Closing A Sale: Promise and Deliver!

How to close a sale and generate referrals by under promising and over delivering.

Keywords:

Closing a sale, closing the sale, closing sale technique

Article Body:

One of the chief complaints from customers about the way business is conducted these days centers on customer service. Either the service aspect is completely lacking or what has been promised to the customer hasn’t been kept. Dealing with the latter category, it is easy to see why customers are disappointed: sales people routinely over promise and then fail to deliver.

A disappointed customer is not only unhappy with your services, but they won’t recommend you to their friends. Even worse, an unsatisfied customer may tell their friends to simply not do business with you! Read on for some tips on how you can deliver right on time, every time and leave your customers satisfied and recommending you to their friends.

Successful sales people thrive by getting referrals from satisfied customers. You not only have a satisfied customer, but the opportunity for receiving highly recommended future prospects increases as well.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind when working with any client:

Keep your promises. If you tell your customer that you will provide x, y, z then you must deliver on x, y, z. Delivering anything less than what you promise makes you look like every other guy out there: a liar…at least in your customers’ eyes!

Do not over promise. Likely, your intentions are to come through to your customers as planned. However, are you tempted to give them the shortest possible turn around time just to close a sale? Don’t do that! Instead, build in some buffer time to allow for problems to arise, to be addressed, and to be moved out of the way.

Be a Hero, not a Zero. Smart salespeople have a very good idea when a job should be completed, but add in the buffer time anyway. Let’s say a job takes 10 days to do. Tell your customer that you will have it completed in 15 days. When you deliver earlier than planned, you’ll come out looking like a hero. Deliver late and you’ll look bad - And you will have to come up with some sort of costly “extra” to soothe their wounds!

So, what do you do with those customers who have a, “I want it done yesterday” mentality? Emphasize quality! That’s right, instead of falsely promising that you can get the job done within their ridiculously short timeframe, give them a realistic timeframe and mention that this is the time needed to “get the job done right the first time.” You’ll help move them away from an untenable deadline to one that is based on reality. Emphasize quality over everything else and you will have their attention.

Remember: a satisfied customer is a happy customer and they will cost you less in the long run. Meet or beat your deadline each and every time and you’ll have a customer who is very satisfied with your services and they will recommend you to their friends. You will save money, time, and aggravation - and you will profit immensely over the long run.

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Customer Service in the Bottled Water Industry - Pure Water and the Customer Promise

The bottled water business consists of the manufacturing and delivery of quality water in small packages or large containers such as 5 gallon bottles. Each individual bottled water company provides an implicit promise that it will manufacture tand deliver the highest quality product on time.

Keywords:

Pure water, customer service, oxygenated water, bottled water, communication, customer satisfaction

Article Body:

Almost every company discusses, at length, the need for customer service and the significance of supplying true excellence to its customers. However, very few actually follow through with what it takes to attain this excellence. This is particularly true in the bottled water business since not all providers share the opinion that customer service is of the utmost importance in any business.

The bottled water industry services a wide customer base with numerous companies and individual clients. The industry is characterized by a small number of very large firms and a substantial number of relatively small consumers with specific geographic niches.

The Nature of the Business:

The bottled water business consists of the manufacturing and delivery of spring or purified water in small packages or large containers such as 5 gallon bottles. The product is delivered directly to the customer’s site in either company owned delivery vehicles or through common carriers. Each individual bottled water company provides an implicit promise to its customers that it will manufacture the highest quality product and deliver that product at the agreed upon time.

Many, Many Customers:

The customer base in the bottled water industry is very diverse and ranges from individual consumers with single bottle requirements to large multi-cooler business accounts with significant water needs. Each client has its own specific requirements, which are met by the company providing the services and product.

The Customer Service Promise and the History of the Business:

In the past, various bottled water companies have focused on process rather than customer service. Many firms acted on the belief that the delivery of a superior product completed their obligation to the customer. However, the customer service promise includes much more than a simple delivery of a quality product and requires additional services such as on time delivery, proper pricing, responding to additional delivery requests and other specific needs. One of the most important customer responsibilities is the ability to communicate their concerns not only to the customer service departments, but also to the heads of each company.

Current Status of the Industry (The Unfulfilled Promise):

Although the bottled water industry may seem rather simple, in reality, it is a very complex business. High quality water must be produced and delivered to the customer's location on time and as ordered. Often enough, customer requests change without warning, which is one reason why flexibility is important to the success of the bottled water company.

Frequently, the water needs of the customer exceed original expectations, which causes shortages . However, in order to avoid such a situation as this, the supplier would have already invested in the communication and stock infrastructure to meet all of its clients’ demands.

For those suppliers who private label water as a means of customer advertising, the design, printing and durability of the label on the bottle is a critical factor. Therefore, companies creating labels of lesser quality in the design and printing of the labels clearly provide a substandard product to their customers.

Communication and the Customer Promise:

Many bottled water suppliers neglect the reality that proper communication channels serve as the basis for fulfilling the customer promise. An overall reliance on voicemail and/or e-mail, an inability to respond quickly to customer needs and the absence of true customer service assistance has created a negative impression of the industry for many customers.

A proper communication system has many technical elements but it should begin with a willingness to include human contact in the communication link. No customer enjoys being dropped into the voicemail void, therefore, the bottled water suppliers that continue to prosper are the companies that uphold the customer service promises and guarantee personally answered customer service calls, which they promptly use to respond to client inquiries and concerns.

Accept Responsibility and Do What It Takes to Provide Customer Satisfaction:

There are many excuses for failure to perform but the bottled water suppliers who are truly world class are those who accept responsibility and persevere with their customer satisfaction guarantees. This often includes obtaining little or no profit on a particular transaction in order to fulfill the customer service promise.

Size is not the determinant in the customer service equation. Often, smaller companies are ready, willing and able to better fulfill the customer promise.
Look for a supplier with a track record of not only achieving the customer promise but also one with a history of fulfillment of the promise.