Every time we close a professional sales operation, it is our hope to benefit the new client obtained in the future with total satisfaction.
However, it would be appropriate to analyze a series of aspects that are not usually applied correctly and that would allow not only to materialize that desire but also to generate even more sales from there.
By acting as consumers and faced with the first inconvenience that comes to us with the new product or service purchased, we have surely gone through some of the following realities:
• There is no fast and efficient means of communication that directly connects us with those responsible for solving them, and less with the seller. In this way we come to just cause to think that we have been used to "be sold" but not to find the satisfaction we expected when making the decision to buy.
• After accepting that many times we wait on line 0-800 with music that we end up hating, or that after that they answer the line and cut us off without even answering a greeting, in the event of finally reaching the person responsible for solving Our inconvenience this tells us that we will have to take the product to a very remote address where the consumer service department operates.
• Upon arrival at the destination, and after long queues waiting for our attention, we expose our claim to end up listening to ambiguous and irresponsible responses where always what does not respond to the expected operation of our product or service turns out to be an admitted standard operation by the manufacturer or has been misunderstood with the seller and we should discuss this with him.
• In order to provide good care, but at a relatively low cost, it is observed that many companies resorted to outsourcing services, delegating the post-sale stage to other specialized companies, which in turn focus this attention together with many other companies. Specifically, this is practically the same as being treated in a government or state dependent office.
It is convenient to leave here the list of examples of other sad experiences that happen to us on a daily basis and that will not change unless managers or owners realize that in business they cannot become successful seeing them only from the economic and financial benefit of the operation at the end of each exercise.
The Pos Sale
In my last book, Keys to a Successful Sale, I dedicate a chapter to this important stage of professional sales management. This is due to the fact that it turns out to be a source of new constant and growing business over time, in addition to achieving the positioning of image, company, products or services in the highest ranking in the minds of current and potential market consumers. (one)
This consequence will be better understood if we accept that, by purchasing, we are not buying a product or service for what it is, or appears to be. What we really buy "is the certain promise of enjoying the benefits that said products or services will provide us by becoming owners or users, respectively." (two)
When we receive or count on what has been purchased or contracted as brand new customers, we are very aware of the expectation that motivated us to do so and we hope that this promise of satisfaction or solution that motivated us to buy it will come true.
Analyzing this stage from the sales side: Isn't this a wonderful opportunity for us to ensure the satisfaction of our new customers and to solve to their total satisfaction what they bought from us?
If this essential purpose is achieved, your satisfaction can provide us with three valuable benefits:
1. They will reiterate their purchases in the future when there is a new requirement in the future about our offer;
2. On some occasion they will comment on the good experience they had with us with friends, colleagues and family who will become new interested in buying from us.
3. After ensuring your total satisfaction is the best time to request references from other people known to them to incorporate them into our next sales interviews.
Conclusions
When it corresponds to me to be in a long and steep process of claiming for what did not respond to the certain promise that prompted me to buy, I end up wondering if the managers or entrepreneurs of the company really want to sell more for just these months of the year or do they know It really will not be the same in the following years when the bad experiences that we had to suffer from its clients spread in the market.
I also think that in many cases they have the desire and even proclaim about the quality of care, but at some level of the delegation until reaching reality, there has been a short circuit that modified the content of the slogan and finally the reality turns out to be very different from her.
I also wonder if managers have ever personally walked the path of their clients who go through the task of claiming what their long-awaited and necessary clients have already bought and paid for, simply to verify that even telephones do not operate as they should, that Representatives do not have the predisposition to solve problems of their clients, and that many of the solutions are unsatisfactory for what was advertised and sold.
I must emphasize that there are few but real managers who have done it and I appreciate the experiences they have had. In the first place as a client, but what is even more important as visionary entrepreneurs who know how to really lead their companies to an outstanding position of leadership in quality to their clients and achieving notable increases in their sales month by month.
References:
(1) E-book «Keys to a successful sale»
(2) E-book «La Venta Profesional»
© Copyright 2007, by Martín E. Heller
