DON’T BE AFRAID TO GIVE UP ON GOOD TO GO FOR GREAT!

This quote by Kenny Rogers is the complete professional story of so many sales reps. So often a rep is going for a good solution to a customer’s problem. The rep has started to take action and has gotten things going in a certain direction. Then all of a sudden they see a better solution. One that is GREAT. But because they have already invested time and started down the path of good, they don’t want to start over, or change direction to take the path to GREATNESS.


So I guess the question is, should they? If a solution is good should a rep take 2 steps backwards, throw away the time already invested, to move towards GREAT? What’s taking you so long to answer? YES! Without a doubt GREATNESS is better than good and the customer deserves the absolute best you have to offer.

Why didn’t I think of this solution before? Is the question we always ask ourselves in this situation. Easy, sometimes until you get started, until you are working on a solution, you can’t see all the details needed to make the difference between good and great. It is like a car mechanic, how often have you brought your car in for a repair and after the mechanic starts the job they call you with something else that needs to be done. (Let’s assume you are using an honest mechanic) The mechanic tells you that it wasn’t until they got this far into the job that they could find the new problem. The same thing is true with your solutions.

Was the time wasted? Not really, as long as you learned from the experience. Next time you are faced with the same problem, you should know what to look for to offer the customer a GREAT solution the first time.

But isn’t good, good enough? AGAIN what is taking you so long to answer? NO! A good solution is never good enough if a GREAT solution is available. First, as I already said, your customer deserves your absolute best. If this alone isn’t a sufficient answer, then try this one on for size, IF YOU DON’T DELIVER “GREAT “ TO YOUR CUSTOMER, ONE OF YOUR COMPETITORS WILL BE HAPPY TO.

As successful sales reps you sometimes forget what brought you to the party. “Doing more for the customer then your competitors did.” If you stop delivering on that standard now, you open the door for the business to be grabbed back by your competitors. Don’t you think they learned something from losing the customer the first time? Never underestimate how determined and prepared a competitor is to get their business back. Wouldn’t you be?

PLEASE, don’t make it easy for your competitors. If you are going to lose an account, make the competition work HARD for it. If in the final analysis they get the customer, at least you can say you did EVERYTHING in your power to keep the customer and make the competitions job difficult.

Lorin