605 7504 true 15 46818 the-sixth-of-the-ten-sales-leadership-truths-in-recessionary-times 3 2009-11-17T10:01:57Z 2009-11-17T18:02:30Z

Be an Invaluable Asset to Your Customers & Prospects Be Seen by Them as "the" GO-TO company and a Priceless Resource. Check Your Ego at the Door, as in Trying Times improper Attitude can kill a sale.

1 2009-11-17T18:02:30Z