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There is a stealthy serial killer in sales that many of us aren’t even aware of. It can kill deals and inflict injury on our relationships with customers. It is most frequently found in quotes, emails and other customer correspondence.

What is this silent sales assassin? The offender is the incorrect spelling of a customer’s name or getting their title wrong.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is a big deal to our customers. Dale Carnegie said that a person’s name is music to their ears. We love hearing our own name and our customers are no exception. People are also very proud of their titles and usually have worked hard to earn them. They want their name spelled correctly. They want their title stated accurately.

When we get a customer’s name or title wrong it communicates three not-so-good things.

1. It reinforces a negative, and incorrect, stereotype of salespeople. We don’t want our customers to perceive us as slap-you-on-the-back carnival barkers.
2. It communicates that we really don’t care that much about their business or about them as individuals. It doesn’t get any more personal than a person’s name or title.
3. It announces to the customer that we’re not too worried about details. If we can’t get their name or title correct, how persnickety are we going to be about other important aspects of the sale?

The larger and more complex a sales transaction becomes, the more the customer will view these kinds of mistakes as potentially fatal to the relationship.

While customers may not mention that we got their name or title wrong, rest assured that they have noticed and will not be impressed. We have to be careful not to think that their silence indicates this issue is not important to them. It is.

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Tags: customers

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