Stop Treating Clients as a Number

I may ruffle a few feathers with this one, but it’s something that has been on my mind for awhile now. And I was just reminded again today of how disconnected some businesses are from the people they claim to serve.

So, here we are.

Obviously, I’m speaking in generalities, and I know that not every business operates by ignoring their audience. However, there have been enough instances where I just want to slap the people in charge for treating their customers/clients/audiences like a number instead of a person.

But with that being said, let me set this up for you…

Today, I was on a sales call, where I was the one being sold to. Now, I knew this was going to be a sales call because it was for a company that provides sales training. As a new business owner, I’m always looking for opportunities to improve myself - because improving myself means I can help more people with what it is that I do.

It’s a one-on-one presentation; and while I am on video, the person selling is not. Okay, fine.

The salesman starts off by talking about how he’s filling in for one of his 53 other coaches and I learn very quickly that this individual is the CEO of the entire company. I actually recognized his voice from yesterday, when I accidentally joined my scheduled call a day early. (It happens.)

Now, the conversation starts off fine. There’s a little bit of banter, some newly-vested interest in what it is that I do, and then it dives into the presentation.?

This is where it starts to go off the rails a bit.

You know those kinds of questions that are given to you where the person asking KNOWS that you aren’t going to give the exact answer they are looking for - no matter what your background is??

Yeah…those kinds of questions which, by the way, don’t work very well in one-on-one conversations.

But that’s how this guy presents a couple of his initial questions. For me, I’ve had some sales training before (nothing formal), so I did have answers … but I was immediately made to feel “dumb” because they were not the exact answer on the next slide.

So it’s going well.

The salesman then proceeds to ask me what I ‘should’ do if I were given an objection.

Feeling it was a setup, I responded with something like, “Well, it would depend on the previous conversation what exactly I say, but I would repeat the objection back to show I was listening and understood.”

“Let me show you what you should do.” (There’s that word again.)

The salesman pulls up a slide which shows an objection handling method - which, if you Google “overcoming objections” and go to images, you’ll see very similar versions of what I saw. But it started with asking the person giving the objection, “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

He then asks me if it made sense.?

“Yeah,” I said. “It kinda reminds me of an AI sales video which went viral.” (Referring to the Air AI video where AI books a Tesla sales meeting.)

He seemed a little offended and said that AI wasn’t taking his job anytime soon, to which I apologized as that was not the implication I was meaning to make. I was simply saying that I had seen a similar response demonstrated before.

He gives a polite humph and moves onto a “hypothetical scenario.”

For a visual, I’m sitting with my arms crossed. I’m at my desk, in my office, listening to this presentation. There was no option to cancel. No option to reschedule. But I’m still here. Hoping for that great information that’s going to make me a better salesperson and lead me to wanting more training.

The salesman begins talking about body language and asks if I know how to get someone to uncross their arms in 30 seconds or less.

Ugh, with the setups.

“No,” I said.

He then “demonstrates” what one should do in this scenario by saying something like, “This is what you do. You add in some ‘ums’ and ‘yeahs,’ and slight stuttering. Then you say something like, you know, it looks like you’ve got something on your mind holding you back.”

Silence. Nothing happens. He gets quiet. I’m still sitting in my chair with my arms crossed waiting to hear what’s next.

AND THEN, THIS HAPPENS…

He calls me out for not being “into this” and says that if I’m not interested then he’d rather get off the call so that he can go back to making money.

(Hey, buddy…you might wanna pull your pants up. Your greed is showing.)

Are you kidding me?

I started to say that I was simply sitting and listening to the presentation, but he cut me off and said we can end it now and he’ll still send the free video (I didn’t even know there was a free video). But he wants to know if I’m “into it” or not.

My response? “No, honestly, I’m pretty checked out right now.”

And the sales call, with the CEO of the “world-class” sales company, ended right then and there.

Here’s the thing…

I don’t care what this company offers, sells, or even gives away in the future. I’m no longer interested.?

But I BET that this salesman doesn’t care. I mean, why should they?

Look, I’m a big fan of “give me the ‘no’ so I can go.” But I’m sitting and watching a live presentation about sales training and the salesman selling it to me decides I’m not worth the time to even finish the presentation.

Wanna know the best part?

This was an hour-long presentation and we were done within 10 minutes. I have no idea what kind of assistance this company provides, what the cost is, how the training is laid out … nothing. I don’t know enough to even know if I was interested in the training.

For 10 minutes, I was made to feel a bit dumb and then told I’m not worth the time because this individual would rather be working and making money.

I’m not going to apologize: This is not how you sell with integrity.

The exact same thing happened when my wife and I went to speak with a financial advisor for the first time. We were made to feel stupid for choices we had made in the past with money, told we would never be able to provide for a child, given a big ol' ‘good luck’ on the idea of buying a house, but then were told that if we ever wanted to invest that we should come back and give the guy a shot.

No. You will never see us again.

And this is why the whole story is so important…

People need help. They decide to get really vulnerable and place some trust in a business, or coach, or even a person. And then, they get this kind of ‘you’re only worth something if you make me money.’

And you don’t think that their walls go through the roof after that?

Of course they do!

And the shittiest part is that the individual STILL NEEDS HELP. But now, they are so beat down, embarrassed, ashamed, etc. that they don’t open up the conversation again.

It hurts too much.

And yes, I’m talking about emotions in the workplace.?

I’m talking about emotions when you’re selling.

Because you’re “selling” to a person.

Of course, we all need to make money. That’s completely understandable. But when you treat people as numbers, you show that person what truly matters to you and what doesn’t.

And for a person like me, who got vulnerable by reaching out for help and is willing to spend the money if the value is there, you've lost the sale completely. I am no longer a prospect, and never will be.

It makes me want to ask the salesman, or the financial advisor, in this example why they got into their field in the first place (after I slap them, of course). Because it feels like it was only ever about money.

I could keep going … but I think you get where I'm headed. I've already had to turn this into an article because it was so long. So thanks for sticking with me.

Just remember that the way you do business is being watched, and listened to. And if you're not actually in the business of helping people, and would rather just make money, then just go ahead and tell your prospect that up front.

Oh, wait ... you don't want to do that?

Exactly.