Grant Cardone - If You're Not First, You're Last - Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition

Don’t ever allow yourself to be misled by those who suggest that asking your customers for help could in some way endanger the relationship or their perception of you and somehow damage “the customer satisfaction experience.” American business seems to have made customer satisfaction its mantra under the misguided belief that a company that says the phrase enough will somehow magically gain market share. It’s as though companies have overemphasized the goal of customer satisfaction to the point that they are neglecting how vital it is to attain customers in the first place. Markets are too competitive and too fluid; you have to get the customer’s attention first before you can worry about satisfying them. Of course, we all want loyalty, but first, you must get a customer.

There is an almost endless list of these customer satisfaction-obsessed companies that are now unfortunately unable to deliver any level of satisfaction because their doors are closed. Washington Mutual, Circuit City, Heard Automotive, and Dillard’s are just a few of the organizations that spent hundreds of millions of dollars on customer satisfaction ads (mere rhetoric) and never delivered. The number of companies around the world that have changed their names to include words like “Friendly” or “Courtesy” in an effort to repair damaged perceptions astounds me. Changing your name won’t keep you in business any more than an advertisement that says you deliver great customer satisfaction will make satisfied customers. If you don’t know how to attain a customer in the first place and sell that person your services, you need not even bother with customer satisfaction!

Without new opportunities to replace previous prospects-turned-customers, you cannot survive in the market; you won’t be in business to deliver service, much less satisfaction. I encourage you to put customer attainment before everything and to follow it immediately with a true commitment to customer satisfaction. You must activate clients, close deals with the clients, replace the clients with new prospects, and make sure you exceed their expectations—in that order. A business owner with whom I worked once told me, “You can’t ask a client for a referral before you’ve even earned the right to do business with them.” I railed on him with a barrage of questions: “Who told you I can’t do that? Where is the rule or protocol that says you cannot do this? Who is giving you this kind of suppressive advice? Do you want to grow your business or shrink it?” I then calmed down and told him, “I know the Ten Commandments, and that isn’t one of them! The rules and limitations you are playing by are in your mind and have no place in your business.” This man’s business was failing because he was being overly reasonable in his commitment to create new opportunities.

In the 25 years that I have been in business, I have never had a customer become upset with me because I asked for a referral, and I have asked during, before, and after the transaction—perhaps too often. So make an unwavering and unreasonable commitment to activate your clients in order to generate new opportunities for yourself, and I assure you that you will expand, conquer, and take market share away from your competitors.

Ask yourself whether anyone has delivered you a truly “wow” experience within the last 90 days. I expect the answer from most of you will be no. People today are so accustomed to poor or mediocre service—both before and after the sale—that when they get something a few notches above mediocre, they are certain to notice the difference. It’s very rare for people to deliver at levels that really create an exceptional experience and positive impression. Ask yourself what percentage of the time you even remember the person who served you. If you did remember them, what percentage of the time did you remember them because they “sucked”? I would expect that you don’t remember more often than not—and when you do, it’s because it was a bad experience, not a good one.

This is a perfect follow-up to my discussion on customer satisfaction in the previous chapter. You have to do everything you can to hold on to your existing clients at all times because they represent the foundation on which you grow your business. Without positive word of mouth, you have no chance of sustaining yourself—much less conquering market share. And the best way to retain your clients or customers is to please them beyond their expectations and to keep doing so—before, during, and after the sale. If you truly want to satisfy them, make sure they’re impressed before the sale; otherwise, you won’t have a chance to impress them later!

While this is always the case, it is especially critical that you deliver at a whole new level during a period of contraction in order to differentiate yourself because (1) you cannot afford to miss opportunities; and (2) this is the time to take market share from others. You don’t want customers just to be satisfied; you want them wow-ed!

The wow experience is actually easier to accomplish during “bad” times than good, because your competitors are so locked up on problems during down times that their ability to deliver a positive experience has likely deteriorated. They become victims of the economy because they have no intention of creating their own economy or understanding of how to create one, and they perpetuate these declining conditions without even thinking in terms of wow. It becomes very difficult and maybe impossible for them to think in terms of wow when they are completely committed to “woe is me.” It is essential that you go above and beyond to impress consumers when they tighten up financially and become more selective. Delivering a wow experience gives you a much better chance of separating them from what they are being told is so precious and vital to their survival: their money. With the media’s constant reminders of doom and gloom during times like these, the wow part of an experience is the only thing that prompts customers to actually tell you yes.

An important rule to remember: Price is never the way to create a wow experience . The product is probably not a way to create a wow experience either, unless you are the only source for a particular product or service, which is unlikely. The wow moment occurs when you present the product, let customers know how it can solve their problems, and figure out how it makes them feel as well as how you present, service, and deliver that experience.

The best way to increase your customer base is to give clients more than their money’s worth. Reducing price or cost does not add value or solve problems; it merely reduces the cost of the product and can actually diminish perceived value. Most salespeople think that price is a way to make a better deal or sell more products, but I can give you an almost endless list of companies that have gone out of business while operating as the lowest-cost provider. Because their margins are so low and they are forced to run so tightly, they don’t bother to think in terms of wow and aren’t able to financially deliver this kind of experience. Write down the names of at least three big companies that failed in the last 12 months because they offered the lowest price with no wow component. Some are among those same companies mentioned in Chapter 6 that have enormous advertising budgets and big promises of customer satisfaction. They added the fact that they were the lowest-priced provider to their pitch, but now they’re out of business and unable to deliver any kind of service.