Results Are Meaningless...It’s the Experience that Counts!

How many times have you done an outstanding job for a customer or client, only to watch her hire or buy from your competitor the next time around? You’ve probably scratched your head and asked yourself “What did I do wrong?” Then you might say “I worked hard for that customer, I made sure they got a great deal, and I gave them a rock bottom price. They couldn’t have gotten a better price from anyone in town. And, this is the thanks I get!” Ah! The salesperson’s lament!

Every good salesperson understands that price isn’t everything. In fact, if price were the most important component of every sale, luxury brands like BMW, Coach, Four Seasons Hotels, and Nobu would not succeed…because their value can not be found in a low price.

So, let’s assume that you provided your customer with more than just a great price, and that you got them good terms, too. In business-to-business services, like corporate real estate, we hear brokers exclaim all the time “I got them such a good deal on that property…I cut their price by 20%, and secured huge landlord concessions, too. And, they hired my competitor for their next project!” In the service business, results are important. After all, results are what drive decisions, how people are paid, how executive bonuses are calculated, how purchases are made…right? While that may be true, people make decisions based on many factors, including but, not only based on, results.

Here are a few questions:

- Remember the last time you got a new car? You may still be driving that same car. If you’re lucky, you drive a great car. You may enjoy getting into it, driving it, maybe even being seen in it. Perhaps your great car takes you and your loved ones safely and in style to places where you have loads of fun. You might enjoy its handling, its speed, its interiors, or something else. Or, maybe you enjoy the looks you get when cruising down main street. The results you get from that car are great.

- But, do you remember the experience of buying or leasing that car? Was it fun? Did you trust the salesperson? Was he truly interested in you, your needs, your challenges, and creating an optimal solution for you, or was he more interested in selling you a car and moving onto the next customer? Would you like to do it again? Would you go back to that same salesperson again based on your first experience?

If you answered “yes” to the last few questions, consider yourself lucky, and don’t let that salesperson go. Unfortunately, if you’re like most Americans, you will not have answered “yes”. Why? Because in many cases, sales and service people, especially those in consumer oriented businesses, focus on the end-game, the final transaction, the results. To often they don’t focus enough on the process of achieving those results from the perspective of the customer. In fact, too few companies compensate their sales and service personnel based on the customer experience. They typically compensate them based on results. So, if you were a salesperson, where would you put your efforts? You'd likely put them in achieving results!

It’s a fact that people buy based, at least in part, on emotional factors. Thta's most often true whether people are making personal purchases or acquiring somehting for their company. Trust is not a results driven basis for buying a product or engaging a service provider. Feeling that the person on the other side of the conference table is truly looking out for your company and your personal success is not results focused.

Sure, results are extremely important when it comes time to demonstrate to a customer that their objectives were accomplished. But, results are not the only factor that will ensure your customer will engage you again. It’s the experience, silly!

That’s right, it’s the experience that counts, and that keeps customers coming back. People aren’t robots. They don’t remember sales or service people who got them great deals. They remember people who looked out for them, who they could trust, who did more for them, as people, then they promised, who’s company they enjoyed. Sure, great results look good on your resume. But, a long list of repeat customers, who are so comfortable with you that they’ll engage you again and again, and will tell your prospective customers about what great experiences they had with you, is what success is really about. It’s about the experience you provide for your customers, not just the results.

Business, like life itself, is not about results. It's about the experiences you enjoy and those you create for others that define success.