In my wanderings through life, space and time, I’ve learnt a few things. Some of them about physics! Where physics seems to directly apply to customer service is Newton’s 3rd law:
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” - If you push, expect push back!
One of the terrible things about pushy sales people is their inability to see that the potential customer is not interested. The whole process of trying to sell stops becoming about what the customer needs and becomes motivated entirely by selfish affirmation. Affirming that the sales person has the power or ability to make that person buy. This strategy might work for one off purchases, but it leaves the customer feeling hollow. They never really wanted the product, so although at the time the sales person did a good job of explaining why they should want it, that customer will eventually revert back to feeling that it was an unnecessary purchase as all the same doubts come back in.
I’d compare this experience to a salesperson trying to sell a ship. The customer doesn’t want it and for every negative reason the customer gives for not wanting it, the ship gets a hole. Sure a salesperson can plug 1 hole, maybe 2, but eventually you’ll just run out of fingers. The salesperson then demonstrates a clear disinterest in what the customer actually wants and the whole customer service situation flips. Suddenly, the salesperson is the one demanding something from the customer.
Most customers aren’t stupid and they’ll spot this shift. Suddenly the customer will feel uncomfortable and depending on the person, they may become aggressive, defensive or passive leading to a shallow sale. A business does not want any of their customers feeling any of those things. They need to feel positive about buying the item, then they’ll feel positive about your brand.
How do you make someone positive about the product? Is that the question you’re asking? If so, who benefits from the answer to that question? You or the customer?
Every question you ask and every answer you find should always lead to the customer having a better experience. This then leads to your business becoming trusted because people know you’re out to enrich their lives through the products you sell, not just enrich your own. Now of course the answer has to work out financially. A business can’t just give all their customers free products, that clearly doesn’t make sense. But what does make sense is the attitude being about enriching the customer experience.
The question I always ask myself is this: “How, with the range of products I sell, can I make this customers life better?” To answer this, you need to have paid attention to your customer. Asked them what they want, what they want from the product they want. If it’s a lifestyle product, understanding their emotional response to products is important, so ask them questions around that. A lifestyle product is all about feeling like you’ve achieved the aspiration, so get to understanding what they want. If you’re trying to hard-sell a lifestyle product, then you have just failed. They must feel good about it because that is how they’re aspiring to feel. If they don’t want it, convert your energies into selling something they do want.
In conclusion, hard selling, whilst sometimes good for the immediate figures work out disastrously in the long term. It only serves to build the wall between you and your customer. Break down the wall, get on their side and guide them to the best product you offer which suits their needs. That is good customer service.
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” - If you push, expect push back!
One of the terrible things about pushy sales people is their inability to see that the potential customer is not interested. The whole process of trying to sell stops becoming about what the customer needs and becomes motivated entirely by selfish affirmation. Affirming that the sales person has the power or ability to make that person buy. This strategy might work for one off purchases, but it leaves the customer feeling hollow. They never really wanted the product, so although at the time the sales person did a good job of explaining why they should want it, that customer will eventually revert back to feeling that it was an unnecessary purchase as all the same doubts come back in.
I’d compare this experience to a salesperson trying to sell a ship. The customer doesn’t want it and for every negative reason the customer gives for not wanting it, the ship gets a hole. Sure a salesperson can plug 1 hole, maybe 2, but eventually you’ll just run out of fingers. The salesperson then demonstrates a clear disinterest in what the customer actually wants and the whole customer service situation flips. Suddenly, the salesperson is the one demanding something from the customer.
Most customers aren’t stupid and they’ll spot this shift. Suddenly the customer will feel uncomfortable and depending on the person, they may become aggressive, defensive or passive leading to a shallow sale. A business does not want any of their customers feeling any of those things. They need to feel positive about buying the item, then they’ll feel positive about your brand.
How do you make someone positive about the product? Is that the question you’re asking? If so, who benefits from the answer to that question? You or the customer?
Every question you ask and every answer you find should always lead to the customer having a better experience. This then leads to your business becoming trusted because people know you’re out to enrich their lives through the products you sell, not just enrich your own. Now of course the answer has to work out financially. A business can’t just give all their customers free products, that clearly doesn’t make sense. But what does make sense is the attitude being about enriching the customer experience.
The question I always ask myself is this: “How, with the range of products I sell, can I make this customers life better?” To answer this, you need to have paid attention to your customer. Asked them what they want, what they want from the product they want. If it’s a lifestyle product, understanding their emotional response to products is important, so ask them questions around that. A lifestyle product is all about feeling like you’ve achieved the aspiration, so get to understanding what they want. If you’re trying to hard-sell a lifestyle product, then you have just failed. They must feel good about it because that is how they’re aspiring to feel. If they don’t want it, convert your energies into selling something they do want.
In conclusion, hard selling, whilst sometimes good for the immediate figures work out disastrously in the long term. It only serves to build the wall between you and your customer. Break down the wall, get on their side and guide them to the best product you offer which suits their needs. That is good customer service.
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