Customers don’t like surprises. When you are talking with your customer about price, timeframe, your product and how it works, next steps, and so on, you have to be accurate. People don’t appreciate being told one thing, and then a week later, hearing a slight twist, or a deviation from what was originally said or agreed upon. If you want to be the best, you have to set the right expectations throughout the entire sales cycle, and for long after it.
When you set the right expectations and follow through on them, it builds trust, credibility, and confidence with your customer. In short, your customer will come to the conclusion that you know what you are doing. You are a safe bet. You have done this before and their risk is minimal with doing business with you. When you say one thing and then you deviate, your customer will instantly have a negative thought impulse that will trigger them to think, “Last week he told me that his company would be flexible with payment terms and now he is sending me an email saying the terms have to be NET 30. This isn’t what we discussed.”
The above is one example of an expectation being missed and causing a negative reaction with your customer. Imagine now for a moment if you had a few more of these missed expectations with the same customer. Do you think their trust in you would be high enough for them to do business with you? Probably not. Or, you might be in for a very long, drawn-out sales cycle dealing with a so-called “difficult” customer.
The reality is that your customer is not “difficult” at all. You as the salesperson just missed the mark with setting the right expectations and delivering exactly what you said you would do. This is why it is an absolute must to be crystal clear when setting expectations so that there is no confusion or disappointment in your customer’s mind. No generalities or vagueness. Clarity is what customers want. There are plenty of salespeople who can speak in generalities and they don’t get very far. So know your stuff!
As a best practice, follow up your conversations with an email documenting what was discussed along with next steps. Bullet it out in a simple, clean format for your customer. This is not only being thorough with communications, but it will help you down the road when your customer may have forgotten about what you said to them over the phone.
If you read the above and thought of a situation where you might have missed the mark with setting the right expectations, learn from it. Understand what you could have said or done better next time so that it doesn’t happen again. More importantly, so that your next customer will have more trust and confidence in you. They will not only appreciate being leveled with, they will also want to do business with you sooner!
-Happy Selling!