You’re Not Suitable for Sales: Part 2

I don’t believe the customer is always right.

I’ve just made a lot of people gasp with astonishment.

This is one of the most controversial topics in management. We’ve gone from the customer is right, to the customer is always right, the customer is king to the customer is next to God.

However, I’ve found that customers sometimes have irrational demands. Customers ask for same day delivery even though you’ve advised that their customized product will require 5 days to manufacture. Customers ask for insane discounts. Customers with lousy credit ratings ask for more credit.

Remember that you are selling to create value, both for yourself and for the customer. Giving in to the customer’s demands as the customer is always right will establish a bad relationship with the customer and with your other customers as well.

Suppose you give in to the same day delivery demand. This means there are orders in queue that will have to be rerouted. Production schedules will be disturbed. The design department may have to work overtime and suspend any projects that are pending. Quality Assurance may have to slacken their standards or suspend them entirely in order to meet the deadline. Delivery trucks may have to be held back to ensure the product can be readily delivered. Imagine the costs you have incurred just to ensure that you honor the customer. Will the customer pay for the additional costs you have incurred and any losses your other customers have incurred who ordered in time? Probably not.

Will you give in to a customer’s demand for a steep discount when you know that giving that discount will not only hurt your margins, it will establish a bad practice with the customer who may continue with their demand for further discounts? After all the customer is always right, right?

Or will you increase your exposure to risk by giving a customer further credit when they are overdue on their payments. After all the customer is always right.

The reality is the customer is right when they are looking out for their own interests. You need to create a balance between the customer’s demands and your own interests. The value is created when customer demands and your ability to deliver intersect. Your ability as a sales person lies in finding the point of intersect and maximizing it.

And most of all the sales person has to recognize that the customer may not always be right, but it is their job to ensure that the customer understands what you can deliver and what to expect and demand what is right.