SALES - Listen To The Customer

SALES – Listen To The Customer


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC August 2009.

So many times I take a call only to find that it is someone trying to sell me something. I hate these calls – not necessarily because I don’t want to buy whatever it is that they are selling (although that usually is the case), but also because the calls usually come when I am busy with something else, or I have a deadline or (and here is the most annoying thing) the caller is not interested in listening to anything that I have to say, but is only interested in making the sale – at whatever the cost!

Sadly with me, it usually is at the cost of the sale and in some cases (depending on how annoyed they make me) at the cost of the customer (and they are two different things). Yet they never seem to learn.

I have had callers demanding to know why I will not invest in a funeral policy to people challenging me when I tell them that I don’t have time to listen right now, to promises of “I’ll phone you back tomorrow because I can make a difference in your life!” How presumptuous.

Yet still they don’t listen and the more they don’t listen or learn the lesson, the less opportunity they will have to get their itchy little fingers on the contents of my wallet.

You see, it really doesn’t matter to me if I buy from them or not, because . . . . well because there are hundreds and hundreds of little (or big) businesses, selling the same product and/or service, who would also like to get their itchy little fingers on the contents of my wallet.

So learn the lesson – if you want my business, you have to be the person who irritates me the least, who intrudes upon my time the least and who listens the most.

Listen to your customers – listen to what it is that they need the most from you and then give them exactly what it is that they want – the sale will always then be yours.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za