Selling by delivering service!

J. St. Luce
Feb 18, 2017
3 min read

In the 16 years as a business service provider

i have learned to combine sales with customer service. Selling is influencing another person in a very short time to purchase a product or service from you. The result depents on how you present the Company, product or service and if you can provide a solution to the problem of the prospect. If you know how to do these things while giving the customer a great service then you won’t have a problem closing the deal. I’ll give a few examples below.

Example 1: I worked at a contact centre representing a cable company and got a inbound call from a customer, he was interested in digital televison and had questions about the different consoles. I calmly and politely explained the specifications and USP’s of the different consoles and answered all his questions. He was very pleased about the service and my patience, but still couldn’t make a decission. He then asked me wich one i would choose, i noticed the hot button (buying signal) and acted upon it. So i suggested the best but most expensive in the line. I told him that if he wanted to make my day it would be by purchasing that one. Guess what? ….. he did! He granted me that sale and the commission because of the service that i’ve provided to him.

Example 2: Representing a Telephone and internet provider i received a call from a customer interested in a highspeed internet connection. I checked his current speed, answered all his questions and offered him the medium solution. Then he said it had to be a dedicated connection, i knew that the connections we were selling were shared so i told him that. I said i was going to find out if a dedicated line was possible and offered to call him back. While making my other calls i searched the whole website of the company i was representing and found out that is was possible but the price would go way up. Suddenly i was called in to office by my supervisor and got feedback about a customer calling the client and other Contact Centre’s looking for me and didn’t want to business with no one but me, and he aksed if i knew what it was about. I told him i didn’t know. Then the time came for the call back, the customer was already waiting when i told him that is was possible to have a dedicated line he started to laugh (he already knew) that’s when i realised that he was the person who was calling and looking for me. He could have easily closed the deal with one of the account managers or other agents but he wanted me to take the order because of the patience and respect that i had showed him.

In both of these cases it was the customer service that led to the purchase of the products or services. I was selling by delivering quality customer service.

Prospects purchase a product or service to improve their position or to solve a problem.

Understanding of the objectives of your client should be the main goal! It will give you more insight and reasons why a product or service can solve the prospects problem. You’ll be able to give a better presentation. And by not acting as a sales person, but more as a consultant will put you in a position to communicate more effectively.