How To Bounce Back From A *BAD* Customer

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I’ve always hated the saying “The customer is always right”.

Sure, it makes sense to tell a teenager who’s working their first job. But as career salespeople, we know that customers are OFTEN wrong.

And sometimes, they’re just flat out rude.

I’ve talked a lot about challenging customers before.

Today I want to talk about the NEXT customer. The unfortunate soul who has to follow your last bad customer.

How are you getting yourself right for them?

Here’s a recap of everything in this episode of 5 Minute Sales Training:

Sales is all peaches and cream, and our customers are nothing but nice, right? No?

I got an email from a salesperson, and he said, “Hey Jeff, I was reading something out of your book. I used the technique and it blew up in my face. Thank you very much.”

And I typed back, “Tell me more about that.”

He said, “Well, I use this line that you’ve used, so you’re out shopping. Is that fun for you? Are you having a good time?” The customer responded to this salesperson, “No, I’m not shopping. I’m just looking. And I don’t need any of your slick sales talk.”

Yikes. That’ll put you in a tough spot.

Now what? Remember the line, “So, you’re out shopping. You having fun?”

What did that salesperson say that so set this guy off? The answer is…

Nothing set that guy off.

That guy was already set off before he walked through the door. Sometimes customers are like that. They’re going through a tough time, they had a bad experience, who knows what it is.

They’re just really afraid of salespeople. I don’t know, that salesperson could have said, “I got a briefcase with $1 million in it, and all you have to do is be nice to me.”

Wouldn’t have mattered. That was a decision that had been made in advance. But here’s the deal. That salesperson has to be 100% on for the next person who walks through the door.

How do you bounce back from a tough sales conversation?

How do you make sure that you are giving your all to the next person who comes through the door even when the last person really kind of set you off?

And here’s what you need to know. It’s all in your head. This is a mental game.

Now you get off the phone, and immediately you have a new customer to talk to.

Will that last conversation negatively affect the next conversation?

Here’s my advice. Don’t make it about you.

Now, I’m not suggesting this is easy. It’s not. The question is who is going to pay the price for the last negative conversation?

It better not be the next customer who comes through the door.

So, I’m going to suggest to you here that even five seconds of deep breathing in between conversations can make a huge difference.

Just that opportunity to shake it off. Just remember the decision is yours. You can carry the negative energy of that last conversation into the next conversation, or you can choose to release it and start all over again.

That decision belongs to you 100%. Make the call. Make the decision.

The next person that walks through the door needs you, and they need the very best of you.

Until next time, learn more, turn more.