Think and Deliver
Considering what the customer really wants

You have opportunities to think every day. The big questions are: How do you do it? And, once you’ve arrived at your thought or your idea or your response, how do you deliver it?

Everyone will tell you to think things all the way through. But no one is able to teach that methodology effectively, unless they think “outcome” and unless they think “customer.”

That’s the secret. Think it through to the desired outcome that the customer wants.

I have found that what most people consider a problem – I look at as a symptom.

Here’s a real-world scenario that happens in every business, hundreds of times a day: Someone calls and presents you with a complaint, a problem, a question, a service call, an order, an opportunity, or even an idea. You pause and take the time to think. You try your best – using your experience, combined with your corporate rules – to think it all the way out. You present your reaction, your ideas, your solutions, and your thoughts.

The question is: In terms of whom? Is it, “What we can do?” Or is it, “Here’s what we can do to provide what you really wanted.”

The object of thinking is to flesh the idea all the way out from the beginning of the opportunity to the solution – in terms of what the customer really wants.

Here’s how to think it through to a win for everyone:

• Listen to the situation.
• Discover the symptom and the problem.
• Communicate the action.
• Reassure the customer you know what they really want.
• Look for an opportunity.
• Create an add-on idea.
• WOW! them.

Here’s a real world example: Let’s say you’re in the lawn sprinkler business. Your customer calls and says, “My sprinkler is broken. I need it fixed.” If you think: Service call, go fix the sprinkler – you’re thinking wrong. You should think: This is not a problem, this a symptom. What the customer really wants is a green lawn.

To get that green lawn you have to fix their sprinkler. Here’s the opportunity: Fix the sprinkler, and give them a bag of fertilizer branded with your company’s name to help them achieve what they want: a green lawn.

If you just fix the sprinkler, you get a thank you. Just fix what’s wrong, and you get nothing. If you help them get what they want, and add a WOW!, you will earn a referral and word-of-mouth advertising.

As you think things through, ask yourself: Why do they want a green lawn? Pride, show off, be the envy of the neighborhood, provide a place for the kids to play, garden. Discover these answers, document them in a customer file, and now you can get from WOW! to relationship.

Here’s another example: Ever make an airline reservation? Do the airlines know your problem? Your desired outcome? No. With the exception of one airline, they make your reservation and hang up.

But people at Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic ask you where you’re going when you land. People don’t want to fly, they want to land. And when they land, they gotta go someplace. Virgin arranges limousine transportation to your destination as part of their Upper Class fare. WOW!

Think about the 10 prime reasons customers call you. Figure out the symptom, the problem, the customer’s desired outcome, and then discover the opportunity to WOW!

Then act!

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com.

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