Have you ever seen a guy come into an office to fix a copy machine? He walks in, he fixes it, he leaves. Problem solved.
What's wrong with this picture?
Sure, he may have solved the problem, he may have done a great job. But do you know what he did? Do you know how he did it? Did you even catch his name?
So yes, immediate problem solved. But long-term relationship established? No. And that matters... more than you might realise.
A few years ago, the engineering team of a multinational computer company came to us for help. They had contracts with several banks to service their mainframes, but they were starting to lose new tenders to smaller competitors who came in with lower prices. Their technicians did outstanding work – they'd even come in for servicing at 2 in the morning, just to stay out of the way of office workers – and feedback on the work was generally positive. So why were they losing these new tenders?
After assessing their situation, we found this was due to the most basic of problems: there was no communication between the technicians and customer, and thus no relationship established. In fact, by going so far out of their way to service the mainframes at 2 in the morning, they were doing themselves a disservice by further hindering any chance for communication. It pushed them completely out of sight, completely out of mind.
When we suggested that we put the team through our Solution Based Selling training program, they expressed some doubts. Technicians don't make sales calls! They don't need to know how to respond to objections! But we explained that it wasn't about selling in the strictest sense of the word. It was about communicating. And to us, those two words are interchangeable. Communicating is selling; you can't sell without first communicating with customers.
Once armed with communication skills, the technicians started to follow up with customers after their service calls. They communicated what they had done, what it meant to the customer in layman's terms and what the value was to the company. They also asked the customer to rate their level of satisfaction with the work performed, and they adjusted accordingly.
This communication continued for several months. Customers began to see and appreciate the value of the work being performed. And even though the company's prices were generally higher than the competition's, they started to win new tenders again.
You probably don't fix copy machines or service mainframes for banks. But the next time you perform work for a customer, ask yourself: Do they understand and appreciate exactly what I'm doing for them? If you can't absolutely answer in the affirmative, then you need to start to communicate. And the selling will come naturally.