There’s this really great group I belong to on Facebook for salespeople. The other day, someone posted a diatribe of insults regarding a particular client that was “rude”, “time wasting” and finished his rant with “I don’t want clients like that anyway”.
Did I ever tell you about Bob? I’ll never forget Bob – he was my best client ever. He would book with me every month, and that kind of repeat business is invaluable right? He also referred great quality clients to me, and I made stacks of money from him. What I loved most about Bob, is that he was so easy and we had implicit trust – I had an imprint of his credit card and permission to charge at will (to a certain limit).
I can tell you it didn’t start out that way.
Bob was the rudest, grumpiest client I had ever encountered. My consults were usually full of jovial conversation, banter and laughter. This was how I built trust and connection with potential clients.
So when Bob came in, barked a request at me, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to build trust so I just did what I was told as quickly as possible so I could get away from him. I too believed I didn’t want clients like that. When he left me, I knew I would never see him again.
I was wrong.
Bob did come back. And to my complete astonishment, Bob purchased from me. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. I thought Bob hated me.
What I didn’t know back then is that everyone has a different style of selling, and everyone has a different style of buying. When I looked back on my business…all of my clients were like me. My personality, we naturally had a lot in common, so it was easy for them to buy from me. I was a “If it’s fun, it’s good” style of seller.
You – you reading this – you’re one of those, or a ‘numbers guy’ or a ‘get shit done person” or “so long as everyone is happy” – and that’s how you’ll sell. Problem is, ‘get shit done guy’ doesn’t like to buy from ‘if it’s fun it’s good person’. Bob wanted fast and efficient – he was a ‘get shit done guy’. I accidentally discovered, that if I sold to Bob the way HE wanted to be sold to…it was magic!
Bob taught me the greatest sales lesson I ever learned. And from that point on my business began to change.
Now, I’m not about to say that you need to take on every client, but I will say there is great merit in bringing that aspect of yourself that serves your potential client. That a ‘rude’ customer might just want a quick efficient outcome, and isn’t interested in having a warm fluffy convo with you.
I’m curious, you might find there are less ‘rude’ customers if you sell how they like to be sold to – what are your experiences?
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