Managing Client Expectations In Lockdown
Working from home is new and difficult for many of us. Sales, in particular, as a profession is such a human to human, knee to knee, face to face business. It is always hard work selling to existing clients, but the difficulty becomes much more magnified when dealing with new clients. This lockdown will not last forever, but this staying at home, remaining isolated, new normal could potentially last much longer. The wheels of commerce must continue or the entire economy will grind to a halt. “In business nothing happens until there is a sale”, is an old truth. And we are the ones to go get that sale happening and the economy moving.
Typically, salespeople often overcommit their back office capacity to deliver. Salespeople love getting a deal. Discounts are offered up without compunction or need, corners are shaved, outlandish promises are made in order to get the deal done. In more normal times, the organisational machine can be called upon to deliver what should have never been promised in the first place. Today though, that may no longer be the case. Supply chains are fragile.
With many working at people at home or only a skeleton staff at the office, the coordination and communication issues become fraught. What once would have been easy to fix and to get resources behind, now becomes much harder and takes much longer. Salespeople sometimes assume an arrogant air, looking down their noses at cost center types. This hubris is fake, because the back office team actually perform miracles and make good on the false claims peddled by the salespeople. As we have found in many industries today, although the logistics people are viewed as down at the bottom of the food chain, they are absolutely vital to making the engine run smoothly.
As business dries up, salespeople can be tempted to take any deal, make any commitment, to get some revenue and related commissions coming in. This is a slippery slope and one best avoided. Reputations can be lost over the long term, made from decisions based on a short term pain relief perspective. This crisis won’t last forever. Clients will re-emerge from their home office purgatory and head back to the office. Life will return to some semblance of normality. How will your reputation fare the bright glare of retrospection of what has happened this year? If you dudded your client, they won’t be saying, “well, that’s okay, it was lockdown after all”. They will hold salespeople to the same standards of service and reliability that they have always demanded.
Understanding what new clients need is no simple process, even in the best of times. We can be sitting with them face to face, getting a full read of their body language their voice tone, their eye line, etc. and still have trouble getting a correct understanding of what they expect. When they are on screen, the audio isn’t that sharp, and the video quality, though much better than in years past, is still not perfect. This is particularly the case if multiple people are on the call and the screen gallery shot is the client presented in a tiny square on screen, while you are doing the talking. It is almost impossible to get an accurate read on how they are responding to your ideas or your suggestions.
You think you have seized upon what they want. Away you go beavering over the proposal as fast as possible to get things moving again. Yet when they react to the detail, they are not happy with it. They have discussed it internally, consulting people you have never met or heard of, cloistered away in the background, as they seek the consensus to move forward. It hasn’t met their expectations or standards. How could that be? You were sure you were clear on their context, the details of the need and so crafted this magnum opus in response.
If they didn’t like it, then find out why. Expect to be shocked that there is a such a gap in understanding. Keep calm, control your massive salesperson ego. Don’t mistake the rejection of your carefully crafted proposal as being a rejection of you personally. They may have said rude things in their response, but they are rejecting the offer, not you. As the mafia characters say in the Hollywood movies, just before they put a bullet in your head or mash you with a baseball bat, “this is business, it isn’t personal”. New clients can sometimes be of the same ilk, putting harsh verbal or written responses to your temple and pulling the trigger.
Also remember “no” is never “no” in sales. It is just “no” to this offer, at this point in time, in this budget context, with this construction, with this content. We have to find a way to get to the differences and get to a “yes”.
Selling and getting new business under the Covid-19 viral cloud is no fun. Everything is harder, sales are fewer, mutual understanding is in short supply. Make a commitment to never trade your reputation for one deal. Don’t rage when you feel your professionalism has been unfairly slighted by the new client. This crisis will pass. We will come out of our chrysalises, beautiful butterflies, remerging to a post-Covid-19 world. Our reputations will remain intact and we will be able to brush off the slings and arrows of outraged clients.
