Conrey is for Closers

When you read things on the internet or in magazines or see them on TV and say to yourself – “Who believes this stuff? That’s not how it really is!” You need to step back and remember one very important thing – your client probably does believe that stuff.

They don’t know the intimate details of your product or field in the way you do, that is why they are coming to you in the first place. It is easy to take things for granted that you see and deal with every day – but if you forget that your client finds them to be amazing, then you won’t amaze your clients.

Remember to look at things from the way a client will, show off the things that make your product special even if they bore the shit out of you because they are still new and shiny to your client. If you’re really on your game, make the stuff that they find boring amazing. Then see what happens to your sales.

This week we had a communication breakdown between a client and our developers. Once I got involved and asked the client what they really though, the developers realized that they hadn’t communicated as effectively as thought. These things are going to happen no matter how good your team is, the trick now is how do you handle it.

The first thing you need to realize is that the blame game isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. What’s done is done and rather than figuring out whose fault it is, find out what you can do to fix it. The client doesn’t really care what happened, they want it solved without putting them out of their way. I went in and assessed the situation fairly quickly, and realized what we were going to have to do to make the client happy and then told them we’d do exactly that. I then got out of the way and trusted my team to get back to doing what they do best and get the project back on track.

Focusing on a solution made it possible to get the client back into the normal working mode and let them forget about the problem – in their mind it is solved. The image of resolution is the most important thing at this point. That allows the client and team to work together as though things are “normal”. Handling the problem should be done as far from the client’s vision as possible – its your problem to solve.

As the Salesman here this is still your job to handle. It doesn’t matter where the ball got dropped, you need to smooth things over and solve the problem. This is an opportunity to yell and scream at your team and burn some bridges – I suggest going a different route. You need your team a lot more than they need you, so now is a great time to save their bacon and build a little karma your way.

Don’t get mad or upset (publicly). Put your Salesman shoes on and your big boy pants and get to work – this is where a Real Salesman has a chance to shine and earn his client’s and his team’s faith.

The Integrum team is at Rails Conference 2009 in Las Vegas this week so I’m posting from there through Thursday night:

While we are in Vegas, I’m not talking about playing blackjack, craps, or roulette here. I’m talking about taking chances and making the most of your conference time.

• Eat lunch with people you don’t know – just walk up and introduce yourself – you may meet someone who needs what you’re selling or knows someone who does.
• Go to talks that you know nothing about – you may learn something valuable to your business or to a client that you can then share
• Try something different in your pitch to a prospective client, you’re in a different place and state of mind so trying a new pitch will be easier than when you’re at your desk doing your normal day to day things
• Take someone from your team to lunch with a potential client, they’ll get to see more of the team and how things are done instead of just hearing from “the salesman”
• Buy someone you don’t know lunch or a drink, its an easy conversation starter and you both have something in common at the conference already – makes you look good and you will be remembered

Even with all of these risks you still need to hold to your meetings when you tell people you’ll meet them or call them, and remember that you’re still representing your team.   But trying something new never hurt anyone (much).