Am I alone in being frustrated on an almost daily basis when dealing with suppliers? I'm convinced the ?who cares' attitude is spreading like an epidemic. Let me give you a quick run down of just one of this week's fiascos to demonstrate what I mean.
A package from one of my suppliers was overdue for delivery from a well known courier company, even though the tracking showed that it had been sitting on a shelf in the local depot for several days. Now, I live in a reasonable size city, Salt Lake City in fact, which has a decent size population and infrastructure ? heck, there's even an IKEA, and there ain't many of those across the U.S. I'm not talking about Barstow here (no offence to Barstow readers, I'm not picking on you, I promise).
Anyway, so I get on the phone with the ?customer service' advisor who tells me that they only deliver on certain days of the week - I'm serious! Apparently however, I'm permitted to trudge the 15 miles out there to collect the package if I want it before they were ready to find a slot in their random delivery schedule.
I considered pursuing the line of reasoning that since I'd paid for two day shipping, I'd kinda' hoped that I'd see it within 2 days of ordering, but I thought better of it. I didn't want to appear unreasonable or demanding. Instead I bit my tongue and dutifully trotted off down to the depot and stood my turn in line until permitted to utter my request.
Not much to do while waiting, other than eavesdrop on a phone conversation between a customer and a ?support' rep. Obviously I couldn't hear the customer, but fortunately in this instance, the rep had a habit of repeating the caller almost verbatim, which under normal circumstances would have been highly irritating.
Anyway, I digress. This is how the conversation went:
?So you're saying that the driver threw the box over your fence, is that right??
(customer replies)
?Well, obviously I wasn't there, but I'm sure he just wanted to make sure the package was hidden from the view of any passers by.?
(customer replies)
?Oh, you're saying the fence is 7ft high?? (customer replies)
?And the antique set was smashed??
(customer replies)
?Mmm, that happens a lot. I hope it was insured.?
I'm not making this up, I wish I was. At that point I was feeling absolutely thrilled that I'd escaped with only having to go outside in the freezing cold in the middle of the winter and drive 15 miles - it was a relief to know that I'd intercepted the sequence of doom, before my box had got to the throwing over the fence part.
I got my box, and little did it know that it had been spared the physical trauma that apparently was a standard feature. I didn't even throw the box away after emptying its contents, it seemed cruel, it needed protecting?
Okay, so I got a little carried away, but actually I'm deadly serious about the lesson here. Customer service is such a rare commodity that it's in danger of becoming extinct.
Let's face it, the times when we experience great service with a smile are now so rare that we tell everyone, and they're suitably impressed.
If providing outstanding customer service and keeping customers happy is a high priority for you and your staff, you'll immediately put your business a giant leap ahead of all your competitors. It's such a ridiculously simple principle to comprehend, but sadly many more overlook it than ?get it'. Be one of the ones who gets it. Give it time and your business will explode over the long-term, I guarantee it.
Sorry, if I forgot to mention the specific type of coach you are.
Whether you have just completed your coaching education or are already a seasoned coach, it doesn't really matter. Just imagine that you meet someone who doesn't know you. Let's call that person Susan.
Susan asks you, "So, what is it you do for a living?"
What would be your natural answer?
I used to say, "I am an executive coach and trainer."
The typical response I would get would be "Hm, hm, interesting." The conversation would then go on to something else.
Or Susan would inquire: "Coach? Trainer? Oh, which kind of sport? Tennis?"
And I would respond: "No, no, I coach executives."
Susan: "Oh, o.k."
And in most cases that would be about it.
Perhaps you're starting to see where I'm taking you.
When we developed our Stop Selling! program to help sales people accelerate their business, we decided to use cold calls for practicing new ways of communicating with potential clients. Since making cold calls is perhaps the most challenging way of acquiring new business, we thought that once we master cold calls, it would be a piece of cake to make warm calls or to meet with new people, for example, in a networking event.
What are the most critical points in a cold call?
? To be 100 percent respectful to the persons we call (which also means respecting their decision if they say they don't have time to talk)
? To be able to create rapport instantly
? To make the call as relevant as possible for the people we call
When you make a cold call, the receiver wants to know immediately if the call is relevant or not to him. In fact, the critical questions are: What are you doing? Why are you calling me? And especially, Why should I talk to you?
Can you see that the questions in the title of this article in most cases actually mean all these three questions?
In a cold call, you usually get very little time to answer these three questions. So you'd better have a crisp statement to cover all of them. It is also called the "elevator speech," which should last not more than 20 to 30 seconds.
In order to develop a powerful elevator speech, you should first determine what people are generally interested in. Are they really interested in what you are doing? Unless they care about you in some way, the answer is "No!" Instead, people are interested in their own issues, their own problems, and their own benefits.
Consequently, an elevator speech should not explain what you are doing but what your clients are getting, i.e. what kind of benefits you provide, which issues and problems you can help solve, etc.
For example, instead of saying, "Hi, I am Charlie. I am an Executive Coach and Trainer," it is much more meaningful to say, "Hi, my name is Charlie Lang and I work with senior executives who feel they haven't reached their full potential yet or who want to improve the engagement and morale in their team."
You see, I hardly talk about what I do. Rather, I try to talk as much as possible about my clients so that Susan, in our example, would be able to ask herself, "Is this something that I am also concerned with?" If yes, then Susan would certainly get quite interested in how I do this. That would then lead to a longer discussion. If Susan can't relate to this herself, perhaps she knows someone else who does.
I recommend that you develop your own elevator speech, write it down, fine-tune it, test it and then practice it whenever you have the opportunity. It will help you identify more business opportunities.
Most people don't care if you are a coach, but they might care about how you help others and if you could help them, too. So talk about that instead.
Both Drew020 & Charlie Lang are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Charlie Lang has sinced written about articles on various topics from Leadership, The Internet and self improvement and motivation. Charlie Lang's mission is to change the image of sales through the completely buyer-oriented Stop Selling! approach. He is a passionate and professional executive Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker and Author of over 100 articles related to leadership, coachi. Charlie Lang's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.