A client of mine shared a story with me two years ago that I found entertaining. He was a manager with a national integration company. Paraphrasing, he said: “Chris, you know what scares me? I’ll tell you what scares me, this scenario… Last month I was waiting on Jack in a Marriott lobby and saw a guy on a ladder installing an Axis camera. I was bored and thought: ‘which one of our competitors is in here?’ As he stepped off the ladder and turned around, I looked at his shirt logo to see who he worked for and there it was: ‘Marriott’. That’s what scares me Chris – our customers think they don’t need us anymore.”I have to admit that I didn’t take it that seriously then. However, I’ve seen this scenario become so common lately that I created a sales training session devoted to winning the DIY (Do It Yourself) customer.
Although I cover several methods to challenging and overcoming the DIY threat in the session, there is one primary strategy I present that every sales professional must embrace: identify the potential DIY customers and begin discussing the topic with them right away. Months before an opportunity arises, bring up the topic. Your competition is doing everything possible to avoid the topic and hope their customers never head in that direction. If you think you have a customer that can possibly become one of those “DIY people”, talk about it early. They’ll appreciate your candor. You’ll likely be able to convince them to keep investing in experts like you, and you’ll probably win their future business. So… bring up the topic of DIY early and be honest … your customers will love you for it.
If you’re interested in learning more about this and other sales training sessions, please click here.
