Dealing with Difficult Customers

Customers – Some times ya love ‘em. Some times ya have to kill em’. We’ve all dealt with difficult customers before. I’m not talking about just the complainer or the “problem child”. I’m talking about the one who keeps making unreasonable requests of you and your company or has unrealistic expectations about what you should do for them. And no matter what you do for them, they don’t seem to be happy about it. How do you deal with these difficult customers? I will discuss six tips for handling these customers and their unreasonable requests. They may not work all the time, but I know they will help you most of the time, and at least help you to keep your sanity while not harming your business.

1. Define your box. If you can define exactly what it is your company does, then draw a line around that, and this is the “box” in which you work. Some companies try to be everything to everyone, which can cause a defocus of their business plan. This can cause a dangerous situation for you since you can easily go beyond your bounds, abilities and/or resources by doing things that are not your core strength or priority. For instance, one of the things we do at PEAK Sales Consulting is CRM technology. Now, some customers want to interface their CRM system with their accounting system and want me to help. I don’t do accounting, I don’t know accounting, and I have a strong distaste for accounting. So I have to tell them that although I can point them in the right directions for accounting links to their CRM system, I do not make the links work and they have to deal with someone else on the accounting side of the table. If they must have only one consulting firm to help them with both, I have to walk away from that deal. If I don’t, I will find myself knee deep in learning technology that is way outside of my primary mission, which will defocus me. I could lose more time and revenue by doing this than the deal is worth. However, if I find that this request keeps coming up and, after doing more research, I find that it makes sense to expand my box, or sphere of offerings, then I could pick up this skill and these services and add them to my repertoire. But only as a strategic part of my business plan.

2. Educate them. You need to educate your customers so they know exactly what it is you do as well as what it is you do not do. In other words, make sure you explain your box to them. It’s not always the customer’s fault when they keep pressing you to do something outside your box. It’s possible that they just don’t know. Once you define your box, it should be defined in your marketing material, your tag line, your elevator pitch (or 60-second commercial), and your presentations to your customers. Your box becomes your persona – the definition of you and your business. Once you have this clearly defined, everything you do should be centered on that definition of your business. Not only what you do for your customers, but also what affiliations and partnerships you develop, what products and services you offer, and what types of customers you market to and work with. For example, we do sales consulting and training for business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales. However, we do not do sales training for the retail industry. When a prospect calls and asks if we can do sales training for their reps, we ask what markets they sell to. If they say it is in a retail industry, then we simply educate them by explaining what sort of training we do, and for whom, and that this may not be a good fit. I would much rather walk away from a deal that is not a good fit than to become proficient in a market or service that doesn’t fit into our core mission, hence taking us away from our core strengths and abilities.

3. Set expectations. When you begin working with a customer, you must set their expectations right from the beginning. This means that everyone needs to understand not only what will and won’t be done, but also the results that will be achieved. If you don’t do this, what often happens is the customer expects you to do certain tasks with specific results, which may not be the same as what you expect to do. The result of this is that they start asking for, what seems to be, unreasonable and unrealistic expectations about what you should do for them. And this is where the trouble begins. Get full disclosure and agreement in the beginning of the relationship and/or project and document it, along with expectations and results, for all parties to review, agree to, and approve. Use this document as a guideline to stay on track.

4. Redefine their needs. If your customer continues to persist and insist that you should help them with their unique requirements or with something you don’t do, explain to them that this is not what you do and they either have to redefine their needs or go somewhere else. Yes I know, this is much easier said than done. However, the alternatives are even more difficult because it could involve you taking on more than you can handle, or are prepared to do, hence costing you more in the long run. Customers should be generating profit for you, not just revenue. If they generate revenue but are costing you a fortune, it’s time to stop throwing good money after bad. Be firm, be strong and have courage when it comes to keeping customers who run amuck of your direction and focus. Having the documentation described in the previous tip will help you with this and with redefining their needs.

5. Prioritize. Your time is too valuable and you should focus on those customers who fit in your box and business model. Sometimes difficult customers arise out of a bad fit to begin with. In other words, if we were to sell our services to a market or industry that we don’t usually deal with and, more importantly, are not equipped to handle, we may be asking for trouble. Some companies, in a desperate attempt to garner new business, will grab at any sale they can. The result is that they get bad business – business that is costing them more than they are earning in profits. Therefore, it’s important to define and prioritize your best customers and markets, and use these profiles to find similar customers to deal with since you know you can satisfy their needs most efficiently and profitably.

6. Fire them. When all else fails, be prepared to fire your customers and walk away. Like a bad marriage, there’s no sense in dragging on the inevitable. If they are costing you more than you are making, if they refuse to work within your guidelines, or if they continue to make demands that you just can’t or don’t want to do (for whatever reasons), then tell them nicely that it’s best that you stop working together since you do not appear to be the sort of firm they are looking for and that you are not prepared to continue doing the sort of work they are asking you to do. In the long run, this is a much wiser approach than going down with a sinking ship. Cut your losses and move on.

As I said earlier, these tips may not all work all the time, but doing none of them will almost always guarantee failure with difficult customers. Be firm and strong and know what your strengths and limitations are. Then communicate clearly, and early, with your customers to ensure a more successful relationship.

Good luck and good selling!

Russ Lombardo

Dealing with Difficult Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Russ Lombardo's Website.

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