November 2002 Track Selling Times Focus on the Professional
 Focus on the Professional -
"John Tschohl"
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(From February 2000 Track Selling Times)
John Tschohl is president of Service Quality Institute of Minneapolis, MN, specializing in helping companies create a service culture. Wherever he goes, he stresses the importance of customer service.
What is the relationship between customer service and sales?
"The most important part of selling is customer service. If you don't master superior customer service skills, you are gong to have to learn lots of selling skills just to hang on for dear life. From my experience, salespeople are some of the greatest customer service offenders."
Can you give an example?
"An important basic is that you have to respond to inquiries immediately, whether by phone or email. Yet most companies and most salespeople seem to think it is OK to take three to five days. For instance, I sent a letter to the presidents of three travel agencies, stating that I was looking for a new agency. The only response came one month later. For me, that says it all about the level of service I could expect from them. If they can't return a call or letter promptly, how will they handle a real problem?"
Why is responding fast so important?
"When you receive an inquiry, you have a small window of opportunity in which to react, usually only a few hours. While this is second nature to the very best salespeople, most are terrible at it. They are missing the point that the most important element of sales is taking care of the customer."
What happens if you don't respond fast?
"When I recently gave a lead to my stockbroker, it took him a month to call the guy. By that time, he'd sent hundreds of thousands to another broker. This factor will become even more evident with the growth of the Internet. There, if you don't respond within a couple of hours, you are probably too late. Salespeople who don't understand speed will not survive."
How do you apply this personally?
"My company received an inquiry from New York while I was there visiting another client. Although I had little time, I met them that day and concluded a $45,000 sale two days later. If I'd waited until I returned to Minnesota, I'd have lost it for sure."
How does service tie in with the Track Selling System?
""World Class Selling: The Complete Selling Process" is the best book ever written on selling skills. It gives workable techniques that show you how to sell professionally, and it promotes a tremendous service orientation in the sales process. It is mandatory reading at my company, and I send it to distributors and consultants all over the world.
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