The Secret to Life…and Selling

What if the secret to being successful in sales (and in life) could be boiled down into a simple mathematical formula that would apply to all your dealings, both personal and professional? Well, it can be. Here it is:

H = R – E

Happiness (H) equals the difference between expectations (E) and reality (R).

If you think about it, whenever you (or the product or service you deliver) falls short of the customer’s expectations, you will more than likely have an unhappy customer. Fortunately, the opposite is true. If you consistently exceed expectations, then you will likely have many happy customer relationships.

A salesperson cannot always control reality (R), however. When a shipment gets delayed, a product malfunctions, or some other mishap occurs, those things can cause the customer a great deal of angst. They can cause sellers a great deal of angst as well, particularly if competitive vendors are nipping at your heels in important accounts.

Like the bumper sticker says, “Stuff Happens!”

Consequently, my clients sometimes ask, “What’s the best way to recover when the sales process goes awry?” Ironically, there is no single “best way,” as most sales are situationally dependent.

But, rather than just sit back and hope everything goes well, the key to being successful in life (and in sales) is to be proactive in your dealings with customers. Being proactive gives sellers an opportunity to minimize the number of things that could go wrong.

For example, when I sold superservers for NetFrame Systems, every box was a custom order. So, by the time the decision maker got around to signing a purchase order, it wasn’t unusual for them to declare that they need it to be implemented… “Yesterday!” That sort of demand from the customer sets in motion a whole flurry of escalation activity and calls to speed up the typical 14 day manufacturing process.

Well, guess what happens when you “hurry” the manufacturing process of a highly sophisticated, precisely engineered product? Yep, quality can suffer, and all kinds of oversight issues enter into the equation that otherwise wouldn’t have. Even if the salesperson is able to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat in order to deliver on the customer’s harried expectations, the vendor usually doesn’t get credit for extra effort—because they are simply delivering on what the customer expected.

Rather than continually trying to move mountains, I recommend focusing more on  proactively managing the customer’s expectations, rather than burning unnecessary cycles to deliver on unrealistic expectations. So, first and foremost, I would ask, “Mr. Customer, what are you expecting with regard to ____________?” It’s quite possible their expectations are already in line with your ability to deliver, in which case, there’s no need to promise the moon and the stars in an attempt to earn their business.

Trust me, every customer who signed a P.O. for $200,000 to purchase a superserver was sure to ask, “How soon can we get the product installed?” My response—“To be safe, you should plan on a lead-time of 30 days.” In fact, rather than waiting for customers to ask about delivery, I made it a point to set their expectations in advance.

Of course, when the customer’s NetFrame arrived in two weeks (the usual lead-time for delivery), I would call the customer and let them know that… “I was able to pull some strings and get their box sooner than expected.” Of course, they were happy (H), because reality (R) exceed their expectations (E). Even when the build took three or four weeks, customers were just as happy, because the expectation had been set that they should plan on 30 days.

In sales, as in life, we can’t always control reality, but there are many opportunities to proactively manage the expectations of your customers, your colleagues, your boss, your children, your spouse, and anyone else who expects you to deliver as promised.