Loyalty in Sales: How you can win it, or lose it

I should be your loyal customer. But I’m not. Why? Because:

• You tried to sell me something that I didn’t want. You didn’t care enough to learn about my preferences, my needs and my constraints.
• What you offered me was style, while my concern was substance.
• I wanted something that would do a little more, or something that was made a little better, with just a little better workmanship.
• What you offered me was just a little too expensive, and budget was my primary concern.
• The terms and conditions you offered were designed mainly as a solution to your problems. They didn’t address mine.

It was all about you
In short, I am not your customer today because I sensed that this sale was all about you – what you wanted to sell and when you wanted it sold, for the benefit of your sales quota or commission or whatever.

I was really looking for someone who would listen – truly listen and respond to me. Someone who’d care enough to take the time to find out what I really wanted. Someone who’d find a way to satisfy my true concerns and preferences within my means.

Instead of making it your business to ensure that I would drive away with what you offered, your obvious lack of concern just wound up driving me away.

I should have been your loyal customer. But you didn’t care enough.

So I became somebody else’s loyal customer.

Adapted from “Throw Away the Textbook and Be a Better Manager,” by Fred Jordan, ISBN 1575240114.