Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2014. The Movistar and Vodafone anecdote describes the author’s own experience in Spain at the time, in 2014 or earlier, and is kept as a personal example.
It is hard to apply these mistakes to every business sector, but we will try. Let’s also remember that today, as well as serving customers in person, many companies have a website where customers are asked to fill in a form or send an email to request a quote.
There is no difference between someone who gets in touch through your website and someone who walks through your door. Both are potential customers, both will come away with an impression of your company, and both will talk about that impression with their friends (your other potential customers).
Whoever has a customer has a treasure. Whoever has a potential customer has a potential treasure. Whether you get that treasure depends on what you do to win it.
These are the most common mistakes customers notice in some companies, and they should make us ask ourselves whether our sales or customer service department really follows the right approach so that we do not lose sales and profits.
1. No reply
Surprising as it may seem, many customers send an email or fill in a form asking a company to get in touch, wait a few days, and simply never get a reply.
It may be because requests have piled up, or for any other reason. It does not matter. If a customer gets no reply after contacting you with the idea, or the possibility, of buying from you, that is the surest way to make sure they never think of your company again. It is probably the best way to come across as an unreliable business.
2. Taking too long to reply or send a quote
Your business will probably be competing with industry giants, and the giants take it for granted that they must reply within 24 hours. That, at least, is the policy of the vast majority.
Customers today lose patience quickly. If you have not contacted them by phone or email by the following day, they will immediately look elsewhere. You have not lost everything by being slow, but you have given up a huge advantage.
With quotes it is even worse. Not being competitive on time when you submit a quote makes the customer doubt you.
Remember that our unconscious mind is very powerful. If we want to hire a service and a company is slow with its quote, we unconsciously assume it will be slow with the service too. If another company replies quickly, we see professionalism and assume it will be quick and reliable in delivering if we hire it.
3. Poor service
A company’s image is sometimes judged by the person who serves us. Nobody says, “A clerk called Alfonso Ramírez served me terribly.” It is much more common to say, “I went to such-and-such a shop and I didn’t like the way they treated me.”
You do not have to tell the customer jokes. Sometimes simply not being rude may be enough. But the shopping experience counts, so a friendly person creates a pleasant experience. And the customer comes back.
4. Lack of agility
A customer who wants to buy should not find it hard to buy. To give an example, and without meaning it as a criticism of the company in general: my mobile line is currently with Vodafone, even though I originally wanted Movistar (Telefónica’s brand in Spain).
I do not know exactly what happened there, but I know I first went into a Movistar shop to take out my first mobile contract, and I ran into difficulties and far too many requirements. I went to ask for information at a Vodafone shop right next door and came out in less than 15 minutes with a contract and a “free” phone.
If my friends had asked me at that moment where to go for a mobile line and which company to choose, where do you think I would have sent them?
Ironically, years later, when it came to bundling TV, mobile and landline, the situation was reversed and Movistar proved much more agile.
There are two kinds of customers: the one who is not sure they will buy anything from you and the one who has come in specifically to buy. Both should be yours, but in the second case, if a customer who came in to buy leaves without buying… the salesperson has made a huge mistake.
5. The close
I will go into more detail another time about how to “force” a close in a negotiation or sale. And while direct selling is not the same as serving customers in a shop, it is even more true that many customers need one last nudge to buy there and then.
The sale may be hot at that moment, and if the customer walks out the door, you will probably never hear from them again. That brings us to the next mistake.
6. Not having salespeople
Salespeople or shop assistants? They sound like the same thing, but often they are not. Many companies hire shop assistants because they have experience with the product they are selling, and in the end they become a kind of information desk.
I have often run experiments such as putting an excellent salesperson with no idea about a product on the floor, and they have managed to close more sales than the product expert with no sales experience.
Remember Donal Daly’s point that mediocre products with great sales teams will always beat great products with mediocre sales teams.
Teaching shop assistants a few basic sales techniques can raise the conversion rate (customers/sales) immediately, with surprising results.
7. Making sales instead of customers
There is a big difference between making a sale and making a customer. Sales are focused on the short term, on immediate profit. Making customers is what will make your company grow. And every customer starts with a first sale.
But anyone can sell by deceiving, by not being entirely clear or by leaving certain things out. You can make a sale that way, and today you will have made money, but the customer will not come back. Be honest with the customer, make sure they do not feel cheated after the purchase, and they will come back. And they may bring you referrals. That is the mindset of a company that wants to grow and dominate an industry in the long run.
As a company, all you need to remember is that your business rests on a first contact with the customer that is later turned into a sale. That process must not be left to chance, and you certainly must not make mistakes that lose a potential sale on the spot.
Further reading
- 14 truths and secrets about selling
- The day I stopped being a terrible salesman
- 7 selling principles to prepare the ground for success
Featured image: Willem van Mieris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
