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Complete Story
12/11/2023
One Last Classy Gesture
Source: Bill Farquharson, The Sales Vault, December 11, 2023
Bad news: a longtime customer calls to inform you they are switching vendors.
You are out!
After you make your way through the first four stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, and depression), you finally arrive at acceptance.
At this point, you have an opportunity. Seize it.
My daughter, Kate, recently leased a new vehicle, a Volkswagen ID 4. But before we could pick up the new car, we had to turn in her Subaru Forester at a local dealership.
I walked in to find out what needed to be done so that things would go smoothly later on. This was essentially me telling Subaru, we are going with a new vendor. Here’s how the exchange went:
Manager: “I’m sorry to hear we will be losing your business. The VW ID 4 is a solid choice. I am sure you will be happy going electric. Let me walk you through the process so that the transition can be as easy and painless for you as possible.”
A few days later, when Kate and I returned with the car, the manager lived up to his statement. He showed professionalism and courtesy despite the fact there was nothing in it for him. We walked out with our license plates and all the documentation—meticulously explained to us—and left with only the deepest respect for Planet Subaru in Hanover, Massachusetts.
I have long believed there are certain situations where true character is revealed. A good company becomes a great company because of how they dealt with a screwed up order. Bad news visits a customer and extra service and allowances are extended to help.
And a company goes out of its way—after it has made every effort to retain the business—to see to it their now-former customer has one last positive experience.
Go ahead and try hard to retain the business, but when it becomes clear they’re going, take the first step towards your next goal:
Seeing to it they come back.
The Sales Vault, created by Bill Farquharson, is a subscription-based resource and sales community featuring a calendar packed with live workshops, on-demand sales courses, peer-to-peer discussion groups, and 35+ years of sales training content all searchable by sales challenge. Think of it as a sales conference where the seminars and workshops, full of instantly applicable ideas, are ongoing and more programs are added constantly.
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Bill has been a friend of GMA for many years and is, no doubt, known to our members as a top sales trainer and content creator for the graphic arts.
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