Handling Tough Customers

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.

Ever heard or used the phrase, “He’s a really tough client?” Or “Every time we meet she gives me a hard time?” Describing customers (or potential customers) as tough is quite common in our industry.

I remember a recent in-field coaching session where I was taken to visit one of their tough customers, complete with all the warnings; he’s difficult, he won’t open up, he’s always complaining about our rates.
So, in we went to see the this “tough customer” and surprise, surprise, Trevor turned out to be a really nice guy. A tough businessman, but not a tough customer. He was sick of “being sold to” (his exact words).

What happened?

We had a conversation, a business conversation not an advertising conversation.

My first question was, “Trevor, I was told you can be difficult sometimes, is that true?” I asked it with a smile on my face and he laughed and replied, “yep, I love to challenge people”.

The ice was broken, he was smiling already. Time to demonstrate we weren’t there to sell him something.

I also raised the rate issue, “I understand you think the rates are too high?”; we got into another conversation about how costs and margins impact price in any business. While we agreed to disagree on the actual rates, he now at least understood how the media group I was working with had all the same cost and margin pressures he did. Notice I didn’t talk about value? I kept this part of the discussion at a pure business level.

As the meeting progressed he shared a considerable amount of information that his salesperson was unaware of. How he got into the business, what success looks like to him, his annual turnover and where he wants to take the business – that led onto where he sources his leads, his lead conversion ratio, his growth targets and how many leads he needs to achieve those targets.

Not once did I try to sell him anything, not once did I talk about advertising, not once did we talk about specific products.

After an hour he asked me if I had any ideas on how generate more quality leads. I responded by saying, “I do but let me and the rep involved work on it and can we come back with a plan”. The response, “absolutely, when will that be”? We made the next appointment right away.

Do you think he was keen to meet the following week to learn about how we could help?
 
Tough customers?

More like disappointed or upset customers!

Search Google and you’ll find numerous ways to handle a tough customer. Suggestions such as “don’t argue” or “listen patiently and show empathy” or “it’s not personal”. The best tip I saw was “understand the issue and promise it won’t happen again”!!

Let’s use the above example. Trevor didn’t want empathy or promises; and he certainly didn’t want to be sold to. He wanted someone to take the time to really learn about his business challenges and then try to provide a solution. 

Sure, there are genuinely rude and angry customers. But most tough customers are sick of irrelevant, time wasting conversations with media sales people who start by asking “how’s business”? And then taking the conversation onto a specific product or service from there.

My challenge to you

Make yourself uncomfortable this week by meeting with one of your “tough or difficult” customers. Put yourself out there by leading off with a brave statement such as, “I don’t think I have ever spent time with you to really learn about your business and I want to rectify that”.

You never know what the response might be or where it will take you. A word of caution though, make sure you are prepared!

Then do the same every single week. Maybe you just might find a few customers who will love the changed approach and are keen to work with the “new” you.

Until next week, good, courageous selling! 

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.

He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 
 

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