This week I have been helping with Covid testing at my daughter's school. All the pupils need to be tested before they can return to school and then twice more over the next fortnight. I was an assistant, helping the children through the process and coaching them so that they could correctly swap their tonsils and nostril.
I have been really impressed by the way that the pupils have all dealt with the situation. Some are very nervous when they come in and it has been my job to reassure them and help them though the experience. By the end, they leave happy and relieved that it was not as bad as all that. When they come back for their second and third tests, it will be much easier.
The situation is a lot like sales. In your first engagement with a customer, both sides might be a little unsure of the situation. The customer needs to get familiar with you, the sales person, and trust that you will look after them. You need to work much harder in that first engagement than the ones that follow. Once you have developed a relationship, based on a level of trust, your customer will open up much more and the whole situation will be easier.
If you fail to put in the effort in the first meeting, the chances of you making the progress that you would like are less. If the customer was uncomfortable and you failed to do anything to help, they are unlikely to want to meet with you again. Going the extra mile in the first meeting will make an enormous difference.
Before you go, make sure that you know who you are going to meet. Check out their background, where else have they worked, who do you know in common, do you have any shared interests? Much of this information is available on LinkedIn. If people get to know each other a little bit before they start talking business, the chances of the meeting being successful increase significantly.
Take an interest in what your customer is talking about. The chances are that they are going to talk about things that are important to them. You might not be so interested so you may have to work hard at being interested. However, your customer will definitely notice if you fail to show much interest. Being interested does not just mean that you listen to what they have to say, you have to demonstrate that you are listening, ask them questions about they are talking about. People will appreciate these little things and the relationship will be much better as a result.
Sales is much more about looking after your customer than telling them how great your product is. It was great to be reminded this week about how important customer care is to making a business successful.