Whether you’re an established, successful small business or a start-up you probably have a sales and marketing plan to attract customers. After all, providing a product or service to them, for a profit, is one of an entrepreneur’s key goals. A great deal of up-front time, money and sweat equity is spent on finding and selling to consumers. But, what about after the sale?
At the beginning of the sales process the focus is on the person, the potential client. How can the product make their life and business better? All good sales people know that learning what the client wants, their perception of what the service can give them, is paramount to making the sale. The billion dollar advertising industry was built on linking emotion to a product.
After the sale, the focus naturally shifts to getting the service to the client. Unfortunately, this is where the sales plan usually stops, or is incomplete and falls apart. The attention of the seller can become more focused on the product or service they are providing, while ignoring or marginalizing the person they’re providing it to. The following is an example of this disconnect.
Kevin wanted lawn care services for his business. He met with George, the owner of a landscaping company, and was impressed with George’s understanding of what he was mainly looking for — “decent, no hassle maintenance”. However, the lawn often became overgrown and unsightly, resulting in Kevin contacting George repeatedly.
At first, he was apologetic and would send a crew within 2-3 days. Then George started to complain that he didn’t have enough crew to keep up with the overall demand. He even became angry at Kevin’s “not understanding his situation”. Kevin wasn’t interested in excuses, didn’t renew his contract and posted a negative review on a consumer website.
Upon completion of the sale George prioritized himself and his difficulties with his business over his customer. He knew that hassle free maintenance was primary for Kevin, yet he didn’t take steps to make sure he was satisfied. Having a sales strategy that stopped at the sale, with no provision for good quality customer service, cost George current and future clients.
A good sales plan is all encompassing and ongoing. It should include the “how tos” for finding customers, as well as the “how tos” for keeping them. Unfortunately, many business owners work hard to get customers only to lose them through poor execution of the service and poor treatment of the client.
A comprehensive sales strategy includes policy and procedures which address the inevitable disgruntled customer, because addressing their complaints is still a component of selling to them. If not for the hassle and George’s attitude Kevin would have renewed his contract, because the mowing was sufficient. Good customer service can elevate the value of a mediocre product and bad customer service can undermine the value of a good one.
