‘Prove to your customer that you’re willing to work harder, drive more miles, and bend over further than everyone else to earn his business.’

~~~

Kevin,

This one’s pretty subtle.  At first glance it seems like foolishness to say that anything less than fantastic customer service is going to cut it in today’s marketplace.

But here’s the thing:  Most sales people try to communicate this way too soon, in the process of being way too eager to win the customer’s business.

So what happens is, you’re chasing the guy, saying ‘Call me any time, day or night, page me, here’s my home phone number.

‘Heck, I’ll even jump out of bed and come and

see you if I’m right in the middle of making

love to my wife, because man, lemme tell ya, I’m eager to win your business!!’

Of course customers know that after the salesman has made every conceivable promise to win their business, they still end up dealing with a bunch of apathetic yo-yos in customer service or tech support, and the project will STILL probably be late anyway – regardless of how eager the sales person is.

That’s why your enthusiasm doesn’t help you.

Here’s a great way to fix the problem:

1) Don’t act so darn hungry to get the guy’s business.  Your customer service and tech support people ARE busy, and they don’t have time to hold the hands of problem customers.

Don’t be afraid to tell your prospects that they have to *qualify* to do business with you.  It’s counter intuitive, but when the customer finds out that you’re not drooling all over yourself to get his purchase order, he’s going to respect you more.

2) *Guarantee* results to the customer – with teeth.  Guarantee on-time delivery, specific levels of performance, with negative consequences for YOUR company if it doesn’t deliver the goods.  You do not have to promise people

the moon!   You just have to keep the promises

you DO make.

Now this requires support from the president of the company on down.  And most companies don’t like to guarantee anything.  (When push comes to shove, you still have to deliver results anyway, right?  Giving a guarantee often just means clearly stating what’s already

true.)

And if you aren’t willing to guarantee anything, why the heck not?  Why should your customers take all the risk after they’ve heard a bunch of empty promises?

Even a modest guarantee can enormously empower your sales message.  Define what you can and can’t deliver, go to the mat to keep your promises, and draw the line right there.  Customers will be far more responsive and you won’t appear desperate.

People are cynical, and they’ll only believe what you can prove.  Here’s an article on how to erase that cynicism and earn more trust than your competitors:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/marketing/19.htm

By the way, here’s my guarantee:

“If you purchase my marketing system toolkit, and you do not put at least $10,000 into your bank account that you know you wouldn’t have gotten without it, then all you have to do is prove to me that you did ONE measly thing in that toolkit — and I’ll give you your money back, every penny.”

http://www.perrymarshall.com/inabox.htm

When you seamlessly integrate bold

sales messages and meaningful guarantees with the other ingredients of my system, the results are exciting.

Tomorrow I’ll attack Lie #5:

‘You have to pay your dues now, but in only 2-3 years you’ll have enough customers and referrals that you won’t have to cold prospect hardly at all.’

Best of Success,

Perry Marshall

http://www.perrymarshall.com/renaissance