How To Disagree But Still Keep Your Customer
The Customer is King. How do you say “no” to the King? In ancient times, if you said “no” to the King, you would lose your head. Keep your head - learn how to say “no” to the King in the modern era. It is even worse in Japan because the customer isn’t King, the customer here is God! However, the customer is not always right. Sometimes they are being unreasonable or they are requesting things which are beyond our scope to fulfill. There are times when we have to say “no” to the customer and not accept their demands. How do we disagree with the customer and still maintain our good relationship?
We need to practice some self-awareness first. Are there certain words or phrases, that cause a strong negative reaction within us? If we know that when we hear words like “that is impossible” or “that is nonsense” and it triggers a strong defensive attitude inside us, we need to recognize that fact so we can control our reaction. We need to stop the release of fight or flight chemicals and allow the brain to take over.
When we hear something from the customer we know is going to be a problem or trouble, we must stop ourselves from wanting to respond immediately. We need to firstly consider why we believe the opposite of what they say to be true. We have a different opinion, but why is that? What do we think, why do we think that, what is the evidence to support our viewpoint? We have to accept that we might be wrong and the customer is correct, rather than just disregarding the customer’s opinion, because we haven’t thought of that possibility before or we haven’t done that procedure before.
Here are 6 rules for disagreeing agreeably with customers:
Give the customer the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are right and we are wrong? Don’t just reject what they say out if hand.
Listen and really try and understand why they hold that opinion. We also want to feedback that we have heard what they have said and that we are genuinely trying to see things from their point of view.
We have to commit to react unemotionally. We need to stay very calm, no matter how upset or angry the customer becomes.
We use a cushion to give ourselves thinking time.
We eliminate words like “but”, “however’ from our responses and we replace them with the word “and”.
We respond by telling a short story that delivers the context of why we believe what we believe. We don’t go into providing the evidence of our beliefs without first providing the context.
We need to use a story to tell the background that led us to the belief that we hold to be true or which we consider to be the best option. Only after delivering the context as a story, do we state our opinion. If we state our opinion immediately, the customer will reject it because they don’t have any context against which to judge whether what we are saying is reasonable or not.
For example, if the customer was very unhappy about the delivery time not being the next day, we need to give them some context as to why we can’t do it the next day.
Context
We might say something like this, as we tell the story:
“I was talking to Suzuki san in our HR division the other day at our headquarters.
He told me that delivery issues have become quite a topic in Japan. He said the number of young people has halved in the last twenty years and that the projections are that they will halve again over the next forty years.
This is going to have a big impact on all industries in Japan. He said, it means that young people are going to be in short supply.
We see it already because jobs like delivery drivers are becoming harder to fill. He told me it now taken us three times as long as it used to, to hire people for these jobs.
He said it is a nightmare if they leave because it takes many months to replace them.
Every industry will start to suffer these same problems but the delivery sector is feeling the problem right now. Amazon has created a lot of pressure on the delivery sector.
They are being forced to move away from same day or next day delivery as a result, because the delivery teams can’t take the pressure due to understaffing”.
Having told that short story, we have provided context as to why we also can’t maintain the same delivery systems as in the past and the customer is more likely to understand our situation and accept what we are proposing.
Recommendation
At this point, we would say,
“We really want to maintain the same delivery timings as before, but frankly the change in Japan’s demographics is now making all of us accept we need to factor in longer delivery times. Please be understanding of our position, we have no choice any more”.
If we just said we can’t do it, we could easily get into an argument with the customer about how they believe we are going to have to do it, whether we like it or not.
We can avoid that type of response if we follow the six steps. So thinking about the likely situations that come up in your business, how will you apply what your learnt today in your daily work? Thinking back was there any situation where you provided context through a story for explaining why you couldn’t do what the customer wanted? How did it go? If it went well, then what were the success factors that you can apply to other situations? If it didn’t go well, what can you do to improve your delivery?
Action Steps
Survival Tips For Stressed Out Salespeople?
When we are under stress our concentration and productivity levels are much lower than normal. Sales has to be one of the most stressful occupations on the planet. It is an emotional roller coaster, where we go from one meeting feeling elated, to being totally depressed after the next meeting. We are swinging in the breeze between making our target and missing our target. Our boss is giving us a hard time when we are behind on the numbers. If we are on commission then we are not making enough money to live. These realities add to our stress levels. We have to know how to manage our stress, because we know that too much stress can affect our health and our work.
One place to start is with our self-talk. We need to switch our language away from the negative to the positive.
For example,the negative view would sound like this: “I feel hopeless at persuading customers”. We have to switch our language to a positive view, so we say,
“I can better prepare for my customer meetings”. The action step attached to this would be to
write down the likely objections from the customer, before you go into the meeting and have your response properly prepared. The act of preparing better for the client meeting will help you to relieve your stress.
There are also some handy stress management principles we can employ.
We put pressure on ourselves by allowing sales disasters in the past drag us down. We also add additional pressure by projecting what could go wrong in the future. We imagine we can’t make enough sales, so we don’t have enough money, our partner leaves us as a result. Actually none of this has happened, but we worry about it nevertheless. Instead of that, don’t allow the past worries or future worries into your today. Just focus on what we have in front of us. We can plan for the future, but we don’t have to worry about it.
Often we are feeling stressed but have no clear one thing to concentrate on. Call out the big problem facing us, by identifying it. When we do that, our mind gets clarity and we can start working on solutions. For example, we may not be making enough appointments with clients. We have isolated the core issue so we now get to work on fixing it. In this case, we can increase the call rate or contact rate with clients we haven’t contacted in a while and drum up some business that way.
This is so simple but it really works. We get great clarity around where we need to concentrate our energy.
We can accept that the thing we fear is going to happen. Rather than continuing to worry about it, we accept that it will be the case and instead we can now concentrate on what we can do to mitigate it or reduce it. This gets us out of victim mode and into action mode and that pivot is critical to moving ourselves forward.
Our expectations can lead us into stress when things we expected to happen don’t happen. If we don’t expect anything from other people, when they let us down, we don’t feel any stress. This is because we had already discounted receiving anything from them. The client with whom we have a great relationship, buys from a competitor or doesn’t choose your solution in the pitch contest. We don’t take this rejection personally. We know it is never “no”. Only no to the offer at this time, in its current construct. We get busy serving the next client and don’t get depressed about losing one sale.
These stress management principles are very practical. The key is to change our thinking about the thing that is causing us stress. We know one thing for sure, the amounts of stress we are all going to be facing in the future are not going to get smaller. Controlling our stress is a key skill set for success in sales and one we must master.
So how will you apply what your learnt today in your daily sales work? Why not start by taking some other typical negative self-talk content and start creating positive versions, like“I am too busy to do all the followup” and change it to “When I plan my day, I can get the highest priority items completed”
Which of these stress management principles can you practice each day, to relieve the amount of stress you are feeling? Remember, either we control our stress or it controls us.
We will only face increasing levels of stress in sales, so we must master our stress management.
In Sales We Need To Create Super Re-Order Customers
Here is an important mantra: We don’t want a sale, we want the re-orders.
That task however is getting harder and harder. Customers today are more educated, better prepared and have more alternatives than ever before. Satisfying a customer is not enough – we have to exceed their expectations and provide exceptional customer service. Customer service has only one truth – how the customer perceives the quality of the service. Forget what we think is good customer service. We have to be really clear about what is the customer’s perception of good customer service. This is a totally subjective idea on the part of the customer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have influence on that perception.
Here is a quick audit on your understanding of the customer. How well do you know the customer’s perception of high quality customer service? When was the last time you asked about how well you were doing with serving that customer? Are you assuming that because there are no claims, that the customer is fully satisfied? Do you have a clear idea of the level of service your competitor is providing in terms of customer service?
The building of a strong fan base amongst your clients is a key step to becoming more successful. We all know the acquisition cost of finding a new customer is many times more expensive than deepening the scope of the relationship with an existing customer. That is fine but we need to also expand our numbers of customers. We always need more good customers, but how can we create new fans? How do we do that when there are so many rivals? Here are four approaches to consider.
Whenever we ask a salesperson a question and they cannot answer it immediately, we doubt their value to us. Often however, we salespeople can become concentrated on just a few products and lose touch with the broader perspective. We need to keep studying our total product line-up, so that we have broad knowledge to show we are professionals in our business. Prove that we can be trusted to serve the customer. So ask yourself, how well do you know your own product line-up?
So many times, as customers, we are told “no” by salespeople. Are we ever happy about that response? Buyers are looking for salespeople who they feel are really motivated to serve. The way to prove that is to show your strong desire to serve at every customer face to face meeting, on every phone call and in every response. Great in theory but are you really doing that now?
We have targets to achieve, pressure to perform and so often we can become totally focused on our own situation. By the way, here is a newsflash - the client only cares about their own situation and how dedicated you are to helping them. Are you really sincere about helping the customer or are you focused on yourself, your numbers, your deadlines? Don’t be in any doubt - customers can feel the difference.
Customer expectations change, but often salespeople are not changing with them. Business moves and what was enough some months ago, may not be suitable enough now. We have to really monitor the customer’s situation to see what has changed. That means we have to keep asking them about their expectations of service from us. Are we serving them in the way they want to be served. Most salespeople never want to ask this type of question because they are scared of the answer. We have to be brave and ask and if we do, we will be delivering exactly the type of service the customer wants and expects. When we do that, we differentiate ourselves from our competitors
So what percentage of your customers would you count as your loyal fans? What are you currently doing to drive that percentage score much higher? Customers will become someone’s loyal fan. We have to make sure that is us and not our competitor. Assume that the customer’s expectations and perceptions of what they consider outstanding service will keep changing. We have to keep up with the change but are we doing it?
Sales Bad News Travels In Threes
Our financial year ends in August and we are up over 20% on last year’s revenue results. I should be ebullient, chipper, sanguine, fired up for the new year, but I am not. Is it because we are back to zero again, as we all face the prospect of the new financial year? That sinking feeling of , “last year was hard and here we go again, but this time with an even higher target”. Maybe that is it, but it is hard to tell. There are three other things which are gnawing away at me, regarding incidents which happened this last week. Sales is an emotional roller coaster, we all know that. Well knowing that and being able to deal with the emotional downers is another thing altogether. I am a positive, upbeat person, for whom the glass is always half full. My glass got severely drained and it is still bugging me.
I had a pitch for a client’s business to help their sale’s effort. Actually they said they wanted a “transformation programme”. I had met the CEO previously and had understood what he was after. I came back to him with a comprehensive proposal. In the interim, a new HR person was recruited and I was informed we are now going to have a five entrant beauty parade.
They had various needs. They wanted transformation for their senior leaders, middle level sales managers and also wanted an internal trainer-the-trainer functionality, because the size of their sale force. That cost would preclude an externally delivered vendor solution.
I gave them that transformation formula. I even brought all of the training materials to the pitch, so they could see the professionalism we offer. I went through in detail what each group would need if they wanted to transform the business. This week the HR guy wrote to me and said we didn’t get the business.
I have no idea why, but I do know I won’t find out the real reason by talking to the HR guy. All I will get will be vagary. I will seek out the CEO directly and get some feedback. We rarely ever lose pitches, so I was a bit perplexed. To be honest, my ego was bruised, hurting and I found this news depressing. The point here is that although I know intellectually, that sales is an emotional rollercoaster, it doesn’t make much difference in the moment when you don’t get the deal.
The second piece of bad news was a delay in commencing a project. I had done a similar project for their company and they asked me to come back and do another one. That last project was a real nightmare. I was dealing with a young staff member who proved to be very demanding and sucked up a lot more of my time than was expected. Frequent changes were de rigueur and often without much actual requirement, except for whim.
Frankly, I was a bit gun shy to go again. However, it was a different member of staff this time, again quite young, but I agreed. Deja vu. Very demanding, very picky, but despite recurring nightmares about last time, I decided I wouldn’t throw in the towel and would tough it out. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger type of thing.
Then I get the email telling me to put the project on hold. I am guessing they are shopping the project around and are putting me on ice. I was wondering what was the issue? Was this a generational thing? Both individuals are quite young in business. You have to have some degree of experience, to have perspective and to know how to judge what you are looking at. Is this why there is a gap between what we are both looking at?
Another deeper thought occurred to me. Am I secretly blowing it up, because I actually I don’t want to do it? I know how much time it required last time and it looks like we are going down the exact same path again? I was wondering, what is my psychology here? Am I trying to get out of doing it? Or am I too old and inflexible to deal with these demanding young whippersnapper pups? That is a depressing prospect.
The third one was a case of sports negotiating. This is an ego trip for buyers, who like to see who is the sheik of the souk, the biggest wheeler and dealer, the cleverest negotiator, the bargain hunter extraordinaire. They like to play a little game of “beat down the supplier” to show how tough they are. Okay, you do run into that from time to time, but on this occasion it came from an unexpected source.
You meet people in business who are attractive, charismatic, your type of person. This buyer was like that. We have a lot in common and I like the cut of his jib. He asked for some training previously and I sent him my proposal. He came back with a counter offer that was at a steep discount. I like the guy and reluctantly agreed, because it was the first business with his company. I thought , “well once he experiences our quality, he will pay the right price”. My big mistake right there.
So I delivered the training and then find out that the next round will be done by someone I know who used to work with us as a contract trainer. This guy has a full time job in HR and does some training on the side. That was another red flag. There is no comparison in the quality of what is being delivered here, but I started to see where the client’s negotiation pricing benchmark was coming from.
So this week he asks me for some one-on-one coaching for presentations. I send him my proposal and he comes back with what he thinks the price should be. The language he used in the email was the same as the last email and so another red flag appears. I ask myself, why is this guy nickel and diming me? The quality of the training he got from me last time was at the top of the tree. So I felt his haggling was insulting and saying our quality isn’t appreciated. I also thought we had a better relationship that that. This time, I stood my ground, defended my quality, our brand. I answered him that if he wanted the best, then this is the number. As far as I am concerned, this time, there will be no discounting of even one yen. Subsequent silence on his part.
So what do we take away from this.
Despite the many years we have all been in sales we need to prepare for cyclical depression. I should have known that there is going to be an inevitable downer associated with the start of the new year. I have to remind myself that my team will be feeling the same way, so I need to work on boosting all of our emotions to move to positive ground. Just kicking off “as usual” in the new financial year won’t cut it. I need to make an intervention.
I tell my team, “no” isn’t “no”. It is just “no” to this offer in this format, in this budget cycle, in this economic situation. I need to tell myself that too. I need to separate my ego from the non-acceptance of our offer. There may be a number of reasons why the pitch failed and I need to find out what was the mismatch between what I thought they needed and what they actually chose.
I have discovered my new found buddy is actually no buddy. Where possible, I like to make my clients my friends. I thought he would be in that category. By the way, in his industry, his firm’s fees are very stiff and they don’t discount them at all. What I realised was his value system substantially differs from mine. He wants to “win” the negotiation. I am focused on building partnerships that concentrate on the re-order, not the one off discounted deal. We have a strong brand to defend and the way to do that is to draw a line in the sand on what you believe your value is worth. So he will now be moved into the acquaintance basket.