American football is a very popular sport in the US played between two teams of eleven players each. The aim of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the opposing teams end zone. One team is in offence trying to move the ball forward and score, while the other team is on defense, attempting to stop them from doing so. The offence can advance the ball by running with it or throwing to a teammate, while the defense aims to tackle the player with the ball or disrupt their passing attempts. Each team has a set number of “downs” to move the ball at a specified distance in the pitch. If the offense fails to achieve the required distance within the allotted “downs”, they must give possession of the ball to the opposing team. In order to gain advantage and outscore the opponent, various strategies and plays are utilised.
In Sales, what is better than acquiring one new customer? The obvious answer is “acquiring more than one new customer”, but is this really the case? Nowadays, the cost of acquiring new clients has risen dramatically, as it could involve spending on creating content for marketing campaigns, advertising, employee salaries, travel expenses and so on. “What is the answer then?”, I hear you say. In my view, it is retaining an existing customer, which cost-wise could be even twenty times less dear than the acquisition of a new one.
As salespeople, when we are not achieving our targets, we tend to blame the competition, but the harsh reality nowadays is that nearly 50% of all the deals in B2B environment end up in “No decision”. This means that the prospects prefer to stick with their current status quo, rather than changing into something else. No matter how we view it though, the lack of decision is still a decision, basically a “No” to what we are offering.
Read more: How Can Socrates Help Customers to Make a Decision?
Two things are certain in life: taxes and mistakes/failures happening either in a B2B or in a B2C environment. For the first one, unfortunately, there are not many things that can be done, but as far as the latter is concerned, it is possible to repair the damage, if this sensitive situation is managed in a correct way.
In his book “The Power of Human”, Adam Waytz, a professor, and psychologist at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, narrates an anecdote about an immigrant to the US, who believed that the word “busy” actually meant “good”, because when he asked people, “How are you doing?”, they often responded, “Busy!”.