Anyone who has customers and wants to keep them should read this book. First, because your customers are probably not as happy as you think they are, and second, because they can do a lot of damage when they’re unhappy.
They’re not happy
We have an old saying around our house, “If Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.” Substitute the word customers and you might want to put those words on a poster in your workplace. Customers today are unhappier than they’ve ever been. Here are some highlights from the book:
Ask and you just might receive
One of the most important and simplest rules of negotiating is that if you don’t ask, you don’t get. The corollary to that is that if you do ask, you might be surprised by what you can get.
I thought of this just now after getting off the phone making reservations through the Gold reservations desk of a major hotel chain. I’ll be staying nine nights, and as I always do, I ask for whatever special rate they offer to my client, which only happens to be one of the largest corporations in America. They quoted a rate of $206 per night, which seemed kind of high for one of that chain’s less expensive brands. Coincidentally, my wife was on her computer next to mine and checked on the rate being offered to the public as a “long-term stay” at the same hotel–$124 per night.
When I relayed that information to the nice lady on the phone, it took her about 20 seconds to come back with an OK to match that rate. One question, 20 seconds, and I saved my client $738.
Two of the most important things you can do to be successful in sales are to plan your sales calls and to listen carefully to your customer. But, as in so much in life, too much of a good thing may actually reduce your sales effectiveness. When you listen too intently for the answers you want, there’s a chance you may miss other critical information.
I always begin my listening module with a brief activity in which I ask the audience to listen closely to a situation and be prepared for a test at the end of it. I carefully choose my words to ensure that I give them all the information they need to answer my question at the end, but invariably at least two thirds of the audience gets it wrong. The debrief shows them that their major mistake is made because they are focusing so closely on what they believe to be the relevant information that they miss the bit they need.
Does this sound familiar? Have you ever been in a sales call and been so intent on listening for the words that match your call objectives that you miss other customer needs or concerns?
I was intrigued to read a profile on Vice Admiral William McRaven, the commander of Joint Special Operations Command which executed the nearly flawless raid to kill bin Laden. Admiral McRaven wrote a book, SpecOps: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice, which examines eight case studies of special operations raids and distills lessons from these into six principles that must be followed to varying degrees in order to succeed in these highly risky ventures.
My intention in reading the book was simple curiosity: I happen to like military history and I’m always intrigued by people who can combine action and scholarliness. As I read, however, I was struck by some of the parallels with practical persuasion efforts. So, with advance apologies to the Admiral, I’m taking the liberty of applying most of his lessons to persuasion campaigns, especially presentations and sales calls to high level decision makers.
