How not to win customers, 3 sales strategies that really don’t work!
It’s Christmas and I have probably eaten to much Christmas pudding so perhaps I am feeling unforgiving but, as I wade through crackers, games and pies, I have been mulling over some of the ways that businesess manage to prevent their own sales and lose customers without seemingly trying!
So that got me thinking that it would be a bit of fun to have a look at how no to do it, how not to sell if you like, “How Not To Win Customers, 3 Sales Strategies That Really Don’t Work.”
Sales Loser Strategy 1: Be Unreachable
On Friday 21st December in the afternoon I had done some research online and was trying to order something over the telephone. The first 3 companies that I rang did not even answer the phone! The 4th said that they could not deal with my enquiry until after Christmas and the 5th said that there was no-one available to deal with my enquiry.
The 6th company were delighted to get my call, answered my queries and made the sale. What’s more, they won my business for the forseeable future. Great news for them and all because they were available when their competitors weren’t.
So 5 companies lost out. 5 companies who have put time, effort and money into marketing. 5 companies who have worked at PR and web advertising to create those all important leads and have then thrown their potential new business straight at the wall.
I’d like to say that this is uncommon but it really isn’t. Earlier on this year (as I have blogged about before) I was looking to buy some health insurance so I went online and did some research. I found 6 companies that I liked the look of so I emailed them using a combination of email client and web forms. Only one responded and before you ask, yes these were all well-known, brand names. They would be the names that you would more than likely think of!
Now, this would be bad business even if these businesses were rolling in enquiries but they’re not. It so happens that one of the ones who responded I am running some seminars for this year so I have had chance to speak with them about their market and their market is competitive. They could not believe that their competitors were burning leads in this way.
Is this situation uncommon? I don’t think so. About 18 months ago I was looking at new cars. I have always bought my cars but I did think (momentarily) about hiring / leasing a car. Now this is a very competitive market and one which I have run sales training seminars for in the past… I sent 10 internet enquiries and received only two responses… unbelievable.
So, my first tip for making sure that you don’t close any sales is to be unavailable to your potential customers. Make sure that you don’t have real people answering your telephones, push people through the rounds of “press 2 if you want to…”, don’t cover phones and sales enquiries during holiday periods, don’t return calls and make sure that you keep all enquirers waiting before you return their calls.
Sales Loser Strategy 2: Be Uninterested
If you want to make less sales be more interested in yourself, your company and your products that you are in your customers. This is a sure-fire way of sabotaging your sales results.
When you meet with clients ensure that you keep control of the agenda. Don’t let them interfere with your agenda. You know what you have to present and what will add value for their business so tell them about it.
Don’t be put off by their genuine objections. You shouldn’t let their signs of disinterest or annoyance affect you in any way. Prepare your pitch in advance and always complete every aspect of it whether you think it’s of use or not. You never know what your client might be interested in so do not mess with your format.
Don’t let your client ask irrelevant questions. Don’t be thrown out of your stride by difficult questions. If a question or query is irrelevant, tell your client so and quickly get back to the core points in your presentation.
Know that you know what is best for your client. You are the expert in your industry and you should use that expertise to win them over. Do not be fooled by their comments about what they want or need… you’re the expert and you know best what will help your clients so stick to your guns and tell them what they need.
Sales Loser Strategy 3: Be Unreasonable
If you want to lose customers the last thing that you want to do is be reasonable. Try to think of internal company rules and policies that will make you look unreasonable and maybe even ridiculous to your clients. For inspiration, have a look at this fabulous “unreasonableness” case study that happened to me on Saturday this week…
We had a need to hire a car for Christmas. Being busy we had forgotten to hire it until Saturday 22nd. We rang around a few car hire firms (another very competitive industry) only to find that there were no cars available.
Quickly, we realised that we were going to be lucky to secure a car and that we would probably have to pay “over the odds”. After a few calls we located a car with one of the biggest companies there is. After a few twirls on their machine they told us that a car would be available to pick up on the 23rd and return on the 26th.
Now, all we actually needed was a pick up on the morning of the 24th and a drop off later on that same day but no car was showing as available for that period. I asked if this was because they had a minimium hire period over Christmas and was told yes. Not unreasonable I thought given the potential demand at this time of year so we asked about picking the car up on the morning of the 24th and dropping it off on the 26th… and we were told, yes, that was fine and were given a price.
We confirmed that we would like to hire that car for the 2 day period but that we would drop the car off later on on the 24th (i.e. nearly two days early).
And that’s when the madness started…
“If you bring the car back on 24th there will be an extra charge.”
“Sorry, what?”
“An extra charge.”
“I want to bring the car back early not late.”
“Yes, I know. If you bring it back early there will be a penalty charge.”
“How much?”
”I’m not sure, perhaps the whole rental again.”
”What?! That’s ridiculous, we’re bringing the car back early. It should be less. I understand you want a minimum hire and we’re prepared to pay for that but we do not need the car for all of that time.”
“Yes, but that’s what we’ve been told to do. We cannot have cars not charged out at this busy time of year.”
”Yes, but it will be charged out. Infact, once we get it back you could technically re-rent it out and make double the money.”
“I understand sir but that’s the way it is.”
”But that’s stupid!”
“Yes sir, it is, but that’s what we have been told to do!”
Brilliant! What a masterpiece of unreasonableness (and not caring about what the customer wants). How many times have you come across similar rules and regulations which are clearly “unreasonable” in the eyes of the customer? If you want to destroy your sales results quickly and efficiently, then take some time out now and think of some rules, regulation and behaviours which will come across as totally unreasonable to your potential customers. You’ll be amazed how fast you can lose your customers and bring your business to it’s knees.
So there we are, "How Not To Win Customers, 3 Sales Stategies That Really Don’t Work!" Take some time out now and share your strategies and tactics for achieving a total sales breakdown right now!
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