Polling Your Customers: Are You A Cameron Or A Brown?

Sellers spare a thought for Gordon Brown on his recent election defeat, for your own popularity among your customers may equally be in the balance.

Lessons from Number 10

Politics and selling have a lot in common.  Not least of which is the rate at which politicians and sellers can come and go out of favour.  The fanfare around the new UK Government is a good case in point.  Inevitably popularity ratings for victorious politicians can only go one way – that is down.  So the question is are you a Cameron, or a Brown?  That is to say are you on the way up, or the way out?

In selling as in politics, victory is sweet, but it often temporary too.  Take for example US President Obama whose popularity plummeted within 12 months of romping to victory.  The same happens every day for sellers, whose popularity can so easily wane once the sale has been made. The reality is that salespeople win the sale, but ultimately lose the customer.  This is backed up with the often quoted research which suggests that companies loose as much as 20% of their customers every year.

Pre-Sale Promises Can Become Post-Sale Problems

The seller’s fine words and promises made prior to winning the sale are quickly put to the test by buyers and, according to them, sellers are all too often found wanting.  The same applies in politics – you will have heard the newly elected saying that the figures are worse than they were led to believe prior to the election.

Perhaps the need/problem and the cost of solving it is greater than that which was anticipated in pre-sales – a problem that is aggravated by the fact that the seller’s access to information pre-sale may have been limited.  There may be problems in the transition, or getting off the ground, with initial setbacks arising.  Regardless of the reason, the supplier’s reputation – just like the politician’s is at stake.

Are You Over-estimating Your Popularity?

What else have sellers in common with politicians?  Well, as sellers we are prone to over-estimating our own popularity and are lulled into a false sense of security by misleading client satisfaction polls.   Studies show that buyers typically see suppliers as being less important than suppliers believe themselves to be.  This is something familiar to many politicians.  The surprise is greatest for those customer sellers who don’t poll customer opinions at all.

The question for the seller is – are you on the way in, or the way out?  That is are you a Cameron, or a Brown.  More precisely:

• Are you delivering on the promises made prior to the sale?
• Are the customer’s expectations being met and is the hope of a solution in tact?
• Are you successfully communicating your achievements?
• Are you staying fresh, or cold you be suffering from the mid-term blues?
• Could you be over-estimating just how likely you are to be re-elected?

Posted by Ray Collis on Jul 21 2010. Filed under Top 10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry