Make Marketing History

The views of a marketing deviant.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Customer Says No.


It's been a while since I linked to Seth Godin (and let's face it he needs the traffic) so let me commend his recent post in which he reminds us that if your potential customer hears you saying yes rather than no, they are far more likely to keep coming back to you. It's such a simple thought, but so often systems, the removal of initiative and lack of incentives mean that it doesn't happen.

But saying yes isn't enough. You also have to minimise the reasons for your customer to say no. Not hearing yes from you would be one reason they might say no, but there are many more. They include the prolonged telephone tree that gives you numerous filters before you get to a human being, the unwanted upselling of unrelated financial products and the confusing user interface. Eliminating anything that puts an obstacle between your customer and the sale is far more worthy of your time than dreaming up ways of getting attention or increasing awareness.

Get people's attention when you're sure that there's a direct route from that attention to their becoming a customer. Not before.

1 Comments:

Blogger peggy said...

oh, i like little britain! and this piece shows the lack of personal engagement in such a funny way. i think sometimes there might be situations when you have to say no to (potential) customers. just because there is no fitting solution to a problem. but as long as you actually made an effort trying to solve the problem, your (potential) customers might be okay with that and come back next time.

and i totally agree on the obstacle issue.

2:48 PM, March 05, 2009  

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