It’s a sad fact of life that despite years and years of educational adverts, many people buy new pets at Christmas. What’s cuter than a floppy-eared, warm-tongued hound bouncing around the fireplace and performing cute antics on Christmas day? Unfortunately, for many of these poor, unsuspecting animals, the Christmas break will be the last time that they are viewed as cute by their owners. The very same “cute” antics that were adorable over Christmas dinner prove to be less than adorable when the dark nights of January sweep in.

Sadly, many business and salespeople act similarly with new clients… After the initial flurry of excitement and newness is over and the initial promise of forever-love is done, they settle down into the humdrum, day-to-day of the relationship and forget, mistreat and even abuse their clients.

Can you afford for this to happen in your business? Can you risk your reputation in this way?

What do you do to train your teams and your staff to ensure that your clients all get a safe, secure and loving home?

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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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Gavin, I have a new client that needs constant hand holding and she seems to think that she is my only client.

Have you got any advice as to how to keep her happy but not put all my other clients on the back burner, which for the last week I feel I have been doing???? Thank you for your help!!!

Thanks for the email, this is a sales question which I get asked a lot when running sales seminars and when sales training. The aim here is clear, we need to help you to get some control back over your client and some balance back into your sales activities. Failing to do this can result in you spending a disordinate amount of time with one client and lost sales due to you missing out on other important sales activities such as prospecting!

Pareto’s Law explains that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities and this is as true when selling as in any other discipline. When I run sales training sessions we often discuss how much sales energy and time some clients demand  compared to others and it quickly becomes clear to delegates that some of their most profitable clients require very little input and some of their least profitable require massive input!

Clearly, there will always be clients on the “good” side of normal and clients on the “bad” side of normal and that is normal! But your aim should be to maximise the clients on the “good” side so that you are delivering more sales results and profitability from the same amount of effort. Achieving this is down to the clients that you work with in the first place (!) and in how you approach the sale.

Here are a few ideas and thoughts to help you…

Some clients are more demanding than others. This is the way it is, the way it always has been and, I’ve no doubt, the way it always will be. Some clients will look after themselves, others will need hand holding! Some clients will be on the phone all of the time, others will rarely ring you. Some clients will expect the world, others will be happy with what they have already.

As with many sales challenges and scenarios your mindset and approach will play a critical role in which types of clients you have. Many salespeople exhibit a “desperation” to please at any cost. This is not good and if you do this it may well be the case that it was you who encouraged your client to be this demanding. 

If your client is the type who has a tendency to over demand and you have been prepared to jump through hoops every time you were asked (and sometimes before) then their expectations may well be very, very high. It may even be the case that their expectations are wholly unrealistic. Much of the responsibility for this probably lies with you and the other salespeople who wooed them in the first place!

The key to satisfied AND manageable clients who do not over-demand and who work in partnership with you is to under-promise and over-deliver. To do this effectively you need to set boundaries during the sales process so that everyone understands what is required, expected and needed of them. This can be difficult at times but it is essential if you are going to keep your clients happy, build a strong reputation and protect your time.

If you fail to set boundaries and expectations you may never please your clients! That will hold your sales development back so it is essential that under-promising and over-delivering is something which you know how to apply.

Once you have set “realistic” expectations then your job is to over-deliver. Bingo! You have the time to do your job and your new client is delighted.

Unfortunately, many salespeople over-promise during the sales cycle and are then incapable of delivering even the standard that they promised. This will more than likely result in even more excessive demands and, ultimately, unhappy clients.

In your sales scenario where the sales process has already been and gone I would suggest trying to gradually regain some control through your language and your approach when you are dealing with the client. Be polite but start to “reframe” their expectations of the relationship. This may take some time but the earlier you start, the quicker you will start to see some results.

Whilst you are resetting expectations make sure that your client knows how to contact you and that they remain comforable with the relationship. If you are working with someone else on this client it would be worth discussing and brainstorming the best ways for reframing this client and their expectations whilst keeping them happy. 

Ironically, if you do not reframe their expectations, you may never be able to please them no matter what you do nor how much effort and time you put in. You could well end up losing the client. 

Remember however two things. 

1. For there even to be an “average” maintenance level some clients have to demand more and others less!
2. If this client has “expectations”, you need to be very careful how you reframe them so that you do not upset them and lose the client.

For more on how to set client expectations and build truly profitable, partnership relationships with clients check out my Professional Selling Skills seminars and programmes.

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Make it easy for your customers to buy from you…

So finally British summer has arrived, the heavens have opened and it has chucked it down. After moaning for the last few years that it’s too hot in the summer and that the heat is down to global warming we’re now being told that it’s raining so it must be global warming…

But amazingly, inbetween the rain, it’s actually really quite ok weather up here – for Yorkshire anyway! So today I managed to get the roof down on the car for a bit and decided to forget about having done 18 sales training seminars on Sales Negotiation Skills and Powerful Presenting all around the country and to have a little rest…

Or so I thought…

But as I often say in my sales seminars, life has a funny habit of teaching us what we need to know but most of us ignore it every day. Sales training tips are all around but how many do you notice…

I woke this morning feeling fabulous and headed for my favourite outdoor cafe. It’s not the food that’s fab – more the views and the environment. Sitting by the canal side, watching the ducks, geese and swans – you can let your eyes drift to the green of the hills and the valley as it stretches out in front of you.

Beautiful.

Having finished my (frankly just ok) coffee and bacon and egg sandwich – but who cares with a view like that – I headed for the gents but was stopped by a large sign. Hand written in red capitals and underlined, it informs me that the toilet is for customers only and that to use it as a non-customer will cost 50p.

UNBELIEVABLE!

I know another cafe which is underground and shares its entrance with another cafe which is on the ground floor. Passers by cannot see the cafe underground and favour the environment which they can see. The underground cafe boasts only the sign,

“TOILET DOWNSTAIRS FOR USE OF CUSTOMERS ONLY”.

This self same cafe will cook you an egg and bacon sandwich, a sausage and egg sandwich or any of those three separately. They however will NOT put sausage and bacon in a sandwich – and believe me I have used every negotiating trick in my arsenal to try and get them to!! DOH!

So what is the problem with these cafe owners?

I’d have a sign on my loos saying, “PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE OUR LOOS! HAVE A NICE DAY!” And when people came in I’d say, “Hi! How are you today? Beautiful isn’t it” And when they left I’d say, “Have a great day. See you again.” Now wouldn’t that leave a better taste in your mouth?!

But, you know, these cafe owners can probably be excused. They’re honest hard working folk trying to make a living. They’ve probably never been on a sales training seminar in their life. They probably haven’t read books on sales training or customer services. How could they know any differently??

But you know it’s not just them, is it?

How many major companies and businesses do you know who pay good money for sales training all of their sales staff bit then pay little or no regard to thinking about the taste that they leave in the mouths of their customers on other ways? How many times have you been told by a sales person or business owner, “We don’t do that”? How many businesses give you the impression that they are more wrapped up in their own rules and regulations than they are on focusing on providing a sales experience which encourages you to feel comfortable to buy?

A lot I’d suggest!

As salespeople we have to make it easier for people to buy from us – not harder. We need to build and maintain a sales environment in which the customer feels comfortable and is able to buy from us more often and, well, just more! Sure, it’s important that we’re not over eager or desperate but we, the salesperson, should not be the one who is throwing up barriers and obstacles to the sale…

Sales training tip…

Look at your business from a potential customer’s point of view. How can you improve the customer experience so that your customers have more ways to engage with you even if only in a small way at first? Once people start to believe in what you do, build rapport and trust with you and know that the sales experience is pleasurable with you and your company you will make many, many more sales.

Have a great weekend and keep your eyes open for sales training tips. Remember – daily life has a habit of teaching us what we need to know but most of us ignore it every day!

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