Guest post by Dave Blakeman of RPS
When a salesperson visits a customer, I believe they should show respect for that customer’s time. It’s remarkably simple (but rare) for a salesperson to put themselves in the customer’s shoes. This invoves doing simple things:-
Arrive when promised
Don’t out-stay your welcome
Do what you promised by when you promised it
In addition, I have a suggestion for the retail conservatory sales world. As a gesture of respect for the customer’s time, why not send them a small box of chocolates (or an M&S voucher) along with your quotation? And a small note saying “your time is important to me – please accept this as a small token for taking the time to see me”.
Say this costs £10/customer. Benefits would be:
1. The customer will be amazed – this is not how double glazing companies are expected to behave!
2. It’s almost inconceivable that your competition would do the same thing, so you’ve already ticked a “special” box that people didn’t realise existed!
3. If you don’t win the job, you’ll be in a great position to ask why. That feedback is invaluable – you’ve already given something special to the customer, and they will feel obliged to give you an honest answer back, rather than just fobbing you off with “the other quote was less” (price is a great excuse, but rarely the main reason to choose someone else)
4. Whether you win the job or not, you can be pretty certain the customer will tell others about it.
Sounds like £10 well spent to me (especially in the current climate). I’m not sure it would have the same impact in trade-trade sales, but we might well try it anyway!
If anyone decides to try this, let me know how it goes!
Dave is the MD of RPS (Roofwright) and has his own blog which is definitely worth following at:
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