THINGS CHANGE
From a story by Peter Thomson
My nostrils dilated as I inhaled the aroma of freshly cooked bacon. Two of my sons were in the kitchen and just in the process of wiping their mouths as they’d obviously just finished a bacon-sandwich-breakfast.
Smiling, I said…
“You didn’t ask me if I wanted one!”
This was when…
One of them uttered the ‘there’s something to learn here’ reply – here it is:
“Dad, I asked you yesterday and you said – No!”
Later…
On the journey to London to the conference I was telling Sharon, my wife, about the kitchen conversation when she made the insightful comment:
“I wonder – how many people do the same thing with their customers?”
She does, just occasionally, come up with bright ideas!!!
Seriously…
I thought “She was right; she’s right; she is right!”
I wonder how many times I’ve made that error – the error of asking a customer if they wanted to buy something from me – and hearing their “No, thanks Peter” have mistakenly taken the words to mean: “No – never, ever, ever – thanks Peter”
It’s true isn’t it…
Times change, businesses change, markets change, people change, situations change, problems change, opportunities change – everything changes!
And just because…
We’ve asked a customer if they’d like to buy something from us and they said “No, thanks” doesn’t mean they’ll NEVER buy it. It might just have been the timing wasn’t right for them at that moment.
And so…
I’m off to ask my clients and customers (and prospects) to see if by now they’d like to buy now. After all it wouldn’t be fair to them (or me) NOT to ask again – would it?
WHAT DO WE LEARN?
We learn that unless the client has fallen out with you on a personal basis follow up,and keep in touch. Don’t pester, don’t be pushy, just every so often pop into their lives again to see if you can help. Don’t take the ‘no’ personally they are just refusing the offer of your help.keep asking permission for that pop up and they can never accuse you of pestering them
We run networking skills seminars which leads you step-by-step through a very comfortable follow up process
