We have found that many Account Managers and Sales Professionals find this both stressful and uncomfortable. Increasingly, these conversations are late, and may not even be delivered in person, with organisations often choosing the weak option of informing their customers through email, and crossing their fingers that there will not be any reaction.

Inevitably the customer pushes back, possibly threatening to take their business elsewhere. The result is that the Seller caves in ‘to keep the customer happy’-rarely a text-book ‘Win-Win’ outcome.

At RLA, we have developed a robust Negotiation Skills programme which will equip your team with the tools and techniques to both maintain profits and harmonious relationships with customers.

So, what are our Top 13 Tips for Account Managers/Salespeople?

1. Have the conversation as early as possible. There should be no surprises. Give your customer time to ‘come to terms’ with the price increase.
2. Have the conversation face to face (ideally at their venue), rather than virtual/telephone and definitely not by email. Visiting the customer tells them that they are important, and demonstrates both respect and professionalism.
3. Plan and Rehearse what you are going to say. Don’t assume the customer will understand why you put your prices up without a robust explanation and justification.
4. Forget about ‘Aiming High’ and starting off with an inflated price, planning to meet the customer in the middle. Your audacious initial price may scare them off and blow your credibility and trust.
5. When you visit them, get to the point quickly and concisely. Don’t waffle and waste their time. Look and sound confident. Look them in the eye when you present the price.
6. Don’t imply that the price is open to negotiation by saying things like ‘We need to agree on the price’, ‘we need to discuss the price’, ‘we need to negotiate the price’, etc. All of these suggest that the price is already movable. State ‘Our price is £XXXX’ not ‘it’s in the region/ballpark of £XXXX’. Be firm from the outset.
7. Once you have explained and justified the price increase, Shut Up! Let the other party digest what has been said.
8. If the customer reacts, remind them of the value they are getting from you. Don’t forget your Unique Selling Points if they mention your competition. Rarely are they comparing apples with apples.
9. Think about your Bargaining Chips. Negotiating is all about trading concessions/bargaining. Think about what is low cost to you, and potentially high value to your customer (such as value-adds like credit terms, enhanced service levels, training, support, lead times, etc.) and what is low cost to your customer and high value to you (such as payment in advance, longer contracts, referrals, a bigger share of the wallet, etc.) The Golden Rule is that if you offer something, make sure you ask for something in return.
10. Another Price = Another Package. If we must reduce our price, we need to change the package in some way (i.e., take something out)
11. Don’t be afraid to ask for some time to develop a creative solution.
12. Be prepared to walk away if you feel that you can’t find a mutually acceptable solution/compromise.
13. Hold your nerve. Maintain an aura of calmness. Focus on your breathing if you are feeling any anxiety.

RLA Sales Negotiation Masterclass builds a Negotiating Toolkit guaranteed to help your team improve their revenues and profits. 

‘In life, you don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.’ – Dr. Chester Karrass.

The post Negotiating to Win: Our Top 13 Tips to Succeed! appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

Over the past few months, a slew of both B2B and B2C companies have announced price increases, angering their customers. That hostility is understandable – we’re still not beyond the global pandemic that has hurt business income, as well as caused job losses and other financial difficulties for consumers. Inflating expenses at a time like this can seem callous and even greedy.

However, sometimes price increases cannot be avoided. Business is inter-connected; a price increase at one business means that another company has to increase its prices. We are all subject to inflation, market deviations, and other external factors that result in a need to pass costs on to the consumer from time to time.

Business often fails to communicate these issues effectively. Some companies put their prices up without explanation. In the past few months, tools that I use for my business have increased their monthly subscription fees by double with nary a word of explanation. As you can imagine, my immediate response to this is to search for alternatives. This practice does nothing to engender loyalty.

Other companies offer vague, or even irrelevant, promises regarding the investments they’re making in their service. Entertainment companies such as Pay-TV providers or streaming services are the biggest utilisers of such an excuse, but far from the only ones. The main problem with vague notions of “investment” is that customers are not interested in the theoretical. If they can’t see it, then it might as well not exist. Worse is when the investment is in something that they haven’t asked for. Few customers are impressed when a company that does one thing decides to put up prices to do another.

Of course, all business wants to achieve the best it can, and often expansion or growing the products or services on offer is the best way of doing that.

However, to truly lessen the impact of a price hike, I’d like to suggest a few measures that most businesses should be able to achieve.

• Be honest about your reasons. Don’t throw out vague promises of improved services. If you’re raising prices because your own costs have increased, then be up-front about that.
• If you are genuinely increasing prices to improve your service, then answer the question every customer will have – “How does this benefit me?”
• Give fair warning of price increases. Too often, consumers are given 45 days or less notice that their price is increasing. It shouldn’t be too difficult to provide them with a few months, and that also gives your customer service teams more time to field the complaints.
• Reward your existing customers with bonuses for loyalty by keeping their current rate for a little bit longer. It costs much less to retain an existing customer than find a new one. Consumers have grown wise to all the best deals being reserved for new customers. Shower your existing ones with a bit of love from time to time.
• Try not to make it a “mark it on the calendar” annual event. Too many businesses announce their price increases around the same time every single year. The credibility of your reasoning for increasing prices plummets once customers notice the pattern.
• Don’t just increase prices because your competitors are. It doesn’t escape people’s attention when one company in a market puts the price up it begins a snowball effect among competitors. If you can afford to stay at the less expensive end for a while, you might even win some business from those seeking alternatives.
• Be prepared to have difficult conversations and equip your Customer Service teams with the skills to handle them. Your customers aren’t in the wrong for being annoyed because their bills are increasing, so you should treat them with respect, courtesy, and even be prepared to offer them a different package if possible.

Above all, remember that every unhappy customer is more likely to tell others than a content customer is likely to sing your praises. You can’t avoid putting prices up, but you can show empathy to your existing customers and be open and honest about the reason you need to do this.

The post The Importance of Communication When Increasing Prices appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

Over the past few months, we have been undertaking some informal research into people’s experiences with Customer Service agents. We’ve invited some of our clients to fill us in on the handling of their complaints and concerns. Our focus has been on the experiences that have lost a company business.

With that in mind, I’d like to share two stories with you.
 

The Big Six Energy Company

One of our respondents gave us a detailed insight into customer service failures that caused them to switch providers. Their energy provider first overcharged them by a significant amount, and then took several extra direct debit payments without notification or authorisation.

When our respondent complained, the front-line customer service staff denied everything. Even when presented with evidence in the form of bills, bank statements, etc. this company’s customer service agents refused to acknowledge the problem. Only after persistence did our respondent finally get their complaint elevated to somebody more equipped to deal with it. In total, from the first complaint to resolution, they waited almost six weeks.

Our respondent felt that this company’s customer service agents did not read their initial complaints, nor did they look at the evidence presented. The respondent felt ignored, undervalued, and at times, lied to by a major company. Clearly, this was not acceptable for them, and so they switched provider.
 

What Should They Have Done?

The Big Six Energy Company should not have ignored the evidence presented. They should have admitted their mistake immediately, forwarded the complaint to somebody who could take the appropriate action and work towards a speedy resolution. By denying there was even a problem, they gave the impression that they didn’t care and left the customer in an uncomfortable limbo.

Failures such as this are why people switch to competitors. Had this complaint been dealt with in a reasonable amount of time by people who acknowledged the issue at the first point of contact, then they had a chance to turn a negative into a positive and win-back the customer’s trust and loyalty.

Instead, whatever corners they’ve cut that lead to undertrained customer service agents providing incorrect information have cost them a customer. How many more customers might they lose?
 

The Telecoms Company

Another respondent reported frequent ‘no-service’ issues. The telecoms company insisted that our tech-savvy respondent was wrong and that there was no service issue. Any problem would have been with their equipment. Our respondent had to push for several days before the telecoms company arranged for an engineer to examine the issue.

The engineer then pointed the finger at our respondent’s equipment, again, and demanded a fee to fix the problem. Our respondent, however, declined to pay the price and instead ran their own tests. They discovered that the service problem was, in fact, a problem with the provider’s equipment and not the user’s responsibility to fix.

After several missed appointments and further arguments, the respondent finally managed to get the telecoms company to admit the fault was with their equipment and resolve the issue. Our respondent did not have service for two months. No compensation was offered.
 

What Should They Have Done?

A big issue we’ve noticed with tech companies is the incorrect belief that all of their customers are technophobes. Often front-line agents merely read from a script and tick boxes on a computer. They waste the time of people savvy enough to have identified the likely cause of the problem themselves. This is frustrating for people and sours them towards the company.

On this occasion, our respondent felt that the company had gone out of their way to pin the blame on the customer. They acknowledged that the proposed fix would have resolved their issue but only because it would have bypassed the actual fault that was the provider’s responsibility. Ergo, they were being asked to pay for something that they did not need to pay for.

The telecoms company should have trained their staff to identify they were talking to somebody familiar with the technology and immediately elevated their problem to a higher-tier of customer service agent. From there, the customer should have been listened to as this not only would have made the customer feel valued, it would have significantly reduced the time taken to resolve the fault. Finally, the customer should have been compensated adequately for the time their service was unavailable as this was the provider’s responsibility.

Our respondent switched provider.
 

Missed Opportunities

In both of these examples, the companies have missed multiple opportunities to turn the complaint in their favour. They have undervalued the customers, patronised them, talked down to them and wasted vast amounts of their time. Both companies appear to be using poorly-trained front-line staff who are likely hugely overworked and saying the wrong things.

At Robin Lines Associates, we know how important customer service is and how every interaction with a customer should be treated like a retention effort. If you fail your customers when they need you, they will walk away. That’s why we have launched our Customer Service Excellence programme to equip your people with the skills they need to make sure you’re not losing customers when you could be winning loyalty.

The post Real-Life Examples of Customer Service Failures appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.

Yet, the truth is, we can. In the social media age, it should even be somewhat easier.
 

Listen

One of the wonderful benefits of social media is that our customers are right there, talking and giving us the information we need. I’m sure many of us have heard the old business philosophy that a happy customer might tell two or three people, but an unhappy one will likely tell ten or more. In the age of social media, an unhappy person is more than likely to voice their complaints on social media and reach a lot more than ten people.

You can conduct a little experiment. Head over to your personal Facebook feed, or logon to Twitter and just take a quick look at how many posts/tweets are negative in some way. People might be complaining about something bad or annoying that happened to them that day, or they might be voicing their concerns over something going on that conflicts with their personal beliefs. One of the key things that psychologists understand is that most people want to be heard. Social media is giving them a chance to be heard.

In business, we need to listen.
 

Act

In some cases, we’ll have to act after the fact. If you look up major businesses on Twitter, you’ll see that their social media teams spend more time dealing with complaints and criticisms than praise. A business with empathy at its core will respond to these complaints politely and try to resolve whatever they can as fast as they can. Occasionally, they’ll even have to take a small hit – such as offering a voucher as a goodwill gesture.

The key to remember here is that your customers complain when they feel there is something amiss. There’s a handful of people out there who complain for their own amusement, but most people simply want to make their life convenient and stress-free. The act of complaining is a sign that the business they’re dealing with has failed in some way, but it doesn’t mean that there is not still an opportunity to succeed.

In a real-world example, I have dealings with a particular tech company. An error on their end inconvenienced me somewhat one morning. I sent that company an email and within twenty minutes they had not only responded but they had fixed the problem. From my point of view, any irritation from this error was quickly erased by the polite, efficient way they addressed my issue. It makes me feel valued. It makes me feel like this is a business that cares about me; a business that is empathic to me.

Importantly, ask yourself, is your business content to simply address complaints, or is your business being proactive in limiting complaints? Treat each complaint as an opportunity to learn. If one person is expressing their pain and feeling the need to complain, then the chances are that there are others. Show empathy and try and make things easier and better for your clients and customers.
 

Anticipate

Of course, we don’t want to spend all our time addressing complaints. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t receive any complaints at all! That’s not really feasible. However, by listening to people, we can anticipate what they might complain about and address the problems before they ever reach the customer.

This should be a key part of any business’s research and development strategy in the 21st Century, but too many businesses are not actively looking for this crucial information. They develop products and services with little input from the end-user. By doing that, they risk causing irritation and annoyance.

Too often, we’re content to spend money on costly focus groups or targeted surveys rather than simply reviewing what is already out there. Imagine your business is making a new technology device – like a mobile phone or a tablet. You know what your competitors are doing, but are you considering what your potential customers are asking for?

Your potential customers will be out there. They will be discussing what makes their current device great, and most importantly, what could be improved. By considering their needs, you will be able to invest your development budget more wisely, focusing on the key features that consumers want from their device.

This may seem an arduous task but it doesn’t need to be. Have a look at product review videos on YouTube, and then read through the comments sections. Very often, you’ll find people saying “I bought [product] and like it, but…” – those “buts” could be just what you need for your next innovation!
 

Ask

Don’t be afraid to ask. There’s another small business that I deal with who develop a software product which I use regularly. Recently, they took the time to post the list of features for their software currently slated for development but rather than simply put out a features roadmap, they opened up a survey asking their clients which features they wanted first.

This is a fantastic step towards building trust and brand loyalty. The customer feels like they are part of the development of this piece of software. They know that the company is listening to their customer’s needs and feel that the company is responding to them. By making their polls public, they also allow their customers to know what other people are prioritising. Thus if one person’s preferred feature isn’t top of the list that person knows it isn’t the company neglecting them. Instead, they can see that the company is responding to their wider audience’s wants and needs first. This has the somewhat added advantage that the customer cannot blame the business if their most-desired feature isn’t next on the list!

If you’ve got an active social media channel, don’t just tell your customers what’s coming. Ask them what they want. If you’re delivering what they want, then your business will be more successful. You can create an emotional investment between business and customer. The benefits of this go beyond the bottom line of your business because it will also reach the hearts and minds of your customers. It will create a direct link between the two of you.

Back to psychology, in addition to wanting to be heard, many people also want to feel part of something. If you look at crowdfunding campaigns like those found on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you’ll often find a core group of supporters who feel proud that they’ve helped a product reach the market through their contributions.

People who feel part of something in this way are also the people more likely to spread the positive word about your business, both on social media and to their friends and family.
 

Empathy

If you seek to understand and feel what your customers are feeling, then you’re on a pathway to more success. Once your business becomes an empathy-driven business, there will be so many ways to expand and grow this philosophy, making it an integral part of your business culture.

There’s much more that can be said about the importance of empathy in business – from dealing with your people all the way to satisfying shareholders and investors. I could say so much that I may well revisit this subject at a later date.

For now, ask yourself whether your business is doing its best to build a relationship between you and your clients, or whether you’re putting up too much distance. Innovation need not simply be inventing something before anyone else but giving people what they want before anyone else.

The post Empathy in the Social Media Age appeared first on Robin Lines Associates.