Are You Establishing a Good Rapport With Your New Customers?

"During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played 7 years without ever hitting the ball." -Mickey Mantle  

Everyone has an understanding of what constitutes good and bad service. It is based on past experiences and assumptions about what service means to them. If you were to go into Walmart, you would expect to see an employee great you with a smile, perhaps say hello, and hand you a shopping cart.

However, if you were to go to an entirely new store, one you have never been to before, your expectations would be completely different. In fact, you might not know what to expect, but you would anticipate a certain level of service.

In Business-to-Business Sales, The Customer isn't Always Right

The saying, “the customer is always right” is nothing more than a simple statement about how a customer’s expectations about service are predetermined. Anything falling short of these predetermined expectations, can be seen as failure and can lead to an unsatisfied customer. When it comes to business to business sales, what your customer expects in terms of service and performance must always be understood by you, the sales professional.

If nothing is discussed with your customer about what to expect from you, they alone will determine the criteria for successful service, whether you meet their expectations, and ultimately whether they are happy or not with your performance.

• If you don’t discuss a customer’s service expectations, then they’ll determine it themselves 
• You must know what your customer expects in terms of service levels.

If a customer’s expectations are too high, or unknown to you, there will come a day when they expected something you were unable or unaware you had to provide. It is up to the sales professional to help establish what the customer’s criteria should be when deciding if your service is acceptable or not. If you do not take the time to properly discuss how your customer should grade your service performance, you are guaranteed to encounter issues - regardless of how good you feel the service has been. 

 

 

Part of establishing good rapport is being able to stand your ground in B2B sales negotiations. Your customer will come to respect your position if you are able to define it properly. To learn more, please go to: Sales Negotiation: Defend Price, Customer Scare Tactics & Managing Concessions

PUSH RESET: Establishing Criteria for Your Service Performance  

It is not always easy to push reset with a customer and reprogram them about their expectations, but it has to be done. Managing customer expectations is the single most important part of any new customer relationship. It is the basis of all future measurements of success between you and your customer. If your company has a policy that will not allow you to do some of the things that your customer expects, isn’t it best to take the time to explain that? After doing that, take the time to explain what your company can and can not do in terms of service.

 

While you have to explain your capabilities, and constraints, you must be open to what the customer needs. You want your customer to feel they are an active participant in deciding how to measure your success. Discuss it with them beforehand and ideally come to an agreement of what can or can not be used to measure your service criteria.

 

You may just uncover areas of expertise your company can provide that the customer needs, or services you thought they needed, but actually don’t. It is never a good thing to allow your customer to assume what your capabilities are. Doing so will always allow the customer to interpret for himself what he should expect from you. 

  

• Never allow your customer to assume what your capabilities are
• Make sure to push “reset” with your customer and discuss your service.
• Make it clear what you can and can not do.  

There a couple of ways to properly set the table to discuss and manage your customer’s expectations. Use these simple tips to push that reset button with your customer.   

1. Identify Major Decision Makers  

• Salesperson: I just want to make sure I understand how you go about doing what you do. Would you mind giving me some information about your business, what role you play, and what role others may play in deciding whom to purchase from?”   
• Salesperson: “Are decisions solely driven by purchasing, or do other departments take an active role?”   
• Salesperson: “What role do other departments play in deciding whom to purchase from?”  
• Salesperson: “Aside from you, is there anyone else who’ll judge our company’s service?” 
• Salesperson: “Does engineering or other departments provide approvals on vendors, and then you decide who to purchase from based on that list?”  

You want to make sure you have a solid understanding of the major decision makers and players and their respective roles. The first person you speak with may not be with the decision maker you’ll rely upon for future business. If there are multiple players who will all have a say on how your service will be viewed, it is in your best interest to know who they are. It is not uncommon for sales to perform well with an account, only to find out later that a decision maker you did not properly identify, decided that your service was substandard, and therefore purchased elsewhere. You have to know what they are and discuss your capabilities with each of them. Again, they may come to the conclusion that what you offer will suffice.   

2. How Does Your Customer Measure Vendor Performance?  

• Salesperson: “When I start with a new account, I like to make sure I understand the criteria for success. I guess what I am asking for, is an understanding of what you use to determine a valued supplier?” 
• Salesperson: “All my accounts have different approaches to how they measure performance. How does your company measure vendor performance?” 
• Salesperson: “I know your company has had some experiences with other vendors. Since this is a new relationship for us both, perhaps you could give me some examples of problems you have encountered with other vendors, and how we might be able to avoid those. I just want to make sure I understand the issues as you see them, so we don’t make the same mistakes”  

Allow them to provide the criteria under which they measure a good vendor. Don’t offer up pricing as the initial measurement of criteria. You want to build the conversation around service first and establish criteria for success. Pricing will always be discussed, but try not to make it a focal point of your initial discussion. Don’t assume every account is driven by price alone. In fact, all accounts are interested in saving money – price alone doesn’t always do that.

  

3. What Are You, the Salesperson, Able to do for this Customer?

• Salesperson: “I am starting to get the impression that you’ve been let down a couple of times because of late deliveries? Am I correct?”  
• Salesperson: “It sounds as if quality has been an issue with some of your other vendors. Exactly what happened?”  
• Salesperson:“I know how difficult and costly it is to have problems. Perhaps it is best if I start off by explaining what we can do, and can not do, to help you. Is that acceptable?” 

If they do not provide as much information as you would like, or seem apprehensive in answering, help them by guiding the criteria. Start first with lead time (how fast the product is delivered) or product availability. Doing so allows you to subtly take control of the process.  Does the customer plan their purchases in advance by incorporating their supplier’s lead time? Or, does the customer simply expect the product to always be available regardless of when they call? Would they be willing to look into a supply agreement with you guaranteeing product availability?

 

If you know they deal with a competitor of yours, and that competitor has had a series of defective products or poor service, use that information to your advantage by asking about what role quality plays. The goal is to help guide the conversation on service performance to concentrate on your strengths. It is always ideal to prepare a list of your company’s greatest attributes. These are the value added services your company provides that distinguishes itself versus your competition. If you have this list prepared beforehand, you can use this to guide the discussion on service criteria in your favor.  

The purpose is for both of you to be an active participant in a give and take process where what they consider good service is met with your strengths. You may just not be able to do all they expect, but explaining what you can and can not do, will go a long way to managing the customer’s expectations. Use the answers to the questions above, to outline your company’s ability to address these measurements.

Explaining your company’s capabilities allows you to set the table to service your client on your strengths, and not your weaknesses. Every company has things they do well, and things they don’t. Being up front with your customer about what they can expect will go a long way to avoiding those situations where they become unsatisfied with your service.

If you would like to read more about improving your customer relationships in business-to-business sales, please see: Does Your Small Business Have That Dynamic Sales & Customer Service Team?