Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

Dave,

"The customer is always right" is a sales guy's adage used to argue with the factory to get his own way. It happens when a sales guy is not creative enough to collaborate with the customer to help him meet his needs more effectively than the competition can.

However, ultimately, the customer decides he's right by spending money. He is the one who knows what he wants and needs. Sometimes a customer may not know his options and risks and Sammy Salesman or Mark Marketer can inform him, talk about the trade-offs, etc. But, when it comes down to it, Peter Prospect will make the decision. Cedric CEO has to decide how much he will invest to give the customer what he wants - or give up and go find another customer who is "more rational." If Ced can't find any customers who are as rational as he, maybe he's the irrational one.

Marketing is about knowing and meeting customer needs. Mark isn't meeting Peter's needs. When he asks Tommy to do it his way - and Tommy understands that Mark's approach is wrong, Tommy has a choice: Go along with it and cash the check - even though he knows it's not going to work, or be virtuous (but poorer) and tell Mark he's not going to do it because he knows that he would be taking Mark's money and not able to deliver a result.

In a consultative selling market in particular, the Knick Know-it-All is not going to be successful in a my-way-or-the-highway attitude. He will have to listen to the customer first and then provide the best solution.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

If Tommy Telemarketer knows Mark is wrong, and he wants to form a long-term business relationship with Mark, then he needs to not only make Mark happy in the short-term, but assure that he makes Mark successful with Mark's customers. If Tommy does what Mark asks but doesn't make Mark successful, Tommy is at risk of losing Mark as a customer. So, I think he can either sell Mark on his ideas (he could start off by doing some testing - sending big files to one group of prospects, sending a link to others)... or eventually he's got to abandon Mark and focus on getting customers that he can make successful -- or accept that he's just sort of fulfilling orders rather than contributing to the marketing strategy (so as others said, depends on what Tommy wants his business model to be).

Dave,
Peter Prospect just changed his name to:
"Bear" Lee Suspect.

The customer is not always right and a PROSPECT is less right. (GASP! said all my fellow sales people). This guy is not a customer. "Do you lower your prices whenever your customer wants a lower price...because he's always right?"

If you don't think you can accurately portray your company's value in a smaller file, you might need to revisit the presentation.

Send him a CD with the file. OR, send the link to your site where he can download it in segments. At each stage of the presentation, give him the option to download the whole thing.

Sorry. YOU'RE right.

Michael

Dave,

If this is just one prospect who says, "I won't take a 3MB file.." then it's an economic decision: You cater to him because his business (more specifically, the profit you would derive) is worth the additional work the taylor your presentation to his needs (e.g. the ROI on the invest is acceptable) - e.g. smaller files or a website. If it doesn't make economical sense, then you jettison the customer and capture the others in the best possible way (the one that nets you the highest conversion rate - i.e. the 3MB file).

If, however, ALL your prospects tell you the same thing: We don't want no stinkin' 3GB file. Well, then your outbound marketing campaign will probably net very little. Even if the file were mailed to each, they will put it in the circular file and your magic file will not be viewed. Further, they could punish you for being so out of touch - i.e. your "brand" will include the supplier who doesn't listen.

The difference here is where the prospect is with respect to the majority. And this is fundamental to the marketer's job - knowing what customers need.

Wayde

First of all Mark Marketing won’t actually be able to talk to Peter Prospect because Peter does not answer his phone or return calls. So Mark having no idea that Peter would hate to get a 3 megabyte attached file sends it anyway. The email is caught in the company spam filter and marked as a suspicious attachment and is deleted before Peter gets it.

Mark not getting any response with his call (after 5 tries) nor his email (after 3 tries) tells Tommy Telemarketer that he provided crappy leads. Tommy argues that they are good leads because Peter (and all others leads) is alive. He suggest that that he send 30,000 emails to people like Peter and add the attachment as asked. The email is opened by only 4% off the list and Tommy has no idea who opened the attachment because it was not placed on a website where it could be measured. In any case no Peters call for an appointment.

A few months later after “suggestions” from his boss Sal Salesman to increase the number of cold calls he makes each day Mark is fired for being an ineffectual salesperson. He receives 2 weeks severance.

Meanwhile at a company executive meeting, Sal Salesman, VP of Sales and Moe Money, VP of Marketing engage a fist fight over who is responsible effort plunging sales. Moe is fired because Sal’s second cousin’s daughter is a friend of the CEO’s daughter. He receives 3 month salary.

A year later the board of directors fires the Moe and the CEO because sales have been dismal. Moe gets a one year payoff and the CEO takes his golden parachute of $10,000,000. The stock drops like a stone and the shareholders lose a fortune. The company goes through a “staff adjustment” and a series of “strategic consolidations”.

Where are they now?

Mark decided to get out of the business and opened a Sub Shop.

Peter Prospect works for the same company and has received several promotions.

Tommy is still sending emails for internal clients, because they know best.

Sal went to a competing firm where he initiated a 200 cold call a day policy for the sales team. Company sales have starting dropping, but the CEO is happy because everyone is works so hard.

Moe took 6 months off and started his then started his own Advertising Agency.

CEO decided to run for president of the United States and used $3 million of his own money. He won.

The customer is always right, and you ignore their requests at your peril.

He who has the gold, makes the rules. You want the gold, then do whatever the customer says to get the gold. Once you get the gold, you still have a moral obligation to ensure satisfaction with the exchange.

But all that said: not everyone is destined to be your customer. Some customers self opt out because they don;t have enough gold for what you are offering. Some are simply not interested despite having enough gold. Some have no need for what you offer. And lastly, there is the idiot filter. An idiot filter screens out those who are have too many demands for gold to be exchanged, or those who 'don't get' or understand what you offer. Idiot screens are handy to have, as it reduces issues, frustrations, and just plain pain in the @ss clients that suck profits away and cause you to loose other opportunities.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

This is not a case of the customer is always right. The problem is that the salesperson must always go the extra mile to provide format the customer understands and finds easy to access. If they want a smaller file, there is a reason and it should be addressed. The upside of this is that you can keep this created smaller file in memory and probably use it later. Are you more interested in making a sale and getting acustomer, or in your own convenience? If you can't help a customer that way, I assure you that s/he will find someone who will!

The old scenario about who is wrong and who is right is dead.

The key here is what is a good idea. Sending people something they specifically asked you not to send is a bad idea. Game over.

Forget whether they might have read it, or not. Chances are they never got it at all (due company spamwalls etc) and worse still, you just got blacklisted. Doors closed and locked against you for, well, a long time.

When Mark calls Dave Doorknocker and claims to be right, Dave's duty is to give him good advice first and good service second.

Good advice would be to tell Mark he's not customer-focused enough.

Good service would be to say Dave can't help people who don't want to accept good advice.

It's just not about who's always, usually, sometimes, or even only sporadically right. Marketing is about finding out and UNDERSTANDING:

• what the market wants


• where they want it


• when they want it


• how they want it (packaged, delivered, communicated, supported)


• how much they are prepared to pay for it


• why they want it

...and then finding a way to navigate those needs to sell it to them, profitably, for all parties, seller, buyer, and any associated intermediaries.

Not to sell it to everyone, but to enough to make the whole thing worthwhile.

You can't please all of the people, all of the time. But you've got to please enough of them to stay in business.

Hope that help.

Cheers

ChrisB