Do Your Customers Like Talking To You?

Do your customers like talking to you and members of your sales team?

When we talk about effective sales professionals, we often only think about, well, their sales!

In other words, we attribute much of a salesperson’s overall efficiency by the number of sales they make in a given period.

Sure, it’s a worthy metric to gauge success, but the way in which a salesperson speaks and communicates with a client is often the “unsung hero” when it comes to client relationships, retention and success.

The sale doesn’t start and stop after a deal is closed. Often, it’s just the beginning of a relationship which can either be longterm or very short lived.

And, often, the length of that relationship is determined heavily by whether or not your clients actually like communicating with your team.

In other words, if your clients feel as though they’re not important, or are a nuisance to members of your team, they are unlikely to continue working with you for an extended period.

Of course, results matter, but if your clients are receiving rude or unclear replies to their inquiries, the results will soon be looked for elsewhere.

Sales and business success comes down to relationships. And those relationships are created, maintained and developed through communication. So, as a result, if communication is poor, the foundation of the relationship erodes as well.

Ask yourself, do you have members of your team who:

• Complain about and badmouth your clients among colleagues?
• Are rude, abrupt, or downright argumentative?
• Don’t get along well with multiple other members of your team?
• Have been known to get irritated when a client gets in touch with them?
• Replies to inquiries in an unprofessional or unfriendly manner?
• Consistently send unclear or inaccurate information or direction?

If so, you need to reevaluate whether this person is really an asset to your team. This is especially true in today’s “virtual selling” climate.

You may think that things like badmouthing clients among their colleagues and peers isn’t that bad or worthy of the above mentioned reevaluation, but negativity and toxicity have a tendency to spread across entire teams. Not to mention, your customers and clients are savvy enough to figure these things out. It also demonstrates poor judgement in a professional environment, and that’s not the type of judgement you want on your team.

As a sales leader, you want members of your team that are upbeat, friendly,  and positive and who communicate clearly and efficiently.

These personalities are easily identifiable and shine through to your clients. And, they are the types of people that everyone wants to communicate with.

As I mentioned above, don’t neglect this “unsung hero” of sales success. It’s a big difference maker!