In To Sell Is Human, Pink talks about the founder of Amazon, Bezos. Bezos leaves an empty chair in his meetings that is meant to represent the customer. I enjoyed Bezos’ attitude toward the customers and his intentions to make sure that his employees are thinking about the customer. It is important, as we have discussed in class to take on the thoughts of the customer. Instead of assuming that we know what is best for the customer, we must really find out the customer’s needs and thought process. Our passion for ideas and what we sell can become blinding when it comes to seeing what the customer wants or needs. The need that salespeople have to fill a certain quota can cause them to waste time selling to anyone and everyone instead of really finding out the customers needs. If salespeople take the time to find out prospect’s needs, they can either find a way to show how the product will help or they can stop wasting time and move on to new prospects.
Thinking like the customer allows us to find their pain. Saving a seat at the table for the customers can help salespeople know how to really serve the customer and close a sale. It is hard, but sometimes the best thing to do is to take a step back, and think about our sales strategies and see if they are really taking the customer’s thoughts into account. Allowing the customer a voice during the sales process, allows salespeople to prospect and come up with sales strategy that really fits the customer, not just the salesperson’s idea of what the customer wants.
BoweryJE22
I agree, Bezos does have a great attitude toward the customer. I think many times in sales we look at so many other things and forget to think about the customer.
The chair is a really neat reminder of the customer. When I worked at HOPE International last summer, they did the same kind of thing by framing pictures of the clients we served and hanging them all around the office. Without those sorts of signposts, it’s easy to forget why we do what do.