There are a few simple principles that every good sales person knows well:
- Stay in touch with your customer
- Secure renewals BEFORE contracts expire
- Customer is king so be nice to your customer
Easy right? I thought so too. Which Is exactly why I found this email, from a big name supplier, so shocking.
The language is so tough it’s almost threatening – a reasonable explanation for why the IT team that received this was so antagonized. They didn’t say anything to the supplier, but they’re already shopping around for a vendor that actually values their business.
It’s not uncommon to see big companies treat little customers badly, or with very poor response times. You’re probably familiar with the experience; you don’t qualify as an “Enterprise” client, so you won’t easily get a real person to talk to you. It’s a fine line, and crossing it means lots of disgruntled customers.
As a small business these are great opportunities. Good customer service and non-threatening emails, are great ways of winning & retaining clients, even against bigger competitors. If I were their competition, I’d be chasing this email mistake with a campaign talking about flexibility & friendliness.
Perhaps the lessons from this email are the most obvious ones:
- Apply the 3 simple sales principles when writing emails to clients
- Don’t threaten your customers (even indirectly)
- Incent rather than penalize your customers for staying with you
- Only state the facts, don’t commit to something you don’t know
- Invest in your customer relationships, because if they don’t love you they’ll leave