Driving away customers
Have you ever come across a salesperson making assumptions about you, your needs and expectations, or your experience? Then you are probably aware of how powerful these assumptions can be – at driving you away as a customer.
We experienced this recently. While undergoing renovations on our home, we ordered a new bathtub -stand alone, a very plain and symmetrical design – straight from a local manufacturer. However, when it got delivered after some 2 months or so, towards the end of the bathroom renovations as planned, it was not symmetrical at all –it had a weird big bulge on one side, and an elaborate internal recess on the opposite side.
When we enquired about this we learned that we had received the spa version (but without the spa pump, jets, etc.) and the big bump was the space where the motor would have been. Sensing our bewilderment, the manager explained that the mould of the plain version of this tub recently broke and so the company had decided to use the spa version mould instead. Apparently other customers hadn’t complained and, after all, the tub would stand next to a wall so nobody would notice the bulky side. And the small recess inside certainly wouldn’t bother us, would it? Structurally these irregularities would actually improve the integrity of the tub, we learned.
However, this is not what we bought. We would rather receive what we ordered in the first place.
So we asked the delivery person to load the tub back up on his truck and tell us when he would be able to deliver the model we originally ordered. He informed us that production was very busy, so the new bathtub would take another four weeks or so.
Imagine our disappointment at realising that we had just finished 8 weeks of bathroom renovations with everything in place and ready to be used – except for the main centrepiece of the whole room.
“Assumptions are the termites of (sales) relationships” – So why do these things happen, still happen?
It would have been so easy to tell us at the very beginning that the mould was broken and that we had two choices: Either wait a little bit longer to have the desired bathtub delivered, or receive a different version that may not be perfect aesthetically but still worked pretty much all the same. We could have made an informed decision. No hard feelings, moulds break, these things happen, we could have understood and picked one of the other options.
However, they assumed it wouldn’t be necessary to talk with us about all this, that we would be okay with the assumptions they made.
I can only assume (!) the actual reason in this case because their reasons were never explained. However, from our experience with other salespeople we know that one of the following things can happen to set up assumptions:
- The salesperson is afraid to jeopardise the overall deal. They might hope they will get customers beyond the point of no return, where they will just accept their fate and live with whatever results they receive. After all, you don’t want to go through the whole process of finding another bathtub now, right? This is not only a dangerous strategy but also one of the most unethical approaches in sales.
- The salesperson is anxious about having such a conversation with a client, as they might have to deal with emotions such as disappointment, anger, or suffer other effects on the relationship with the customer. They also could be insecure about the potential responses they receive when bringing the issue up, and whether they would be able to deal with them. Often a lack of training, experience and confidence is an unfortunate mix to create this mindset.
- Some salespeople simply might not care about the customer enough to really worry about how specific and elaborate their expectations are. Organisations need to be careful with employees who lack the basic level of client priority identification and show little empathy for their customers’ perspectives.
- Salespeople sometimes struggle with seeing the client’s perspective. They cannot see the word with the eyes of the buyer. Is buying a bathtub a simple necessity for the customer to ensure the resale value of their home or are they after a real centrepiece for a well-designed bathroom? Do they even enjoy a nice bubble bath themselves, or is the tub simply for the kids?
- But assumptions are not just a matter of avoidance, low ethical standards, or lack of sales skills and experience. Versed salespeople might actually trip over their own experience and assume, especially, if a large number of their customers buy the same things for the same sort of reasons. Who knows, they may be right 80% of the time. But is saving the extra two minutes it would take to confirm a few little details actually worth risking the remaining 20% of business opportunities? Please, ASK. Either to learn what really matters to your client, or at least to get confirmation of a few standard customer expectations.
If the bathtub company people had not assumed, it would have saved them the extra costs they now have to absorb in terms of transport, delays, manpower and so on, not to mention the damage to the customer relationship and potential future referrals.
Another reason to avoid assumptions is simply to avoid the damage to your image and reputation, especially if you rely on repeat business with your clients. We may have had to wait an extra 4 weeks for the bathtub either way, but we certainly would have seen this company in a much better light if we had made the decision ourselves and not had the salesperson making it for us. And whilst we may not buy another bathtub for a while, we certainly cannot wholeheartedly recommend this company to others now.
Epilogue (some four weeks later): The bathtub is great, and they know it. But I spoke with the salesperson again, and the reality was that he had simply dropped a few balls because he was too busy, trying to be owner, salesperson, production manager and even delivery person at the same time. Sustainable customer communication and care got lost in an attempt to juggle too many balls in a growing business. Lesson: selling is not something you can casually do on the side, that’s another dangerous assumption.
We had a good chat, and he agreed it would probably help to get someone on board to exclusively manage customer relationships and service. That sounds like a good assumption.
Author: Jens Hartmann, www.salesessentials.com