The DriveSales™ | How to handle and manage difficult customers in sales!
Clients are often kind and flexible. But there is always an exception. Some of them are difficult to handle due to unreasonable demands made by them which stresses you and your colleague out. A survey showed that 73% of these clients do not know that they are being unreasonable. Most of them are easy to handle given that you know a few tricks.
Here are our tricks that can aid you in handling those stubborn clients!
1) Listen - We cannot emphasize enough on this. Listening is the first and foremost skill important for any salesperson. Listening to the client helps you get a clear outline of what they want. In the case of difficult clients, listening to them acts as a method of them venting or letting their frustration out. Often, it is seen that people get calmer after de-stressing.
2) Understand their point of view - Understanding the customer is key. Try thinking from their point of view and then judge if their demand is unreasonable. Jumping to conclusions acts against you. Hence, putting yourself in the shoes of your customer is extremely important.
3) Polite - Be polite while talking to your customers. If you sense that your customer is going to be difficult, be all the more polite since it might help to calm the situation down. By being polite, we mean both verbally and non-verbally. A study showed that most conversations are 63% non-verbal. Hence, your body language in such situations is extremely important.
4) Stay calm - Do not panic. Panic leads to unnecessary chaos. If you feel that the customer is rude, make sure to stick to your values and not pick up an argument. If you are unable to deal with the situation, ask for help! Your colleagues or seniors will help you solve the problems.
5) Educate your client - More often than not, the customers are half-educated or do not have any knowledge about the situation. Hence, they make unreasonable demands which might seem reasonable to them. Suppose your client wants something to be done within an unreasonably short period, you can sit down and explain to him as to why it takes that long and that is the best you could do. This solves most customer- employee problems.
Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do three things from here.
1) Ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.
2) Taking important notes and going back to revisit your sales strategy with the growth mindset.
3) Reaching out to us if you need any specialized help for sales.
In conclusion, all customers can be dealt with but some require extra care and attention while dealing with them. We hope you use the above-mentioned tips with your next “stubborn” customer and come to terms with them!
It is something like Warwick Brown’s quote, “Whenever I meet a demanding client, I remind myself that they have things going on professionally and personally that I know nothing of”. This is what all of us have to keep in mind the next time we interact with any customer or any person for a matter of fact.
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