HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 – Why Customers Don’t Return Your Sales Calls
Potential customers don’t care about your product or service. That’s right, they couldn’t care less!
As a business owner or salesperson, you obviously care deeply about the product or service you sell. In fact, you’re probably in love with your product, as you should be. After all, your product is amazing, and your service is superior. How can you not love it? How can everyone not love it? But your customer doesn’t care.
Your customer has far more important things on their mind! Like what you ask? They’re consumed with themselves, as we all are. They’re focused on their own unique problems, goals, and aspirations. That’s what they care about. In fact, most of their waking moments on the planet are likely consumed by such thoughts.
Yet as businesspeople, owners, and salespeople, we want and need to talk about our “baby.” We’re consumed with our magnificent products/services. Sure, our products/services have shortcomings, but as with our children, we still love them flaws and all. We feel compelled to share the specifics of our products/service(s) with anyone who will listen. Most often we do this by vomiting numerous facts and figures upon our unwitting customers. And the customer certainly doesn’t care for that!
This unfortunate situation is lived-out with alarmingly frequency every day in business. The proverbial ball-bearing manufacturer needs to talk about his beautiful ball-bearings. He must! But the customer doesn’t care. The customer is instead focused on his own problems, challenges and unique pain. That is what they are truly interested in.
Regrettably, most salespeople are more interested in their products/services than they are in their customers. This sales mistake has a distinct odor my favorite author James Muir calls “commission breath.” Too often our customers are quickly relegated to second-class citizenship, by the very salesperson in front of them. When the focus becomes the product/service, not the customer, the sale is doomed, and failure is near. A waste of time for both parties. Can you blame the potential-client for “ghosting” the salesperson after such a meeting, unwilling to return phone calls and emails?
What if, on the other hand, the sales professional really (and I mean really) took the time to focus on the customer? What if your salespeople took time to understand the issues facing each unique customer? It’s the customer who buys your stuff, right? Customers (not products/services) are the ones who control the buying-decision, right? Yes, it’s all about the customer.
People and organizations buy things in order to get a certain result, solve a problem or eliminate a unique pain. So, moving forward, ensure your sales professionals are focused on your customers! Make sure they position your product or service in a way that focuses on your customer’s unique problems, challenges, and aspirations. Those are the issues the customer really wants solved!
And the process of resolving those issues often begins with a few well positioned questions, not a bombardment of product features and benefits.
