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I saw a sign at a salesperson’s desk once that read, “Dear Customer, you may select any two of the following when purchasing from me: service, quality, price.” The words on that sign are true and they provide real sales help. They tell us that customers always have to pay for value. There is no free lunch.

Think about the selling environments that are possible using this bit of wisdom. We all sell in one of three scenarios noted below, depending on our market and our selling situation at the moment.

1. We can provide great service and high quality products, but we can’t do it at discount prices.
2. We can provide great service and discounted prices, but we aren’t going to be able to provide high quality products.
3. We can provide high quality products at discounted prices, but our level of service will be low.

This is a simplistic model, but it demonstrates that it’s impossible for a company to be profitable if it provides its customers with high quality products and high levels of service at discounted prices. Professional sales help and support come at a cost. Companies that have tried to do all three at once go out of business.

As seasoned sales pros we know that we have to sell the value we bring to our customers in order to justify the pricing. When customers understand the value they are buying they understand the price too. They know they can’t get sales help and assistance for free.

Sometimes we find ourselves in selling situations where we are selling a cheaper product or a lower level of service. It is important in those environments to educate the customer about the compromises they are making in order to receive lower pricing. It’s all about setting realistic expectations about value and price in the customer’s mind.

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People ask me how I come up with material for this blog. It’s actually quite easy; all I have to do is pay attention to the sales behaviors that I observe every day. Some of the stuff I see truly fits in the category of, “You could not make this up.” Below is a conversation that I observed between someone that was in the final stages of making a big ticket purchase and the CEO of the selling organization who was “helping” his salesperson close the deal. I am not making up the dialogue that follows.

Prospect: “I have a few more questions that need to be answered before we ink the contract. I was hoping to hear from you last week regarding those questions. Are you still interested in moving forward with this?”

CEO: “Oh yes, we are very interested in having you as a customer. I would have gotten back with you last week but I’m just a busy CEO.”

Despite the CEO’s best efforts at being the CEO of the sales prevention department, the prospect actually did sign the contract and purchase the service. The customer in this situation always referred to the CEO as Jason “I’m just a busy CEO” Short (not his real name) after that. One cautionary note, CEO’s and presidents can absolutely be the worst people to bring along on sales calls. Don’t assume they have a clue about selling just because they might be paid more than you.

Where did this CEO blow it? He blew it because he made it loud and clear that the prospect was not his number one priority. The CEO also communicated that he thought he was a higher priority than the prospect. Individual prospects and customers want to believe that we build our world around them. Even though they know that we deal with other companies, they want to at least feel like they are: number one in our minds, our only customer and have 100% of our attention. Think about your personal experience with doctors. Even though you might be visiting a doctor that has 500 patients, if he or she can make you feel like you’re their only patient it scores big points with you. The same is true for you and your customers and prospects. Make each of them feel very special; they’ll pay you for your attention.

When I was a kid I used to be captivated by the Wild West shootouts on Gunsmoke. For those of you under 40, Gunsmoke was a TV western. For those of you under 30 a western was a TV show about cowboys. Suddenly I’m starting to feel a little old. At any rate, these shootouts normally had one man standing at one end of the street facing another at the other end. They could not come to an agreement over their differences so they felt it best to draw their guns and shoot at one another; normally one of them died and the other was the victor. Occasionally both would die; more on that later.

When we have differences with our good customers we are often tempted to have a “shootout” with them. For example, let’s say you are having a disagreement with a customer about exactly when you said an item was to be delivered. You’re infuriated because you know you’re right and you’re going to show them they are wrong because you have the written documentation to prove it. Sure enough, you do your research and there it is, in black and white, with their signature. They are wrong and you are right!

But wait a second. Here is the important difference between the shootouts on Gunsmoke and a shootout with a valued customer. In the Wild West the victor didn’t care that his opponent was dead; in fact he was probably happy about it. You, on the other hand, have a different situation because dead customers don’t buy any longer, and you do care about that. You may have proven that you were right, but in the process you killed a high value customer. They will never buy from your company again and will happily tell anyone that will listen how bad your company is. Many customers have been “killed” in these kinds of shootouts. The overwhelming desire to be “right” is sometimes just that, overwhelming, even when it costs you commission.

Just like shootouts in the Wild West, sometimes both the customer and the salesperson are killed. We’ve all seen hot headed salespeople who strong-arm their customers at every turn, always needing to be right. Guess what happens to their sales careers? Short lived. They die along with their customers.

Even though a good customer might be wrong about something, resist the temptation to position the disagreement as a win-lose confrontation. No one likes to be backed into a corner and shown that they are wrong. Handle these situations with grace and keep that valued customer alive to buy another day.

We’ve all done it. We’re guilty of doing or not doing something to or for a customer that resulted in poor customer service, and they weren’t too happy about it.

Sometimes it could be debated as to whether or not we actually wronged a customer and on other occasions it’s fairly clear that we dropped the ball. The old school of thought used to be that “the customer is always right.” Wrong. Customers make mistakes, make ridiculous demands and stretch the truth with salespeople all the time. But if you have an upset customer, they think you are responsible; they don’t think they had anything to do with the problem. If the customer is a strategic customer you don’t need to worry yourself with evaluating the legitimacy of their complaint; you’re going to fix the problem and not ask too many questions. However, if the offended customer is not a strategic customer and there is a clear indication that they are making unrealistic demands, then you will most likely ration what you are willing to do to set things right in their mind.

Below is a quick reference guide for responding to customer complaints and problems.

1. Immediately acknowledge the problem and accept responsibility. Not being defensive is critical here; it will only make things worse.

2. Don’t try to refocus the blame on your company, your boss, other employees, “those stupid people in the shipping department,” etc. The customer needs to be mad at someone and you represent the company at this point.

3. Ask them what you need to do to fix the problem. Just asking this can be a balm to their anger and in about 99% of all cases that I’ve been involved in they will ask for less then what your company would be willing to do.

4. If you are going to provide some kind of remedy to the customer then tell them what you are going to do and do it quickly. While you’re delaying about what kind of remedial action your company is going to take, the customer is stewing. If you wait too long you’ll permanently damage the relationship even though you’ve decided to provide them a remedy. Talk about a lose-lose.

5. Stay in touch after the dust has settled. Once you’ve worked through a problem with the customer it’s especially important for you to stay in close touch with them for a while. The problem and its resolution can be viewed as major surgery in the customer’s eyes and you need to provide post-operative followup to rebuild the damage inflicted on the relationship.

Remember when you were growing up and you had a fight with your best friend? In most cases you worked your way through things and were even better friends afterwards. The same is also true for upset customers. Effectively handling the problem head on can result in a better relationship with the customer on the other side.