About eight years ago, a Sales VP of a video analytics company was complaining about one of his sales people. He said he shares too much information early in the sales process. The quote that surprised me was: “Chris, you and I both know that you reset the expectations of the customer after the sale”.
One of the rules I follow in life is to listen closely to smart people who disagree with me; so as much as I disagreed with my fried, I always thought he was bright and decided to consider his comment. Maybe it was true for sales? No way, but maybe it was true for video analytics? What about this, what about that? After applying his theory to many examples, I concluded that he was completely wrong.
If you want to be great, you have to set proper expectations for your customers. Below are four good very good reasons…
- Surprises kill relationships. Unless you're selling cold fusion, you need trusting relationships.
- You prospect is probably smart enough to realize that you're exaggerating or letting him believe a truth on steroids.
- You'll get an edge on your competition by being totally transparent. If not this time, next time and every time after.
- It's the right thing to do.
I'm sure I left out several valid reasons to accurately set the expectations of your prospects and customers, but these are probably enough, don’t you think?
