Don’t be an idiot.
I understand that sounds a little rough and you probably don’t know what I am talking about here. We live in a cynical and sarcastic and snarky time and place, and many people assume that sales and customer service people are idiots. In many people’s past experience, they’ve dealt with people who were not well trained for their sales or service jobs, perhaps not well-suited, certainly not well supported, and they had a lousy customer service or sales experience. It is also true that some people come off a little rough and a little brusque with sales and customer service people ,and not all sales and customer service people know how to handle that. So the relationship between sales and service people and their customers and prospects often goes sour immediately on first contact.
Your job is to quickly show that person who comes to you in a sales or service interaction that you’re not an idiot. When people realize the person they are dealing with is not an idiot, their resistance, their anger, their bad attitudes all just sort of fall away and fade away. You’ll be able to have some open and honest discussion with them about how to move forward with your service or product and what the process looks like to buy your product or service. People love buying from people who know how to sell and know how to build some business relationships. People love buying from people who are empathetic and capable. Customers and prospects live in a strange dichotomy. They think sales and customer service people are idiots, but they really like buying from people who aren’t idiots. Your job is to quickly show them you’re not an idiot and then things will go well. That’s not always easy to do because sometimes people are very judging. This is especially true if you’re meeting someone in person for the first time or someone’s calling you on the phone. Sometimes as soon as you say hello, their first thought is; “gosh I have to speak to another idiot.” That makes it tricky. So, don’t be an idiot.
