If you are in Sales or Marketing, you must have been told a myriad times on the two cardinal rules in customer relationship:
Rule #1: The customer is always right.
Rule #2: If the customer is wrong, see rule #1.
You forgot one thing though: “Good things come in three”, and you probably seldom heard the third openly:
Rule #3: The above two are horsesh!t.
It is interesting how we symbolize the customer as a king. In the traditional role, the king takes your money through taxation; and in returns, he protects you from invaders with his army, or sometime, for as a “protection money” so that he will not kill you. A few revolutions later, the title king gives a different meaning; and in modern business world, we are taking money from the kings.
In my team, I always made it clear that the customer is king, but not because they are right.
We need to serve them, but not because they are kind and righteous; quite on the opposite, because they are fearful (i.e. the opposite of ‘full of fear’. English).
We anoint them king because they are powerful: because they have they money and you want a piece of it.
The power of a customer is only their decision to spend their money on you or your competitor.
The ideal company would have all of its staff to be customer-centric mindset; but if you are in Sales or Marketing and you believe that the customer is a king and he is always right, you have made a grave mistake.
Don’t believe me? What do would you do to a customer who goes bankrupt? Would you continue to supply him with your products or services? Would you waive his bad debts with pleasure and treat him dinner afterwards? Would you loan him money so that he can pick up his business? No!
Here’s what you would do if your customer goes bankrupt: You will sweet talk him, to make sure that you are on top of the payable list when they go through a liquidation. You will cut all supply to his company until he has proven ability to pay his debt. You will tell the world that you have no dealing with that loser, and his failure has no implications on your cashflow. Then when all fail, you would sue them. You would take over his company and strip its assets bare. If you can harvest their body organs and sell it to the black market, you would. Behead the king, you would.
Here’s some real life scenarios for your consideration:
Be a better Sales and Marketer and be honest with each other. Let’s not be a hypocrite and stop with this “customer is king” cliché.
I would define a good Sales and Marketing team if they are treating their customers as if they are breeding livestock. You keep them healthy and happy, so that you can milk them and take their eggs, and when the time comes, you will not hesitate slaughter them and sell their meat, organs, leather, and feather.
Of course not all customers are equal. There are good, inspiring, visionary customers. Those you keep as pets. The one who are abusive, lousy credit term,and only buy based on price, are pests.
Rule #1: The customer is always right.
Rule #2: If the customer is wrong, see rule #1.
You forgot one thing though: “Good things come in three”, and you probably seldom heard the third openly:
Rule #3: The above two are horsesh!t.
It is interesting how we symbolize the customer as a king. In the traditional role, the king takes your money through taxation; and in returns, he protects you from invaders with his army, or sometime, for as a “protection money” so that he will not kill you. A few revolutions later, the title king gives a different meaning; and in modern business world, we are taking money from the kings.
In my team, I always made it clear that the customer is king, but not because they are right.
We need to serve them, but not because they are kind and righteous; quite on the opposite, because they are fearful (i.e. the opposite of ‘full of fear’. English).
We anoint them king because they are powerful: because they have they money and you want a piece of it.
The power of a customer is only their decision to spend their money on you or your competitor.
The ideal company would have all of its staff to be customer-centric mindset; but if you are in Sales or Marketing and you believe that the customer is a king and he is always right, you have made a grave mistake.
Don’t believe me? What do would you do to a customer who goes bankrupt? Would you continue to supply him with your products or services? Would you waive his bad debts with pleasure and treat him dinner afterwards? Would you loan him money so that he can pick up his business? No!
Here’s what you would do if your customer goes bankrupt: You will sweet talk him, to make sure that you are on top of the payable list when they go through a liquidation. You will cut all supply to his company until he has proven ability to pay his debt. You will tell the world that you have no dealing with that loser, and his failure has no implications on your cashflow. Then when all fail, you would sue them. You would take over his company and strip its assets bare. If you can harvest their body organs and sell it to the black market, you would. Behead the king, you would.
Here’s some real life scenarios for your consideration:
- What would you do when your small-size customer demand to have one-day delivery time? Would sacrifice bigger order to fulfill his request?
- What would you do when your incompetent customer sue you for damage? Would you admit that he is right and submit immediately?
- What would you do when your thin-margin customer asking to return a bulk order because he placed his order wrongly and refuse to pay for processing?
- Do you give discounts to new customers to poach them from competitors and then slowly squeeze them; or do you sell them regular price and be more flexible with discounts the longer they are staying as your customers?
- What would you do when your “missing” customer magically re-appear and asking for a 30% discount (and your margin is 20%)?
Be a better Sales and Marketer and be honest with each other. Let’s not be a hypocrite and stop with this “customer is king” cliché.
I would define a good Sales and Marketing team if they are treating their customers as if they are breeding livestock. You keep them healthy and happy, so that you can milk them and take their eggs, and when the time comes, you will not hesitate slaughter them and sell their meat, organs, leather, and feather.
Of course not all customers are equal. There are good, inspiring, visionary customers. Those you keep as pets. The one who are abusive, lousy credit term,and only buy based on price, are pests.
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