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How to Lose Customers Under Contract

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: You know that your competitors' top prospects are your existing customers that you have under contract, right?

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How to Lose Customers Under Contract

You know that your competitors' top prospects are your existing customers that you have under contract, right? I spent the good part of this morning at the MA Registry of Motor Vehicles. I spent 25 minutes waiting in line just to get to the person who gives out the number with the estimated wait time on it. While I was in line, I noticed a sign that read:

"Today's RMV takes drivers beyond our branches to deliver quicker service through cutting edge technology...Our new fees (no, they weren't lowered) reflect our commitment to service, integrity and innovation..."

Wow - sure glad things have improved at the RMV. Anyway, I had an estimated wait time of an additional 28 minutes which, in reality was 55 more minutes. There were about 125 people ahead of me, 15 counter positions and only 7 clerks.

In total, it took 90 minutes to conduct a two-minute transaction and it wasn't to land tickets to hear the resurrection of the Beatles in Concert! Why do they get away with such terrible service? We don't have any choice. Just like your customers who are locked in to a contract. Call your cable company, phone company, or computer or software technical support line. In most cases, the service is comparable to what I just described. This level of service helps your competition take your customers away! Make sure that you work even harder to keep the customers that you worked so hard to sell in the first place. If you don't, they'll be somebody else's customer as soon as they can arrange it.

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Home > Sales > Dave Kurlan > How to Lose Customers Under Contract
Article Tags: beatles, cable company, clerks, cutting edge technology, existing customers, innovation, ma registry of motor vehicles, registry of motor vehicles, resurrection, service integrity, technical support line, top prospects, wait time, waiting in line

About the Author: Dave Kurlan
RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website

Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development.  He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).

Click here to visit Dave's website
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Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money How to Do Great Marketing with (Amost) No Money - I've given this presentation to CEOs many times. Now i can share it with you. But I cannot because I do not yet have 20 posts. Jeff Ogden, President Find New Customers
Willing to Fail Your Way to Success Willing to Fail Your Way to Success - Entrepreneurs in my opinion, must be willing to fail. (This is that risk-taking factor quoted in the other post). If you aren't willing to fail then you don't take risks and if you don't take risks you do I like to call (I am qouting an awesome book called Play to Win!) 'Playing Not to Lose' instead of 'Playing to Win'. When you Play to Win you must risks. Risks are how you build a business and innovate.
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - [quote:140e27hj]Customers Pick Static Documents over Blog Entries 8 to 1 on Average[/quote:140e27hj] Interesting study. Just as a commenter said on your post... don't call it a blog. I agree.
Re: pitching Re: pitching - Friendliness is closely related to the concept of "permission marketing" as articulated by Seth Godin. The subtitle of his book says it all: "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers." The old method was "interruption marketing" where you suddenly get an ad in your face whether you want it or not...


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