For years, hotel bathrooms have been asking me to “Save the Planet.” And there’s hanging signs asking me to use my towels several times so that “millions of gallons of water” can be saved and the earth’s eco-system can be realigned.

Now I ask you: Does that hotel want to save the planet, or save a few bucks? Who thinks “planet?” Who thinks, “a few bucks?” Why can’t they just be honest, and tell me that I can reduce their operating costs a bit if I reduce my towel usage, and it’s also good for the environment? Why can’t they just be honest with me?

I photographed a business sign I saw in a shopping center parking lot in Phoenix, Arizona. It read, “We can’t change the world, but we can change your oil.” Their business was booming, and their customers were smiling.

Mission statements mean nothing. Companies tell you how great they want to become and how great they want to treat their customers – and then they treat their people with disrespect. Most CEO’s can’t recite their company mission statement.

Giant corporations and their accounting firms have gone bankrupt because they lied, omitted, shredded, or manipulated the truth. Their CEO’s are in jails for lying and cheating.

Airlines? I don’t need to go into an explanation, that’s how pathetic their “truth” has become.

Politicians? Ditto. Actually they’re WORSE than airlines, and maybe the worst of the worst, and the lowest of the low. When I asked my students (YES, I used to be an adjunct college professor), “How many of you think that all politicians lie?” – every hand would go up! Is that sad or what?

Former president Bill Clinton lied about sex. You probably have too. All the other liars in congress got together and wanted to throw him out of office for lying. Hello!

Other politicians – at all levels – when called to tell the truth, suddenly lose their memory of what happened. Or worse, invoke the Fifth Amendment, and chose not to incriminate themselves. It’s another form of lying – withholding truth.

Interesting that these same politicians who lie pass laws compelling others to tell the truth, or face consequences. The “Truth-in-Lending” law has helped consumers immensely. Sad that such a law has to be written. You would think that the people responsible for lending would just be honest.

Honesty is a scary sales word.

Truth is a scary word.

People fear having to face these words.

I know I have.

And just so we understand each other, I’m no perfect example of piety – far from it. Many of the lessons and examples set here are from the music I had to face from my own forms of untruth.

And just so we’re on the same page about truth and lies:

“Omission” is a lie.

“For their own good” is a lie.

“Didn’t want to hurt them” is a lie.

“Small lie” is a lie.

“Hiding facts” is a lie.

Any questions?

It’s one of the Ten Commandments, yet men of the cloth lie.

Telling the whole truth takes character, conviction, and courage.

Telling the whole truth takes ethics, morality, honesty, and full disclosure.

That doesn’t seem hard on the surface, but apparently no one these days is willing to walk a mile to return a penny. That’s how President Lincoln got the nickname, “Honest Abe.” You’ll never hear anyone say, “Honest Bill,” or “Honest George.” They have other nicknames attached to their virtues.

There’s an old saying that goes, “How can you tell when a salesman is lying? Answer: His lips are moving.” That does not speak well for the reputation of salespeople.

Every salesperson, every company, seeks to build relationships with their customers. At the apex is truth. It’s how to keep relationships together, and why they fall apart.

No truth, no trust.

The lack of truth makes trust fall apart. Once you lie, and someone catches you, or even thinks it, you will spend an eternity trying to regain trust. Either at home, or at work. Maybe especially at home.

When someone says, “I’ve lost my trust in you, or I’ve lost my faith in you, it’s because they doubt your ability to tell the truth. They will say, “I can’t believe a word you say,” because they have caught you lying before, and believe you’ll do it again.

Loss of faith comes from lack of truth. Loss of trust comes from lack of truth. Loss of faith and trust are symptoms. Lack of truth is the problem. Faith and trust stem from truth.

I am not your mother extolling the virtues of telling the truth. I am Jiminy Cricket, making you aware of the consequences. In sales, and in life.

The good news is that you control your destiny. That’s why you got in sales in the first place.

The price of whatever you sell carries with it a discomfort for most salespeople. They’re hesitant to bring up price because it’s the final element in completing any transaction – or so they think.

Actually, price or fee or rate is a logical progression of a presentation. If the rest of the elements of a presentation have been properly communicated, and transferred, then price is not a barrier to sale. Better stated: price is not a barrier to the customer deciding to purchase.

Why do salespeople have reluctance or fear of price presentation? Because it determines outcome – yes, no, or delay (which usually means no). Price also brings truth. The “I can get it cheaper, we’ve decided to go with someone else, we’re putting this out for bids, I’m not the only decision maker.”
But the main reason salespeople get nervous about fee is that their belief system is weak. They’re not certain of their product, they’re not certain of their ability to deliver their message, they’re not certain of the customer’s desire to purchase, and they’re not certain of themselves.

When belief is weak, price is a bigger barrier to the salesperson than it is to the customer.

As a professional salesperson, your job is to be as personally prepared as you are customer or prospect prepared. Personal preparation, or should I say mental preparation will lower the barrier to your own price reluctance.

If you’re ready for the customer, if you’re proud of your company, if you’re proud of your products and services, if you believe in the value of what you’re offering, if your communication skills are excellent, and your self-confidence is high, then you don’t have to worry about price.

There are 4.5 keys that will help you in moving forward with price confidence:

1. Study your past successes. Look at all the reasons why customers bought from you in the past. If you don’t know the reasons, now would be a good time to call them and ask. Customers have all the “price and value” answers you could hope for. Most salespeople never ask for them.

2. Prepare your presentation in a manner that discusses prices and fees along the way, not at the end. Personally, I bring up prices and fees in the first five minutes, that way all the anxiety is gone. The customer knows there is a price attached to your product or service. The sooner it’s discussed, the easier it is to make value the heart of your presentation.

3. Convince yourself that you’re offering the best products and services in the world for value received. If you are not totally convinced, don’t start the presentation. Your belief in what you sell is evident to the prospective buyer whether present or absent.

4. Believe in your heart that the customer is better off purchasing from you. That they will profit more and produce more, and that the value of what you offer far exceeds your price. When your belief is so powerful that it becomes transferable to the prospective buyer, then you have become believable, and trustworthy.

4.5 Bring your best self to the meeting. The better prepared you are, both physically and mentally, the easier it will be to deepen your belief system, raise your self-confidence level, and walk in with a feeling of relationship, rather than sale.

5. Bring testimonials to the presentation. The voice of other customers that talk about the value, the piece of mind, and the confidence that others have in you. People who have paid your price, and are glad they did.

WORTH RESTATING: Your personal preparation, especially your mental preparation, holds the key to your confidence and ability to deliver the price. Become an expert at how your customer profits from the use of your product or service. Become a master at outcomes and ownership – not sales presentations and closing techniques.

These personal elements and sales tools, when present as a group, will make a compelling message, prove value over price, and create the atmosphere in which the customer will want to buy.

Your challenge is to master the elements.

I’m sick of customer satisfaction. The worst companies in the world tout the fact that they won some satisfaction award. It’s not just a bad joke. It’s a pathetic statement.

Every company is hoping that their customers will reorder. They’re hoping that their customers will spread the word about how great their products are, and about how great their people are. And they’re hoping to proactively encourage others to place an order or do business with them.

That is NOT customer satisfaction.

That is customer LOYALTY.

Every company must have loyalty as its mission, not satisfaction.

Every company must have loyalty as its imperative, not satisfaction.

Corporate driven mission statements talk about exceeding customer’s expectations, talk about being number one in the world, talk about shareholder value, and say NOTHING about the one word that makes all of these things happen: LOYALTY.

The reason that companies, especially big companies, don’t stress loyalty is because it’s much more difficult to achieve, and requires both an investment, and a commitment on the part of senior management to instill.

Customer loyalty is a hollow statement unless it is preceded by a mission.

REALITY: The company and its executives must be loyal to its employees, loyal to its product quality, and loyal to its service excellence. This means they must both invest in and support a loyalty imperative.

HERE’S THE SECRET: Loyalty must be given before it is received.

No company can ensure customer loyalty until they have secured employee loyalty. It amazes me that big companies will layoff thousands of people in the name of profit or shareholder value, and think nothing of what it does to internal morale, or the impact that it has on the reduction of service to its customers — even a reduction in the quality of its product.

Loyalty is both an action and a process.

Look at the best companies in the world. They have great employees. They have great products. They give great service. And they’re easy to do business with. This makes them attractive. And these are the elements that create loyalty.

The one element that is most important is great service. Memorable service. Loyalty-based service. And that flies in the face of satisfaction (the lowest level of acceptable service).

I hearken an ancient proverb, “To serve is to rule.” Giving great service is an integral part of the loyalty process and it’s a fundamental part of “giving loyalty before loyalty is received.”

Here are a few ideas/thoughts worthy of your consideration and eventual incorporation into your company’s loyalty imperative:

1. List all reasons that customers call you for service. There are probably less than 25.

2. List all barriers that you place in front of a customer connecting with you. There are probably less than 10. (Automated attendant, voicemail, lack of 24-hour availability, inadequate website.)

3. Once you have all the opportunities and all the barriers listed, have a weekend retreat with senior management and front-line people to determine best practices, generate new ideas for serving, and making it easier to do business with your company. Document (record) everything.

4. Put the ideas and the best practices into action. Create a training program for best practices, and invest whatever is necessary for making your company “barrier-to-place-an-order” free.

5. Rather than announce all of these changes in the form of a bragging advertisement, or internal hoopla, let your customers have an opportunity to react and respond to your new and better way of doing business. Let the referral part of your business begin organically. Let it be earned, not asked for.

5.5 All members of senior management must support this process both verbally and visually. If you’re going to evolve from satisfaction to loyalty, it has to be “hands on,” not just “words on.”

I wish more companies would add to their mission statement that they’ll be loyal to their employees — so that their employees would be loyal to their customers — so that their customers would be loyal to the company.

That is a loyalty chain. And it doesn’t start with satisfied customers. It starts with senior management understanding that loyalty is a way of life, not just a word. That loyalty starts at home, not at a customer’s place of business. Are you satisfied with your marriage or passionate and loyal to it, to him/her? Are you a satisfied mother/father or passionately loyal to your children? That loyalty is earned by a process, not by a wave of a wand, or even by you or your product’s excellence.

And loyalty is easily measured. Just look at your repeat business.

Satisfaction is also easily measured. Just look at the customers you lost.

Some Noteworthy Links:
TheLoyaltyGuide.com
Is Customer Loyalty Dead?
Strategize For Customer Loyalty
Ten Tips For Customer Loyalty