You just closed a huge deal; time to celebrate. Another
buyer has decided that you da man. Time to cash the check and
move on to the next opportunity.
Not so fast, Mr. Wonderful! You've neglected Rule #1 in
marketing: Customer expectations begin just as your
attentiveness begins to subside. Said another way: Just when
you thought you had the customer wrapped-up, some interesting,
unanticipated and generally irritating phenomena kick-in.
• Although a seller's infatuation with a buyer begins to
wane after the sale, the buyer's expectations of the seller
begin to increase after the sale.
• Once a seller's instinct for the kill is completed, he
moves on. Once a buyer has been captured, his judgment of the
seller begins.
• The seller naturally views closing the deal as
consummating the relationship. The buyer views closing the
deal as beginning the courtship.
• Once the deal is done, the seller stops selling. Once the
deal is done, the buyer keeps shopping.
The real business of selling begins after you have made the
sale!
Some companies get it; others don't. Some real-life
examples:
Chad Older of Washington, D.C., was flying over America on
Southwest Airlines. His father-in-law called the carrier to
ask that they inform Chad that his pregnant wife had just gone
into labor – six weeks early.
When he landed to make his connections, an emissary from
Southwest was waiting. She informed Chad of the situation and
whisked him off to a gate so he could fly home in lieu of his
original destination. The Southwest representative told Chad
that the rebooked flight was full, but that they would bribe …
rather, provide sufficient incentives … for a passenger to
volunteer his seat. Despite Chad' insistence on paying for his
new flight, they gave him the new ticket FOR FREE!
Once the family got their new baby home and things had
returned to "normal," Chad wrote Southwest a thank-you note.
They then sent his new baby a gift. (Thanks to The
Washington Post for this story.)
Southwest gets it!
A personal story:
I had just bought a suit at Nordstom — a dark brown,
spectacular looking Hart, Schaffner and Marx Gold
Trumpeter.
It was the first time I had worn this suit and had just
finished admiring myself in my bathroom mirror. Yes, I was
lookin' good! Absorbed and distracted by my own studliness, I
walked into my garage to get into my SUV and tore a sleeve on
the rear windshield wiper. No one was around to blame.
Curses!
I called my sales guy, Rudolph Ruiz, and asked him if there
might be a way for their tailor to somehow reweave the
material to make the tear less obvious. He asked me to bring
the suit in for a look-see.
A few days later, I dropped off the suit. Nordstrom's
tailor later determined that its condition was irrevocable.
Rudolph called to tell me the bad news, adding that he had an
alternative solution and asking me to stop in to discuss it. I
wondered what he had in mind until I arrived at Nordstrom and
he unveiled a selection of suits from which he said I could
pick a replacement – FOR FREE!
I was speechless. Nordstrom had no complicity in my
stupidity and yet my sales guy volunteered a replacement,
gratis! I considered the alternatives he had selected for me,
which included a Joseph Abboud and a $1,200 Hickey-Freeman,
made my selection and got out before Rudolph changed his
mind.
Nordstrom gets it!
Another personal but less complementary story:
I was running a bit late, trying to catch a plane out of
Dulles. Having just passed through security and about to board
one of the shuttle buses to my gate, I realized that I had no
idea which one I was going to, having forgotten to check the
monitors before taking off my shoes, shedding my jewelry and
unpacking my laptop to pass through the checkpoint.
I leaned back to one of the trusted employees of the TSA,
explained my minor predicament and asked where I might find a
monitor. He looked at me with a blank expression and said, "It
is not my job to make your life easier." He then turned away
and continued his business.
A lot of systemic reasons cause government employees, on
the whole, to be less responsive to their 'customers' than
people in the private sector. That does not, however, make
encounters like this one more acceptable.
Here's the real deal:
If you are a CEO or if you work for a CEO — which
represents everyone reading this e-zine — you get paid to
create value for your constituents/stakeholders (for more on
this subject, read our March
2005 and November
2005 issues). That's job #1. Your primary constituents are
your company's paying customers; they pay your salary. Your
company is merely a pass-through mechanism. We developed the
following simple seven-step process to help clients do
that:
• Identify your company's targeted customers
• Discern the dimensions of value that they require
• Qualify/quantify those dimensions with performance
categories and metrics
• Perform
• Measure
• Develop and implement corrective actions to fill
performance gaps
• Begin again
