Instant gratification, versus longevity?
Do you want one night stands or a relationship?
If you are a sales rep who enjoys the thrill of the chase and changes jobs every 12-18 months chances are you fit into the instant gratification category. You want to make a lot of money and you want to do it quickly. You’ll possibly say or do just about anything to win the sale. People are often taken with you right away and more often than not mistake your interest in them for sincerity. People buy from you because you say all the right things at the right time. You often meet or exceed your quotas the first year and your bosses think you’re a superstar. You generally exit when the going is still good and chances are, for months after your departure, people are cleaning up your messes and resetting customer expectations because you over promised and now your poor ex colleagues are, from the client’s perspective, under-delivering.
If you are a business owner who takes pride in your customers and fully understands that they are the ones who are keeping you in business, do yourself a world of good and stay away from instant gratification sales reps who ‘sweep you off your feet’. Like mom always said, “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.
Instant-gratification sales rep is quite possibly the greatest contributor to the perception many people have of sales people. Instant gratification sales rep likely worked as a used car salesman once upon a time, forever stereotyping any sales person brave enough to sell cars.
What’s possibly even scarier than instant gratification sales guy is instant gratification SALES MANAGER. That guy got promoted! Unfortunately many sales reps with good fast sales results get promoted to manager. I’m sorry but exceeding your quota is not a qualification for managing people - but that is a topic for another day. I would rather get to the benefits of longevity.
If you want longevity you need three things: (that I promise I will elaborate on in future posts)
People working for you who care. Not just for the customers, but for their managers and the company. (Yes this is possible. If you don’t believe me, I’d be happy to come and speak at your next staff meeting)
Clear information/marketing about your company’s products, services and direction.
Organized, client contact database.
Building a stable company with long term customers is critical to just about any business - from a corner store to a car dealer and from a plumber to a software developer. People who enjoy buying from you and who are more than satisfied WILL come back again and WILL refer you. To build this type of clientele might mean giving a little… it might mean dragging out the sales process for a while. It more than likely will mean you’ll miss your quarter, however it definitely will mean more revenue in the future.
Once upon a time I checked coats and collected cover charge at a night club and my manager made a comment about how low our numbers were on the cover-charges (because I let in a lot of people for free on this particular night). To that I replied “If they don’t spend the $5 at the door, they’ll spend it in the club and they’ll be a lot happier about spending it”. The people who knew they could get in the club for free came back again and again and always spent well over $5 in the bar AND tipped better because they didn’t feel ‘ripped off’ the moment they walked in the door.
You can’t just look at ONE number you have to look at the overall numbers over a period of time.
When I first started in account management it was a rough go. My manager had a very different approach than me and more often than not told me I was not fit to do what I was doing. He had very little faith in me, however thankfully I had faith in me. I stopped listening to his advice and did what I thought was the right thing to do. Making my quota was a slow go but after I had built the relationships, earned the trust and followed through with the things I said I would do, clients started buying from me. I didn’t do anything for my clients with the intention of it resulting in a sale (other than the standard sales presentations and sales calls that I was clear about). I treated my clients like I did my friends. I told them about products and services I believed would help them. I also advised them against some products and services that I didn’t think would benefit them. When they asked me a question I answered it. If the answer was no, it was no. If the answer was I don’t know , then that was the answer I gave them. If I took them out it was to genuinely thank them for their support, and more often than not to hang out with them because I liked them. The SIDE EFFECT was that they bought from me.
As a business owner or aspiring sales person/customer service person if you care about your customers and are genuinely interested in them then you are 50% closer to successful selling than you may have thought!
My question of the day is:
Are you 50% there yet?
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