Who's afraid of the big bad customer?

By James Olsen

I f /HAT do we feel for the fearful?

Y Y We pity them, we feel sorry for them, right? These are not the feelings we want our customers to feel for us. We respect and revere the fearless. Don't we want our customers to respect us?

If we are fearful , our customers will feel it. When my son was four, I took him to swimming lessons. The pool was just a big bathtub-a little deeper maybe-but not scary. Dad was there. He's learning to swim and having a great time with it. After six lessons we thought it would be great for my wife to come along to see how our big boy was learning. My wife is deathly afraid of (deep) water. When she got in the pool with us, my son was fine until she touched his arm. I felt her fear course from her through his body and to mine like an electric shock.

What does this have to do with sales? Fear kills sales. Our customers will feel our fear just as my son felt his mother's fear. Working with salespeople, I find that fear of upsetting, bothering, negotiating withreal give-and-take negotiation -the customer is the number one emotional problem for struggling sellers. When we feel fear, our customers feel sorry for us and may pity us. When we are fearful, customers will not respect and revere us, much less treat us like a partner. When customers feel our fear two things will happen. They will take advantage or they will want to get away.

I work with charming, likeable, hardworking salespeople who understand sales techniques and strategies, but all this charisma and sales knowledge is wasted because of the fear these salespeople have of their Big, Bad Customers !

How many of us married the yesman or yes-woman? When I ask for a show of hands on this question in classes across the country no one ever raises their hand. Why? Wouldn't it be easier to spend our lives with someone who always gives us our way? Of course not. It would be deathly boring. We want someone who has his or her own ideas and maybe someone to keep us in check from time to time, right? Sales, like marriage, is a relationship. Our customers don't want to buy from a Yesman or yes-woman. (They maY throw'em a bone now and then to keep them giving numbers, but these fearful salespeople will always underachieve and get the leftovers.)

Customers will buy from sellers who know who they are, what theY have to offer, and are willing to stand up for it.

Here are some solutions to overcome our fear of our B .B .C's:

. Prepare. Don't just call-pre- pare everythingl

. Prospect. Talk to new customers and practice a confident approach. Fake it 'til we make it. Prospecting will help us build our account base. A big reason sellers are afraid of losing accounts is because they don't have enough of them. How can we win a negotiation when the other negotiator knows we've got no place else to go?

. Prepare and offer product. Back to the marriage metaphor, nobody wants to be with someone who always says, "I don't know, what do you want to do?" Offer product and solutions on every call. No more "What do ya need today?" calls. Call a friendly. Start our day with the accounts we do have a good relationship with. The best time to call a B.B.C. is right after we have sold something.

. Psyche up. Self-talk works. We must convince ourselves before we put ourselves in front of a customer. (Many sellers are embarrassed by self affirmations-"And Gosh Darn It, People Like Me!" I agree that it seems corny, but it works.)

. Smile. Smiling before and during the sales call will make us feel more confident. Humans are drawn to and are more comfortable around people who smile.

Technique is important. Sales skills are necessary to maximize our efforts. But as the saying goes. we must gel our hearts rlgftt before sales techniques will be effective.

Salespeople unite! Let's buck up, screw up our courage, and approach our customers with confidence.

Rrrrntrs

Kuiper Lumber Supply has relocated to a larger facility in Scappoose, Or.

84 Lumber Co. has opened an 8.4-acre yard with rail spur in Hesperia, Ca. (Jorge Espinoza, store mgr.)

Denair Lumber, Winton, Ca., earned approval to relocate to a larger site ...

Ace Hardware,Oto Valley, Az., held a grand opening Feb. 29 for the new 16000-sq. ft. store (John and Anne Piccoli, owners; Justin Piccoli, mgr.) ...

Paul's Ace Hardware, Fountain Hills, Az., is considering expanding after a neighboring business vacates this month

Westwoods Ace Hardware, Arvada, Co., has been opened by Tim and Tom MacDonnell ...

Orchard Supply Hardware anticipates a July opening for a new 51,969-sq. ft. store in Fairfield, Ca.

Ace Hardware, Keauhou, Hi., is closing at the end of May after failing to reach a deal with its landlord ...

Home Depot opened a new store April 2 in Penis, Ca.; hoPes to build a 106,000-sq. ft. store with 3500-sq. ft. garden center on a former Kmart site in Oxnard, Ca.; submitted plans to build in Cameron Park, Ca.; is adding a new unit in Warrenton, Or.; withdrew plans for North Bend, Or., and delayed its lawsuit over a proposed store in Sunland-Tujuna, Ca....

Lowe's Cos. won approval to build in Moreno Valley, Ca.; Eugene and Springfield, Or., and Elko, Nv., and has started building in anew shopping center in Madera, Ca.

Wrottslrrrs/trrutlcun:ns

Weyerhaeuser Co., Federal Way, Wa., is exploring the sale of its technology used to create wood-plastic composites; the unit is based in Kent, Wa. ...

Portac Inc., Tacoma, Wa., restarted its sawmill in Beaver, Wa., and planer mill in Forks, Wa., for one week early last month, then idled the facilities at least two weeks, affecting more than 100 employees...

West Wind Forest Products, Eugene, Of., has expanded its Alaskan yellow cedar operations at its plant in Jasper, Wy.; Andrew Jones, sales mgr. ...

Boise Cascnde temporarily curtailed production last month at its La Grande, Or., sawmill and Elgin, Or., stud mill ...

TECO, Sun Prairie, Wi., has formed a partnership that transfers its test machine business to Metriguard, Pullman, Wa. ...

Access Systems Division of Overhead Door Corp., Dallas, Tx., has acquired the assets of Attrn'ten' s CladP anel composite garage door division, Sweet Home, Or.

Sure Power Industries Inc., Tualatin, Or., has been acquired by Cooper Industries Ltd., Houston, Tx....

Gorreclion

Norton Lumber continues doing business in Phoenix. Or.-not Phoenix, Az., as incorrectly stated in March, p. 34-despite closure of its yard in White City, Or.

TruStile Doors will open a $3.3-million facility this spring in North Denver, Co., providing packaging, shipping and corporate office space

Potlatch Corp., Spokane, Wa., is permanently closing its lumber mill in Prescott, Ar.

HD Supply's waterworks business has acquired fire protection fabricator D&M Fabrication, Lodi, Ca. ...

Hunter Douglas consolidated its Sacramento and San Jose, Ca., operations into a new 208,000-sq. ft. facility in West Sacramento

S imp son Strong -Tie, Pleasanton, Ca., now offers Deck Spacers for composite decks

Master Halco, Orange, Ca., and FiberTech Polymers, Santa Ana, Ca., have partnered to market and distribute TimberWolf Pro-Series wood-composite fencing

SienaPine Lrd., Roseville, Ca., has achieved Forest Stewardship Council chain-of-custody certification

Contact Industrie s. Portland, Or., is now ISO 9001:2000 certified by the International Organization for Standardization

Bodyguard Wood Products' treated sidings have passed testing in accordance with the new California fire code

Temperate Forest Foundation is looking for sponsors and participants for its summer Teacher Forestry Tours, including lune 24' 27 inPortland. Or. ...

Hoasing starts in February slipped 0.6Vo to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.065 million, buoyed by a l47o jwp in

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