72. How can a customer buy insurance against failure?
A professional sales person knows exactly what to do when a prospect keeps harping away on nothing but "Your price is too high" when trying to present a higher quality product.
Simply ask: "How much too high, Mr. Brown?" This immediately stops the prospect. First of all, it puts him on the defensive - where he thought he had put you - and second, it forces him to elaborate on his simple statement, "Your price is too high." He may then say something like this: "Your price is 10% higher than Jones - and if I can save 10% under our new cost-cutting program, I've got to do it. Now you can go to work. Now you have something to take hold of. You can focus on the difference, not the price. Paying 10% more for quality is an investment or insurance, never an expense. Everyone can remember making a purchase based on a low price that we later regretted.
No matter how hard you worked or how many concessions you have made when you sell a customer, he or she still feels that you owe them a favor. Do you know what your customer expects after the sale?
The perception on the part of the customer is that you, the seller, have not only gotten new business but also his or her money. There are many other sales people after the same account and the same business but you were chosen as the recipient. Therefore, psychologically, you now owe your customer a favor. Even though you had to bend over backwards to get the order. That is why follow up is so important to keeping the business.
You have been calling on a particular customer for months and have never gotten to first base. They are polite, however, they keep telling you to come back at a later date.
All of a sudden you make a small sale! As soon as you leave the account you check the stock status. Everything is checked and you drop a card in the mail that your customer receives the next morning confirming the order, delivery date and approximate delivery time. After you check to be sure everything was delivered you make a follow up call to be sure everything was alright with the product. You get a few small reorders and continue the same follow up strategies. And then the orders get larger. Soon you are the primary supplier. Later you are having lunch with the customer and he lets you in on the reason he switched: YOU FOLLOWED UP AND YOUR COMPETITOR DID NOT!
This meticulous follow up that you do is YOUR insurance policy against failure, just as your customers insurance is to buy a product or service that will do the job.
Comments:
Although there are no guarantees against failure, I have found persistence and follow up always pay off. Sometimes a prospect is unable to give you the business but will recommend you to a friend or company.
Paulette Clarke
Never promise something in a sale you can’t produce. I believe being honest and following up and delivering on your promises to a client is the best way to build insurance with a new client.
Heath Blanchard
I have always been very proud of the companies I have worked for. Therefore I have no problem letting the client know that our price is higher because we have a lot to offer. I always explain to the client “If you don’t like our service, then by all means don’t use us.” I want to make sure I am offering them the best level of customer service that they have ever experienced.
I know this may sound harsh, but it works. It lets the client know that you believe in what you are selling. The article discussed being in front of the client. Make sure you are working with your planner. It always helps to maintain contact. The client will remember when that other agency isn’t cutting it!! Pleasantly persistent but not annoying.
Danah Parmley
To insure that our customer can depend on us we must have excellent customer service at all time. One way we provide this is by constant follow ups. We do follow ups with each and every customer on weekly basis and sometimes on a daily basis depending on there current needs. It doesn’t matter if it is a new customer or one that we have been doing business with for years. You must always follow up on the day to day business to insure success. We strive daily to find ways to help serve each customer better.
Laura Arnett
Yes this sounds like the recipe for a sound business practice, simple, easy to do, but rarely done! We tend to move to the next prospect forgetting about the small client we just gained and could lose at a moments notice!
Morgan Frazier
Buying quality is certainly one way to buy security. Selling quality is also one way to ensure that the customer will be looking for increased support. Here's where the 'you owe me a favour' train of thought kicks in. The fact is, it is almost always easier to give that support to a loyal customer who buys the quality. I am happy to include the service as much as I can. Following up can assist with customer retention, it will also likely assist with advertising via word of mouth. Happy customers like to brag about the deal they got on their $10 000 stove - the deal is the service.
Wendy Parrott
I don’t think you can buy insurance on failure. We deal with the most unpredictable product on the planet…. the human being. What we can do is not fail ourselves. We must be efficient, proficient, and dedicated to what we should be doing and that is, to build long lasting relationships with our large customers and do our job to the satisfaction of our one time, temporary customers, because you never know where the people in one business might move around and be in the future.
Drew Culbreth
"The meticulous follow up that you do is YOUR insurance policy against failure, just as your customers insurance is to buy a product or service that will do the job."