Be dog like to achieve sales success.
Do you have a dog? Do you know someone with a dog? Hopefully you answered “yes” to at least one of those questions, but this next question is the most important… How does a dog you know react when it sees you? Right, it jumps all over you, tries to lick your face, etc., etc. Even if it has only been 2 minutes since you’ve seen the dog, same reaction.
You want to be this happy to see your customers. Okay, don’t jump all over them or try to lick their face, depending upon the type of relationship you have, :I but be VERY happy to see them. You want to be present and very interested in them. When they are in front of you, act as if they are your only concern on the planet.
The bottom line: Let your customers know you are happy to see them and there to help in any way you can. Make sure they know you appreciate them and their business.
Make it right when you get it wrong.
This past weekend my family and I went to one of my favorite restaurants – Dino’s in Worcester. I love the place, but we had a REALLY bad experience. We had reservations, were there on time, ordered our meals and got served 1 hour and 20 minutes later. Ouch! The people who showed up at the next table at the same time we did, got their bill before we got served. Double ouch!
The waitress apologized several times and gave us an excuse. She said they had a party of 30 downstairs who arrived just before us. Hm, not sure how they got in before the people at the table next to us as we walked in at the same time but the bottom line is: their problems aren’t our problems. We didn’t care what the excuse was, we just wanted our food.
What’s also interesting is that the owner, who usually goes to each table to asks how their experience is, didn’t come to our table. At the end of the meal, we requested the owner. We got his wife, who is arguably part owner but, she has never gone around to the tables before and we had seen the owner going to the other tables. In any case, I explained we had been coming to that restaurant for about 25 years. I also mentioned I’m there about once every 3 weeks and the woman acknowledged recognizing me. I then explained the situation. Her response? “I’m sorry, I cannot apologize enough. I wish I had known sooner.” I know, I should have asked, “What if you had known sooner.” but I didn’t. We all sat there and looked at her waiting to see what else she was going to say. She said nothing else. She apologized 2 more times as we left.
As we were leaving, a lot of people were waiting, we over heard one of them say, “Wow, how many more excuses are they going to give us for why they can’t seat us yet?” A bad day all the way around.
Incidentally, this restaurant has been around for MANY years, not sure how many but again, we’ve been going there for 25 years, so my guess is 30 years or more. This is not their first Mother’s Day. They knew how many people had reservations. My guess is they didn’t have enough people to cover because they’ve cut back due to the economy. Well, they will lose future business, and the economy with have absolutely nothing to do with it.
The bottom line: No one’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes. As ticked off as we were, we simply wanted the acknowledgement and some consideration. What would it have taken? A gift certificate. Amount? 20 dollars definitely would have done it. I spend more than that on take out and now I’m not sure I’m going back again. One thing I do know is that I’m not going back for a while. They should have acknowledged the mistake, apologized, asked what it would have taken to make us happy, and then they should have made it happen.
Why prospects focus on price.
How many times have you found yourself in a price war when competing for business? How many times has a salesperson found him or herself in a price war when you were the purchaser?
When one does not understand the real differences in two or more products being considered, 99 times out of 100 price will be the deciding factor. Why? It’s the one clear difference.
It’s simple, if Box A is assumed to be the same as Box B, and Box A is 1 dollar, whereas Box B is 2 dollars, obviously you’ll buy Box A because it’s half the price of Box B.
Now intuitively we all know that there has to be a reason why Box B is twice the price, but if we talk to the salesperson for Box B and she does not differentiate the two, or show why Box B is twice, or more than twice, as good as Box A, we’ll assume the person selling Box B simply priced the same product as Box A at a higher price and thus buy Box A.
Most prospects and customers don’t know our products and services as well as we do. They also do not want to put a ton of work into the process of getting educated or finding out all the differences for themselves, they rely on the salesperson for that. Many will test us by simply saying, “Hey, this one is half the price of yours, I’m buying this one.” If we don’t then do a good job of educating why we are twice the price and instead get into a price war, they will assume that price IS then the only difference and buy on price.
The bottom line: Assuming you price your product with integrity, the only way your product costs more money than a competitive product is if it is more valuable than the competitive product. When a prospect pits you against the competition based upon price, they are really saying, “Okay, the only difference I see is price and your higher priced, so I’m not going with you. If price IS the only difference you will cut your price to or below your competitor. If price is not the only issue, you will now educate me as to why your product is more valuable.”
Again, people assume the higher priced product is more valuable and they are waiting for you to educate them as to why. Many salespeople go straight to price assuming that is the quickest way to the sale, and through their actions tell the prospect, “My product is NOT more valuable, price is the only difference, and now I’ll do what I can to cut my price.”
Educate as to why your product costs more and build as much value as possible, cut price as an absolute last resort.
