CLIENT CARE – for many salespeople these are words they use often, but as we know actions speak louder than words.
Over and above service, client care means giving clients the right advice, whether or not it is in your best interests to do so. It means telling the truth to clients at all times, never ‘gilding the lily’ – distorting the truth or omitting certain elements of the truth in order to persuade.
Telling the truth means telling the whole truth. This includes the hard truths.
Salespeople often forget this.
Many prefer to tell only the ‘happy truths’: “The buyers liked the property” or “The buyers thought the décor was lovely”; etc. But many often avoid the hard truths – “The buyers thought the property was too small for the price”, or “The buyers felt the property was $25,000 overpriced”.
If sellers’ properties are overpriced, they need to know it. In real time, as you receive the feedback from buyers.
They need this information so that, over time, they arrive at the understanding of how much their properties are worth in the current market. Without facts they cannot make intelligent decisions.
The reason that salespeople avoid delivering hard truths to sellers is that some salespeople don’t want to risk the sellers’ displeasure. It’s that old chestnut fear of rejection.
Image if surgeons felt the same way – too scared to tell patients that radical surgery was the only option. Surgeons like this would do more harm than good.
The Whole Truth
Likewise, salespeople who are too scared to tell clients the whole truth, including the hard truths, do more harm than good. Clients expect us to communicate every aspect of their sale to them. If buyers aren’t positive, the clients need to know. If their properties are overpriced, sellers need to know. If the property needs to come down in price in order to sell, the clients need to know.
You do clients no favours by shielding them from the hard truths.
But this is not what is happening: salespeople aren’t shielding their clients from the hard truths; they shield THEMSELVES from perceived client displeasure.
Fact: if you are a ‘people pleaser’ you will not make it in sales. These people avoid any chance of conflict by only telling others what they want to hear.
I call these people “Nice guy, buts’.
“He’s a nice guy, but I listed with the other agent because I think she can sell my house”. You know the type.
Be diplomatic, watch the words you use, but tell the whole truth. Tell the hard truths.
For people of integrity, there can be no other way.