The grass is always greener on the other side: not in sales
Although the grass seems always greener on the other side:
- The products when needed: get commissions as one can sell
- Better customers: not complaining or just easier
- More revenue: more commissions
- Higher margins: higher commissions
- Recurring customers: continuous commissions
- Growing customers: increasing commissions
More commission means a better life for the Salesman.
In sales you need to treat your current customer as if he was the greener one.
He needs to feel as important as if he was the most important customer.
Problem: limited capacity of caring
Caring for your customer takes time and effort.
When you aim to give all your customers the feeling of their importance then you will be out of capacity before you know it.
There for the need to create and give the feeling of their importance, still managing your time between your different accounts. That is hassling of your capacities.
Time management: leads versus customers
Typically management and sales people will dedicate more time to new leads and potential customers mainly because:
- They could hold more potential
- All people like the idea of new and fresh
- To boldly go where no man has gone before is more challenging
However nurturing your customers is much more profitable and will be much more rewarding: those people have already decided for your products before thus they are likely to choose them again.
Instead the Salesman and the Sales Manager both pay more attention to the leads.
It is better to care for what you have than what you could have.
Managing your time and effort between the exciting new leads and the old known customers is hard to do.
Still you need to give the customer the impression that they are the most important whether they are small or big, old or new, recurrent or potential which requires time management.
In all cases you have to show interest for their messages and information as your primary aim is listening in order to react and anticipate when needed.
Take care for the customer you have and who is talking to you and balance your time between customers and running behind potential customers with the most likely reward in mind.
What is most important to you: a customer or a new lead?
There’s an old saying that comes to mind. I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care. That is something that all sales staff need to know. It’s always easier to work with existing customers who will constantly re-order when compared to the time and effort in trying to develop a new clientele base. Keep your existing customers happy and your wallet will be happy.
Amen to customer care of the genuine kind. I’m a believer in service. If you treat your customers right, more customers will come. Happy customers spawn happy customers. New leads get, hmmm, a maybe sell, or not.
The most expensive activity of any business is to OBTAIN a new customer.
The second most expensive activity of any business is to LOSE a customer!
It is absolutely vital for a business to understand the “lifetime potential” of it’s customers.
The customer may be asking for something unreasonable at a given time. If you look at Wal Mart for example, they will allow questionable returns of merchandise knowing that that customer will spend tens of thousands of dollars over the years. A long-term approach to customer service is needed.