August. It’s our hottest month and if you’re in our industry, it’s the busiest month. The phone will ring from prospects who have reached the end of their patience with their current provider.
“The guy was rude…”, “The guy was late…”, “Our billing is messed up and…”, “We ran out of bottles….again.”, etc. You can hear the rage in their voice and they are DONE. I’ve heard it for the past fourteen Augusts and pretty sure it will happen again this August.
But this one takes the cake. It’s August 2014 and we just installed an ION-902 in their very small office with a breakroom and bathroom in the back. Im ready to review our work, features and benefits with our new Customer and this exchange happens:
- Him: Yea, yea, yea…it’s like this. The guy would drop off the bottles and then do that in there.
- Me: Did what?
- Him: That.
- Me: Where?
- Him: In there.
- Me: Not here?
- Him: IN. THERE. He did THAT in THERE!!!
- Me: Ok. He did that in there.
- Him. Yes. That’s why you’re here.
- Me: Well…how about this? We won’t ever do this, that OR the other in there, here or anywhere. We won’t even go in there.
- Him: Put ‘er there! (big handshake)
All these years later, Im not 100% sure what went on there. But we’d never done this, that or the other in the past or since, so it was an easy promise to keep.
It’s always best to offer the best products and services in the market, but sometimes? You just need to meet people where they are. Make it a great month…out there!