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The Power of Prioritizing Customers

And the end results if you don�t

I�ve watched in amazement as salesperson after salesperson left their customers in the middle of the sales process to answer a page or take a sales call. �Excuse me,� they say, �I�ll be right back!� So what does that say to the customer who�s right there in front of you? It says plenty:

You think the customer in front of you is a waste of time.
You think a customer on the phone is more important than someone on the lot.
You think all customers are equally important and you have the ability to deal with more than one at a time.
Your manager says to do it that way.
You don�t have any opinion, you just learned it from someone else.

Unfortunately, the latter excuse is likely more accurate than the others. Most salespeople have never thought about the impact that leaving a customer could have. They�ve just watched others do it that way so they followed along. Even their managers stop everything they are doing when the phone rings so the salespeople assume that is appropriate behavior. The end result of leaving your customer can result in lost opportunities. Among other things:

The customer could leave.
You lose momentum if things are going well.
Questions may come up while you�re gone.
The customer might feel neglected.

All of these will lead to lost sales and a complete waste of the efforts you invested. And customers who are telephoning usually understand when you are with someone else. Leaving a voice mail in those situations is just fine for them. So what�s the answer? I recommend you make a decision today to put the customer in front of you ahead of everything else. Stick with that person and stay solely focused on him or her until he or she departs. This can be difficult, but in the long run, very rewarding. I also suggest that managers consider an electronic paging system and get away from the loudspeaker approach. It�s distracting and research indicates customers don�t like it. Customers want to feel that you are there for them. Allowing yourself to be distracted by other calls will result in more lost business than the incremental advantages of taking every call. Got an opinion? Express it here: