Chapter 6 - Dismissing the Client's Needs
Most people who work in service industries have a litany of stories about weird situations and the way in which they were compelled to be polite and professional in the face of a customer whose behavior ranges from the gormless to the truly bizarre. The problem is that these stories begin to color our attitudes about clients: we take the attitude that most people are painfully stupid, and set policies and procedures that treat every customer as if they are the worst type of customer.
In a sales situation, this leads to an arrogant and dismissive salesman, who may be motivated by a desire to be helpful, but ends up being arrogant and condescending to clients.
The author creates another fictional dialogue, between an experienced business owner and a salesperson who's attempting to sell them a Web site. The salesman dismisses the business owner's expertise in serving his customers and insists that he do business differently in the online channel. The narrative, like many, is overblown, but not entirely without basis in reality: firms insist that their customers change their business practices to accommodate the product they are trying to sell them.
The author states it's particularly an issue in computer technology, but is often evident in older industries: consider the architect who completely disregards the needs of a client because he feels he is an expert in building homes or the appliance salesman who insists that he knows better than the customer what kind of vacuum cleaner they ought to buy without asking a single question about their needs.
Even when a service provider has more expertise in solving a problem, the client still has a better idea of what the problem is - and even if an expert can help with a better diagnoses, the customer at least understands the problem he thinks he has, and to which he expects a person who wants his business to be attentive.
With this in mind, the author suggests asking a lot of questions at the onset of a relationship. Attempt to understand the prospect's problem before proposing a solution, and being more delicate in suggesting that he might have the wrong idea about what his problem really is.
In typical fashion, the same narrative is rewritten in a way that the salesman does what he advises and the client is comically pleased.