- January 9, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Back in August, I wrote an article about Dinger’s torn ACL and how the Veterinarian went about her sales process to strongly recommend (sell us) the most expensive surgery. She also set expectations by telling us that when a dog tears one ACL, it’s not uncommon for them to tear the other ACL. When Dinger was fully recovered from his surgery, and on the very first day he was allowed to chase a ball, he tore the other ACL while he was returning the ball to me. We brought Dinger back to the Vet to confirm our fear, and today’s article discusses a topic I don’t often write about, repeat business.
On our return visit, the Vet opted for sedated imaging where the paid for new pictures confirmed what we already knew. She didn’t take anything for granted, and again provided us with three options and strongly recommended the same surgery that we opted for the first time. She avoided the mistake that most salespeople make when they assume that their customer remembers all of the information from prior discussions. In Baseline Selling terms, most salespeople start their repeat business conversation at 3rd base but she did what salespeople should do and started at 1st base. Kudos to the Vet!
Why is this important?
She realized that this is a new sale with an existing customer and by starting at 1st base, she was able to uncover the new compelling reason for us to use her and create urgency for getting this taken care of as soon as possible. By revisiting the three options she was able to qualify us again so that she could strongly recommend the preferred surgical option.
Most repeat business is handled by salespeople with a number of different titles but the two that describe most of them are, Order Taker and Quoter. The salesperson receives the call or email where the existing customer asks for the price on something. The order taker/quoter says, “I’ll get a quote right over to you!” While some of those quotes or proposals convert to sales, many more do not. Why? The salesperson doesn’t care enough about the customer, what is going on with them, their circumstances, their issues, their concerns, things that may have changed, etc. The salesperson may be invested in the account, but the salesperson is not invested in them, their success, or their life.
Take a page out of our Vet’s approach to repeat business and you will surely improve your win rate.
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