www.thebusinessworkshop.com
|
|
How To Lose Customers
Let me illustrate this for you using a real life experience that happened with one of my close friends (let's call her Monica), who was working as a sales executive with one of the leading international airlines. As a leading airline, this organisation is known as the 'top gun' of the aviation industry, a reputation it has earned owing to it's world-class product and excellent services. It, therefore, boasts of a large gamut of loyal customers worldwide, which is a mix of both the rich and the middle class sections of the society. Now coming back to my dear friend Monica, who (like many of her colleagues) was so thoroughly intoxicated with the popularity of the airline and her management degrees, little did she realise that her over-confidence was affecting her relationship with her customers. Though there was a sharp drop in her sales figures vis-a-vis her targets, she failed to attribute it to her arrogant attitude. Somehow, she was so confident of the airline's reputation and her selling skills, that she felt she could do no wrong. Then, one day it happened! Monica finally faced her Waterloo. It was a normal working day. Monica and one of her colleagues were dealing with customers when a simple-looking Sardar gentlemen dressed in a kurta-pyjama, accompanied by his garishly dressed wife and two small kids approached Monica's counter. As trained, Monica smiled and said "Good Morning! How may I help you?" The gentleman replied, "Yes! Yes! Good Morning Madam. I wish to take my family to Canada. You see both me and my missus have saved...." "Where exactly in the Canada do you wish to go to?" Monica interrupted (a little sharply). She obviously had no time to listen to the stories of these plain folk. The gentleman smiled and continued with some hesitation, "Well, actually we want to go for my sister's wedding in Vancouver. We have come all the way from the village, so bahenji, will you please give us a cheap ticket? " Monica hated to be called 'bahenji' and by this time she had lost all interest in this family of villagers who had come in all the way into the city with obviously no knowledge of how much an airline ticket cost. "You see bahenji, we are all traveling on an aeroplane for the first time. So we are a little worried about this trip," the lady added. By now Monica had already started scouting the waiting area for some other passenger who would be suitably attired to walk into an airline's office. Someone probably carrying a cell-phone and dressed in a well-tailored suit to match. Someone she could sell a club-class ticket to and meet her sales target for the week. She thought she saw someone who fitted this profile and was eager to get rid of this family who were obviously going to jump once she gave them the price of a return fare from Delhi to Vancouver. Monica turned her attention towards the family in front of her and said, "Sardarji, our ticket would cost you Rs. 65,000/- for a return trip to Vancouver. We are not giving any discounts at the moment as this is the low season, and the prices are already lower as compared to the ones during the the high season. Now, how many seats would you like me to book for you?" The Sardarji seemed shocked and crestfallen at her cutting tone and her "take it or leave it" attitude. The lady with him hesitated and whispered something in her husband's ears. "We will decide and think about this and get back to you Bahenji. You see, we need to discuss this with our family before we take a decision. Do you think we will get seats if we come back tomorrow?" "You need to book your ticket now as I would not be able to guarantee confirmed seats tomorrow. So do you want it or not?" Monica replied brusquely, aiming to get rid of them at the earliest. The family got up and left disappointed. Monica soon forgot about them and got busy with the new customer in front of her who seemed closer to her club class customer profile. The next day, during the morning meeting, Monica's supervisor asked everyone if they had dealt with a Sardar family who wanted to go to Vancouver. On Monica's acknowledgement, he informed the sales team of a big group of 50 passengers which was bagged by their biggest competitor. That was one third of the economy cabin which they had managed to fill up during this lean period. He also informed the team that some of the group members had come to their sales counter the previous day but were not given due attention. Monica suddenly felt the ground slipping under her feet when she realised her folly. Her over-confidence
and uncaring attitude had lost her a big sale. Besides the loss
of revenue, the company had also lost goodwill among its customers
and had paved the way for a major competitor to grab a chunk
of their market share. And who was to blame for this? The organisation?
The sales team? Or someone else......? I'm sure Monica knows
the answer to this as she still quotes this incident as the turning
point of her sales career. |
How's
that as inspiration for a sales person? Difficult as it may be
for a sales person to accept, sales executives often manage to
kill potential sales by sheer overconfidence.
|
|