 OUR TAKE -
How to Turn Off Your Customers
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|  | Lasting Impressions:
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
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George Orwell
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In a survey of more than 1,200 companies in the United States and Europe, McKinsey and Co. investigated what practices by sales representatives are most destructive to business-to-business relationships. The study found the most criticized traits are:
- Too much contact: 35%
- Lack of knowledge about their own or competitor's products/services: 20%
- Lack of industry knowledge about usefulness or product/service to customer: 9%
- Sales style is too aggressive: 8%
- Customer forgotten/ignored after the sale: 8%
- Other: 20%
Do you see a common denominator in the above list? I do. To me, it seems each of these traits is created by incentive structures that focus on closing deals, meeting quotas, and short-term thinking instead of problem-solving, consultative selling, and general empathy for the customer.
Do your incentive programs focus on business objectives at the expense of customer advocacy? What's your take?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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