This week I want to talk to you about one of the most important things that you can do to really build customer relationships and get repeat business. We are living in an uncertain marketplace, no surprise there, right? I mean, we’re hit with the challenges of finding enough people to do the job, just handling labor. We’ve got supply chain issues and it feels like every time we turn around a product or service that our customer needs is running behind, things are running late. We tell the customer, we can do one thing, and then we turn around and maybe a weather incident or something gets in the way that prevents us from delivering on time. Well, as a sales professional, you need to understand, you have to manage customer expectations. The more that you can tell them on the front end, number one, that you’re doing everything that you can do to get their product or service to them as fast as they can, let them know, be honest, be transparent that there are supply issues that are outside of your control.
There are labor issues that are outside of your control. There may be regulations or weather issues or things that happen that are outside of your control. Let them know that you’ll keep them informed every step of the way you want to over promise that you’ll service them, but under promise that they’re going to get things exactly as they want them. There is so much outside of our control in an uncertain environment, in an uncertain marketplace. And one of the most important things that you can do as a salesperson, as a professional is manage customer expectations. It’s happening everywhere. So even if customers are frustrated, if you’re open and honest, they won’t be frustrated with you. They’ll be frustrated with the situation, but if you avoid it like so many of us do, there’ll be frustrated, aggravated, and not only will they not buy from you, they won’t refer to you and they won’t do repeat business with you. So if you want to increase referrals, be open, be honest, manage your customer expectations. All right, we’ll see you next week with another tip and together, we’re going to turn all of this uncertainty into your competitive edge.