Customer Service as Sales
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CUSTOMER RETENTION – A BIGGER CHALLENGE THAN CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
- February 13, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
More than ever before, when we deliver training to sales teams, salespeople ask how to deal with angry customers who are pissed off – not because something happened, but because whatever happened was made worse by incompetent or non-existent customer service or technical support.
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The Keys To Retaining and Losing Your Customers
- July 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written an article about the role that customer service plays in the retention and renewal of customers and accounts. In the past few weeks, I have experienced all kinds of customer service, including service you would expect, service that would surprise you, and service that wouldn’t change your mind about anything.
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You Can’t Lose Customers or Salespeople – 2 Secrets to Their Retention
- July 6, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
There were lots of articles that had the top 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15 reasons why salespeople leave or quit their jobs. Most of those lists were simply subsets of other lists and the reasons included things like compensation, morale, workload, changing quotas, culture, toxic management, the job was misrepresented, too much pressure and lack of growth opportunity. While there were no surprises to these lists of reasons, I think there is a more pervasive reason that is not represented on the lists created by marketers and recruiters:
Sales Selection.
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The Crucial Step Missing from Most Sales Training Programs
- September 21, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
There is a lesson here for those of us in the sales development space. When we train, coach and develop salespeople, we must demand that customer service get the training and coaching required so as to not sabotage the great work we do with sales organizations.
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School of Rock the Musical Demonstrates Selling to Existing Customers and Customer Service
- February 16, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Books, Movies, Theater and Television, Customer Service as Sales, Music and Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
This weekend we had seats to the new Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway show, School of Rock. Our son has watched the original movie around a dozen times and didn’t think there was the slightest possibility that the show would be as good as the movie. Did the show meet expectations? I’ll share that in a moment, but first, let’s discuss the dynamic of the show versus the movie and compare that to an ongoing sales challenge. While salespeople have expectations for meeting outcomes and sales results, prospects have expectations too – for the meetings, salespeople, products, services, prices and terms that a company will provide at various times during your sales cycle. In the case of movie versus show, there is a better analogy to strategic account management and even customer service.
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Real Examples of Outstanding Customer Service That Boost Sales
- November 23, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
What leaves a stronger and potentially longer lasting impression than your own experience with a brand? Let’s start with two great examples – experiences that make you choose to return for more.
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What You Get When You Accelerate Sucky Sales
- June 22, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell.com says, “Be careful not to accelerate suck!”. That quote appeared today on the High Velocity Sales Blog, where Chad Burmeister wrote a great article about outbound on demand. You should read that article. It can change your world! Anyway, I wanted to elaborate on that quote as it applies to expanding your sales force.
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United Airlines Uses Customer Service This Way to Impact Sales
- June 26, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Customer service has a very important selling role. Their job is to solve a customer’s problem and do it in such a way that the customer forgets about the problem they had and remembers only how well and painlessly their problem was solved and how nicely they were treated in the process. When companies screw this up, customer service has succeeded in UNSELLING a customer. It isn’t rocket science, but it does reflect poorly on recruiting, selection, management, onboarding and training.
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Unintentional Selling – Selling Customers on Defecting
- October 16, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
Today, Verizon Wireless gets the brunt of my wrath!
I’m a planner. I make sure in advance that every detail has been covered because I hate surprises. So before my recent trip, I purchased a new smart phone after I was assured that it would work in Europe and Turkey. Then I called Verizon to confirm that my new phone would work in the three cities where I would be and I subsequently purchased Global Roaming.
Then, on October 9, it happened.
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Non-Salespeople – Assets or Liabilities When They Face Customers?
- May 21, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Customer Service as Sales, Understanding the Sales Force
This is a tremendous example, and not the least bit unusual, of how non-selling, customer-facing employees, sell. Despite two effective customer-facing people doing their part on selling us to return, one was horrible and not so subtly sold us on not returning.
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