Trends in Conversations with Customers
Throughout 2021 we’ve been seeing some trends in sales and service conversations – how does your experience compare?
Service Conversations
Everything we are dealing with impacts our conversations with clients and customers. The need for quality sales and service conversations has never been higher.
While customers were sympathetic when COVID hit, people believe companies should have their act together by now. That is showing in their conversations with customer service teams. It’s been well documented in the press, how retailers and restaurant owners are shocked by the abuse. Those working on the telephones will tell you that they have always been on the receiving end of this ( people are braver on the phones ) but it is happening in more calls, and people get angry more quickly and people are angrier in general.
How equipped are your people to have those difficult conversations? Are they doing things that inadvertently trigger that angry response? https://intelligentdialogue.com/resource/dealing-angry-customers/
Intelligent Dialogue Complaint Handling Training helps develop confidence, especially when customer retention is key to so many businesses plans right now.
“the best customer service training course I’ve been on, learnt loads, and feel confident to put it all into practice”
“This course has been very insightful. It has helped me and my team be able to deal with difficult customers and situations and diffuse any anger before it can affect all involved.”
Sales Conversations
Sales people are being pulled into customer service and debt handling conversations. This has always been the case if a sales team operates on an account management basis, but there is more of this happening, and unchecked it results in business challenges. This deviation in activity away from their sales plans will affect their numbers at some point.
Right now, sales people need to be having grown up conversations with their customers about the realities of their market place, their share of wallet, and pricing. We are still hearing of competitors undercutting companies on price to win business, but against the backdrop of inflation, this is unsustainable.
Do you hold your nerve, join in the race to the bottom, or have grown up conversations with customers about your pricing and service?
What makes those conversations easier?
What helps sales people have successful conversations?
It’s not sales acumen anymore, it’s business acumen.
A B2B sales person has to understand how their customer’s business works and how their product or service fits into that.
When we look at negotiation skills, we ask people to think about their courage going into a conversation, and their consideration of the other party. With inflation starting to bite, the likelihood is that account managers and sales people will need to be braver in those conversations, especially if they have personally relied on dropping price to win business.
We’re helping clients think through and practice those conversations before they have them with their clients and customers. They are business critical, and they need to land. They need to be an intelligent dialogue!
If you want to discuss, how to build the skills and confidence of your people to have conversations that work, get in touch now.