The ‘give and take err….give and give’ in business dealings

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We meet a customer…he starts talking…slowly probing…gradually engages us in a dialogue which gives him some insight into our working…some talk on our competitors interspersed with some industry talk…and we feel we have a customer who has given us an ear…then we try talking business…he starts by saying tough market…budgetary cuts…tightrope walk…but since we have ongoing relations, I’ll give you business… he lays out his ‘shopping list’…I will buy some of this and some of that…and may be consider the other things too…but you know I have very less money…it’s only because of you that I am spending…(wow! I must be a magician casting spells on people – I mean they spend just because they met me!)…and guess what, he also puts a price tag to my inventory…and the result…Eureka, I have a customer on hand…I run around pillar to post in the company selling what my customer sold to me about my product/service …and fighting for the price he decided to buy at…

Let me just paraphrase…
The customer tries to understand how my company and the industry in which we operate works. He talks me through my company and industry picking the softer points. Once satisfied that he has enough knowledge proceeds to explain his tight situation. Decides on what he will buy from my company and what he will pay for it. And the best part, motivates me to run around in my company to give him what he wants.

So where is the give and take in this business dealing…. It just seems like give and give.
One basic element which we forget to account for is that the customer can buy only if I am willing to sell…he can’t buy if I refuse to sell!

He probed about my business, then why not the reverse? He has my competitors to buy from, so why can’t I sell to his competitors? If I do not have the right to price his products / services…then how can I grant him that privilege?

All good buyers exhibit calmness, shrewdness, an ability to probe, terrific listening and an appetite to understand the sellers business. So what prevents the sellers to imbibe the same skills?
I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks is in the way the seller thinks. He starts believing that the buyer has a right of maintaining an upper hand because he has money to spend. The seller needs to sell to everyone he meets / pitches business too. You can’t say no to a customer irrespective of what he is demanding – it’s sacrilegious. Somehow, we are in the habit of serving the same set of customers over and over again not trying hard enough to expand our customer base. This leaves us with very few alternatives / back-up plans.

Saying ‘no’ to business is at times, a good decision – it’s like an antibiotic…bitter to chew but good for health.

By: Sumit Singh
Dated; 24th April, 2013

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