How Disturbing are You?

One of the most renowned insurance salesmen to have ever lived was Ben Feldman from East Liverpool, Ohio, a small, low-income community situated in the northeast part of the state. East Liverpool and the surrounding communities are populated, by the most part, with blue collar residents.

In his day, Feldman wrote more life insurance in one year than some insurance companies did. During his lifetime, he wrote over $1 billion in life insurance and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most outstanding salesman in history." When someone of Feldman’s caliber speaks, people should listen. According to Feldman, a key to his success was his courage to ask his prospects what he called “the disturbing questions.” That is, he asked his prospects well-thought-out, planned questions that were purposefully designed to reveal their underlying need or desire for protection. Although his expertise was in the life insurance realm, his methods and salesmanship techniques apply to our efforts as multiline agents.

Feldman’s “disturbing questions” are the kind of questions that trigger the emotions and disturb a person into thinking about circumstances they would normally not consider on their own. It’s a means of provoking thought and bringing about clarity on those issues of life that can easily and suddenly turn someone’s world upside down. That’s your challenge. That's your job... and I might add, it’s also your responsibility and obligation as a professional.

Feldman understood how people think. He knew people don’t move in their minds from "I have a problem" to "I have a need for your product and service" until they are first made to consider the consequences of the problem and personalize them, relating them to their own lives.

Until a Thing Becomes Relevant, It Has No Importance

Consider the following disturbing questions and build on these when formulating your own disturbing questions game plan!

Disturbing Questions about Long-Term Hospitalization & Inability to Work:

“Who do you know who has ever suffered from a serious medical problem or has been injured, requiring a significant amount of medical care? When was the last time someone in your family was medically confined due to illness or an accident? What happened? Were you left with bills that were not covered by your medical coverage? What kind of expenses were you left to pay out of your own pocket, medical and otherwise? What did you do? Where did the money come from? How did that make you feel? How helpful would it have been to have had a way to pay those bills without having to pay for them out of pocket? What kind of red tape did you have to deal with when it came to your medical bills? How much wasn’t covered? How would you pay for deductibles and co-pays?”

 OR

“Imagine you have been struck ill—a stroke or injury to your back while lifting a supply box onto the conveyor belt where you work at XYZ Company. Consider all the expenses not covered by your major medical plan, like deductibles, travel expenses, lodging and rent, meals, prescriptions, and co-pays. How will you pay for these things when that happens? Who is going to help you with paying the bills? How will you be able to meet your mortgage and utilities and still pay for gas in the car or put food on the table? When I don’t work, I don’t get paid. What happens when you can’t work due to illness or accident? How will it affect your family? What will they do? What considerations should be made in case you become sick or injured and cannot earn a paycheck? What will happen? How will you manage? How will your family feel or react if the bills go unpaid because of the extra expenses incurred as a result of your illness or injury? How will being unable to work due to injury or illness affect your ability to pay for your debts, bills, monthly obligations, deductibles, and co-pays?”

Disturbing Questions about Long-Term Care, Nursing Homes & Medicaid:

“What plans have you made to protect your assets? What plans have you made to make sure your children will inherit your assets? What plans have you made to prevent having to live in a nursing facility when your health declines? Has anyone ever explained to you to your satisfaction what happens when Medicaid is used for long-term care? Who do you want to inherit your home, your savings? How would you feel if your family has to give your home and other assets to the government to pay for your care and your Medicaid benefits? Do you know anyone who has needed long-term care? How familiar are you with what happens when nursing home care is needed and how it is paid for or not paid for? How did it change their lives and affect them? What financial burdens did they experience? When your health fails, would you rather have a plan in place that gives you control over your care, or are you content to be at the mercy of your condition? What are your plans for when your health changes? Do you plan to live with your children when your health changes? How will that work? How do your children feel about it? What kind of burdens would that add to their family situation? How do you feel about the possibilities of having to live with your children if you were to need continuous care? When your health changes, would you like to remain in your home and have in-home care? Why? How will you make sure that happens, that you have that option? Where will the money come from? How will it affect you if you cannot live at home anymore? How important will it be for you to maintain the control and choice over your healthcare in the future? How would you feel if someone else was in control of your medical care and the choices you have for assisted care? When you are no longer able to care for yourself, what is going to happen? Who will take care of you?”

Disturbing Questions About Life Insurance:

“If you were to die today, Mark, how would your wife Melissa and little Mark and little Melissa maintain the standard of living you’ve worked so hard to provide for them? How would the mortgage get paid? How would the utilities and all those other bills like food, clothes, and car upkeep be provided for if you are no longer around to earn a living for them? How tragic would it be for them to live, struggling constantly to make ends meet, and maintain their own self-respect when it comes to being responsible and paying their bills? How would Melissa feel if she had to take just any job to make sure the bills get paid? Where would the money come from for little Mark and little Melissa to go to college as you’ve said you want them to? What would happen to their dreams and hopes if they aren’t able to go to college?”

Disturbing Questions About Auto Insurance:

“Mark, let’s say you are driving down Main Street and accidentally swerve the car—for one reason or another—and go left of center on the roadway, hitting another vehicle head-on. If the other driver was hurt badly and needed hospitalization, they might sue you. What would you do, Mark, if you were sued? How would you pay for it? What would you do if your savings, 401k, and other assets like your inheritance or your children’s college funds were suddenly at risk of being seized by the courts in settlement of the damages claimed against you for hurting and injuring the other driver?”

These are just some simple examples of how a sales conversation might sound. We can debate on the strength of the disturbing questions and scenarios I offer here as examples, but don’t let that distract you from the point being presented. And that point is to be disturbing—to be compelling and courageous in getting customers to face the possibilities and the realities of life when bad things happen to good people. 

It’s important to be nice, but do not be nice to a fault. Failing to get customers thinking about the things that can happen if they aren't properly insured is part of our mission and responsibility as insurance professionals.

Be disturbing! Ask disturbing questions of your customers and your friends who need auto insurance and life insurance. They may squirm in their seats for a moment, but customers will thank and respect you if they ever need your help or the protection they’ve purchased from you.

Not long ago, my good friend passed away of a disease that was gradually debilitating to his body and mind. Watching how the disease progressed and overcame him was heartbreaking to witness. My friend was a wonderful individual, one in a million, and I had great respect for him. Our families were close and we had a lot of fun times together.

As his disease advanced, I saw how he slowly drifted away mentally and physically. Just two years before his diagnosis, our families were enjoying a picnic together, and I mentioned that he might want to consider life insurance for his wife and two beautiful little girls. It was a conversation we had had a dozen times before, but to no avail. I tried to explain to him the importance of making sure his wife and girls were taken care of in case something happened to him, but I wasn’t getting through to him. He often responded lightheartedly, “God will take care of us.”

My response was always, “That’s true, but sometimes we have to give God something to work with,” and that made him laugh. Then I said, “How are your girls going to go to college if you die? What is going to happen to this home when you’re gone? What is your wife going to do for money? Right now, she works at home. Surely, without you, she will have to go out and find a traditional job to earn a consistent paycheck. Doesn’t she want to be able to stay at home with the girls?”

After I asked enough of the disturbing questions, my friend finally bought a policy, albeit a bit reluctantly. It was a start, something he could build upon when he had more money and was more financially secure. I was a bit relieved, and so was his wife.

Just before he died, we had a private conversation at his bedside. My friend never cried; he was a tough guy, and crying just wasn’t his style. In fact, we would kid around about his ‘no crying’ policy all the time, laughing and accusing him of being a softhearted guy at the core and how he was just trying to hide it by acting macho. He was tough on the outside, with a soft, kind hearted center. As I sat at his bedside, he said to me with tears in his eyes, “Thank you. Thank you for shaming me into buying that life insurance. Now the girls and my wife will be able to pay the house off. My wife will have to go to work, but at least she won’t have to worry about the mortgage. That’s a big deal, Tony. Thanks for being my friend.”

He died not long after that conversation. I miss him, and I know his family does as well, but he did the right thing for them. He didn’t leave them empty handed, with sleepless nights filled with worry about how the bills will get paid. He left a legacy to carry on. In this case, I was speaking to a friend, someone I had a good relationship with and who I felt I had the liberty to do some straight talking with, disturbing him as to the possible consequences of what will happen without adequate life insurance to pay for the bills.

Maybe it was easier to have courage talking to a friend, but I have had that same difficult conversation with many people during my career. I have been disturbing people for years! I have other stories chronicling the miracle of life insurance, but his is the most memorable for me, and I’m happy to have disturbed him—or, as he said, "shamed" him—persuading him into buying what he needed for his family.

Hopefully, you would do the same.

"How disturbing are you to people?" I hope the answer is that you are very disturbing, because in the end, it's the one annoyance people can't live without.

Copyright © 2011 - Tony Cefalu

The Real Reason Businesses Exist Pt. III (Final)

The Paradox of Business

One of the great paradoxes of business is this: Focus on People and Not Profit, and the Profits Will Come.

My goal as a business owner is to make a profit. To deny that would be patently absurd. But my overriding desire and formula for business success, and that of profitable business owners around the world, is to serve the needs of people first…helping them…providing them peace of mind as an insurance advisor and agent…understanding what it is that is important to people and not what is important to me.

It is the selfless life; the life that seeks to serve others before serving oneself that will, in turn, be the reason a business owner will make a profit.

"If you build it, he will come." Quote from the 1989 Movie, “Field of Dreams”

The above quote is often misrepresented as, “If you build it, they will come.” I must admit, the error is attractive, particularly as it relates to the topic of business “purpose.”

In the movie, the character, Ray, played by Kevin Costner, hears a voice compelling him to build a baseball field on his property in Iowa. If he does this, “he will come,” is declared by the spirit of baseball legend, Shoeless Joe Jackson. As Hollywood plays it, the comment harkened back to Ray’s father. In other words, his father would be the one that “will come” if Ray were to build a baseball field on his farmland.

It is a great movie; a good family film with a message of hope, imagination and delight which everyone can appreciate. The character, Ray, had a dream of building a baseball field. His dreams came true that day when it was finally built and the spirit of his father came to meet him one last time…on that field of dreams, to play catch with him.

“If you build it…they will come.” If you, the agent, build relationships with people, create for them buying experiences that are memorable and out of the ordinary, and develop processes that make people feel special and valued…then ‘they will come’.

A focus on profits yields only a single sales result that must be sought after time-and-again, over and over, one painstaking sale after the other in order to generate the cash flow necessary for marketplace survival. That type of business philosophy is predatory in nature, always seeking that next sale, that next opportunity.

Whereas, a focus on people yields a steady stream of sales results that often find their way to you instead of you always ‘hunting’ the opportunity down. Such a focus on people rather than profits yields a clientele that will work for you, advocate for you, and will stay with you as a loyal patron even when it is ‘cheaper’ to go to the competition.

So what will it be for you? Will you adopt the business philosophy of immediate gratification with a narrow perspective on ‘why’ business exists at all, foregoing long term viability in the marketplace at the cost of being singular minded toward profit and nothing more as a business owner?

Or, will you adopt the philosophical paradox where automatic results and profit through the power of relationship building (‘creating’ customers) is the basis for business existence and the ultimate trigger to increased profits and growth? Your answer will determine your outcome.

“If you build it…They will come.” Bank on it.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu

The Real Reason Businesses Exist Pt.II

“The sole purpose of business existence is to create a customer.” Peter Drucker

If I focus on profit as an agency-owner, then my behaviors will be in response to price points, expenses, margins, numbers, units produced and the number of sales made to name a few.
But, if I focus my attention as an agency-owner on people instead, in creating customers and converting them into loyal patrons; my behaviors will be in response to their needs and concerns.

If I am dominated by the thought of profit, then my behaviors and subsequent business practices will naturally be in response, first, to “How can I increase my margin,” and not on, “How can I better serve the customer to provide them with greater value than the competition offers?”

As a proponent of “creating customers” rather than making a profit,” I shape my business activities around things that the customer wants and rarely gets from the “other guy.” For me, the buying experience and customer feelings and emotions are inextricably tied to the buying impulse and the value people seek as shoppers.

If I create my marketing & sales processes on the principle that business exists to create a customer and not to make a profit, I inevitably will make a “profit.”

Copyright © 2011 - Tony Cefalu

The Real Reason Businesses Exist

"What is the true purpose of business?" No doubt, the unanimous response to such a question would be, “The purpose of business is to "make a profit."

It’s tough to argue with that answer, especially when making a profit is what businesses focus their energies on. The idea that making a profit is a "good" thing, and a necessary thing at that, is vital to the strength and power of the American economic engine.

But, what is it that makes a profit for a small business owner? What is the key to business profits and growth? The answer: customers; it’s customers that are the source and wellspring of profit for a business. Without first creating a customer...profits are merely a pleasant fiction for the business aspirant.

So again I ask the question, "What is the purpose of business...to make a profit...or is it to create a customer instead?"

The question is one of a significant nature to anyone who owns a small business, or any business for that matter. Why; because perspective determines relevance, direction, methods of operation for a business owner; and ultimately, perspective determines whether or not a business venture is successful or not successful in the end.

“The sole purpose of business existence is to create a customer.” Peter Drucker


Copyright © 2011 - Tony Cefalu

Experience is Not the Best Teacher

The world comes to me as a fact, but I decide what to conclude from here.
Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes

What is an experience but the present moment of a particular circumstance? They are as fleeting as they are arresting; as real as they are imagined; and as useful to us as they are benign. Experiences are like the sounds of the pendulum’s swing rushing through the air one moment, while telling the lessons of time about the dial in the next. They are all around us, but alone, experiences are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong, worthwhile or a waste . . . at least not until they are reflected upon . . . given relevance and meaning as a result.

Thus, experience is not the best teacher; rather, it is reflected experience that is the best instructor of life. Not until something becomes relevant to a person can it ever affect a change in their behavior or thinking. And not until something is reflected upon—a past experience that is pondered, considered, and internalized in search of its meaning and lesson, can it ever become relevant.

Relevance is discerned through reflection. Change is made through relevance.

It is at the point of relevance, or realization, that our experiences become useful to us; they change us and we discover how behaviors affect outcomes, and how behaviors adjusted can modify our outcomes. Therefore, reflected experience is the only effective means to get people to change, grow, and be successful.

What Does All This Mean to the Sales Professional?

Beware of amassing a lifetime of sales experience that yields no value aside from the commission. Beware of a life that says twenty years of sales experience equates to superior sales prowess and success. It’s a virtual proverb that experienced means none other than you have a lot of time accrued in the industry.

Experience counts for nothing in many instances. Why? Because sales professionals often never take the time to reflect upon those experiences so they may learn and grow and become a better person and professional.

Reflection is Evaluation

Evaluate your activities and your sales conversations. Let others do the same. Be honest with yourself when doing so—analyze your marketing efforts and your sales techniques. Formulate a simple means (i.e. checklist) that causes you to reflect from time to time on your daily, weekly, monthly or yearly experiences.

It is not all that important how often you reflect upon your experiences as a sales professional, nor is it that important how you evaluate yourself either. What is important is that you do it. Plain and simple as it sounds, schedule time if you have to to reflect upon your business activities and results. The outcome will be growth for you personally and professionally.

A Final Note on Reflected Experience

Never expect training to change behavior or to provide a pathway to personal and professional growth. Training, particularly classroom sales training, has no real value in many organizations. Why? Because most training is very brief, impractical, and lacks a “reflection” component as well.

No one is going to change as a result of our desires.
Peter Block, The Answer to How is Yes

Many Learning & Development divisions within sales organizations fail at achieving positive change for sales professionals because a follow-up component (reflection – evaluation of sales experience) is missing in their training model. Those units would be more accurately named Learning rather than Learning & Development because little to no development ever actually occurs.

Don’t be like so many other sales professionals or organizations, who never take the time to reflect upon their sales and marketing experiences in order to learn from mistakes and successes.

Experience is Not the Best Teacher. Reflected Experience is the Best Teacher.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu

Sell the Experience Pt IV (Final)

About 15 years ago, I relocated to another area of the state for business reasons. As a result, I had the dubious task of having to find a new family doctor. And as many of you know, doctors and I don't mix well. I figure they tolerate me as a non-compliant patient and I tolerate them as pious know it alls. Terrible attitude, I know. I'm working on it…really!

Anyway, I went to this family doctor after finally getting sick one day. After the appointment, I saw my wife. Fearing the worst had happened, she asked how it went with a subtle wince. I told her, "Great!" "In fact, it went better than great. This doctor is absolutely the best doctor I have ever had. I'm going to recommend her to all my friends. That's how good she is. For once in my life, I think I've found a good doctor I can trust and stay with."

In shocked amazement she smiled and asked, "How do you know she's any good? Did you see where she graduated from? Did she tell you her grades in school? Did you ask her where she did her residency? What was it that made you think she was great and a keeper as a family doctor?" I thought for a second and simply said," Because I liked her."

"She was pleasant. She listened. Her staff was great. They smiled. I waited a long time, but when they called my name, they apologized for the wait and told me that the doctor had an emergency case come in. That's why it took so long. They didn't want me to think that they didn't appreciate my waiting; that I was important to them." Hear what I'm saying…the entire office experience...from the pleasant environment of the office itself, to my contact with the staff and doctor…their genuinely nice manner and concern for me...made me feel good even though I waited an extraordinary amount of time in the waiting room. Do you think we can learn something from this experience? You bet we can! Don't think for one second that my "favorite" new doctor and her staff aren't in sales…They are; and doing a good job of it!

Now, I'm not claiming that the entire experience was fun, problem free, and some life changing experience for me. It wasn't like that. I'm also not claiming that substance doesn't matter, because it does. I am simply pointing out the fact that when coupled with positive emotional experiences in the business environment, sales professionals can take their profession AND results to the next level. It's a nuance of the experts…that extra honing of the business craft and the art of sales that we can begin to take advantage of…it's that little extra which makes the difference between good and great.

Choices are emotional. Buying is a choice. It can generate negative feelings or positive feelings. How is it with you? How do you make your customers feel?

Are you giving them what they want...attention, empathy, consideration, reliability, honesty, helpful and pleasant service, convenience, follow-up, kept promises, genuine appreciation? In order to do that, it starts with a belief in who we are and what we offer. Remember, we're "cool" and people need us…they truly need us. It doesn't get any better than that.

By the way, the rest of my story is that United Healthcare decided to pull out of the area last year. Consequently, my "favorite" new doctor was no longer a subscriber under my health insurance plan. I refused to go to a different doctor. Instead, I paid out of pocket for an entire year before a new contract with United Healthcare was negotiated with the local hospital and subscribing physicians. But then, I was willing to do that because...I liked her…I liked her staff, and the entire office environment. They made me feel special.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu

Sell the Experience Pt III

So, do you want more customers? Do you want to keep the ones you have? Then SMILE…even when you don't want to! Brighten someone's' day and you'll end up brightening up your own. What reward is there anyway in only smiling when you feel like it? Give a good handshake. Make them feel important and special…because they are important. Make them feel at home. Talk about what they like. Be friendly. Give the customer the experience they are looking for and want! I'm not saying you have to be a phony or unprofessionally "giddy" in front of people…but be genuine, friendly, considerate…and interested in them. People will "sniff that out" and will react positively towards you in return.

I know, some of you reading this are are saying , "We do all that stuff already. Besides, doesn't it just come naturally to most of us who are in the people business anyway?". Well, I'm not buying that one. Most people have to work at being friendly and creating positive customer experiences.

So, at every juncture of customer contact (I call those junctures Customer Perception Points, or CPPs) with your office, what are customers feeling? What's your strategy to enhance their buying or transaction experience? What CPPs have you identified as the most important; that have the greatest impact on customer retention and the buying process? What's your business habit…your E-Tactic (Emotion Tactic)?

When customers call in, are they greeted cheerfully? What is said? When they walk in, do you smile at them and tell them how glad you are to see them? Do you make them feel special, valued or important? Do you have a strategy so they don't feel ignored?

How about when a customer complains; do you have an "apology" strategy that makes them feel 'heard' and validated? When you are having a sales conversation, do you get the customer talking about what they are interested in and 'like'.

How do you treat customers when they first walk into your office/agency? Do you offer them a token of our appreciation in the form of a "give-away" item or a cup of coffee or water? Are they complimented on meeting with you? Do you offer them a nice chair to sit in?

Do you make things easy, smooth, and as effortless as possible when transacting business with them? When there's a claim, do you have a strategy to empathize and help them get the process started. Or do you just do what comes naturally…or what you THINK comes naturally to be but really doesn't!

How's the lighting in your office? Is it too dim or worse yet, does it create a depressing mood that puts the customer in a negative mindset? Is the office too noisy or full of distractions? Are there smells that are objectionable? These are questions that can't be ignored if you are to begin to truly differentiate yourself from the 'other guy'.

Think about it. Can you have constructive weekly team meetings with your associates that have on the agenda things such as 'CPPs and how we can enhance the customer experience' when it comes to claim time for auto; for homeowners; for health, or life insurance? That would be a great start to differentiating your agency from the competition. Begin by asking your team members, "What does the customer want come claim time?" Your answers will frame your strategy.

By the way…what's so wrong with giving the customer what they want? We're in business to do that…aren't we?

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu

Sell the Experience Pt.II

Herb Kehlleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines said, "I keep telling them (visitors to Southwest Airlines) that the intangibles are far more important than the tangibles in the competitive world because, obviously, you can replicate the tangibles. You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something that you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways."

Southwest is one of a few profitable airline companies out there today.

What was Kehlleher really saying? Certainly the 'tangibles' matter with any business. For instance, a tangible, quality product is a requirement to be an impact player in any market. That is irrefutable. But what Kelleher was saying is this: "It is the 'little things' that matter most to customers. Business doesn't thrive on what it has or is to a customer, rather it thrives on what it does for its customers and how it makes them 'feel'.

Kelleher was also saying that it is the subtleties of everyday life; the smile, the firm handshake, the attention given and the courtesy shown to a customer that can mean the difference between success and failure in business. The intangibles are those things that the customer experiences and feels and, in the great majority of cases, ultimately relies on when deciding where to buy...and from whom they will buy it from. The intangibles differentiate us from the crowded competitive landscape and get us remembered and referred for future sales.

But instead, businesses all too often focus on the tangible elements of such things as the number of marketing calls made, or the number of sales appointments set and sales made in a given week or month. All these things are important to track and know. But it is the tracking and understanding of what 'really' has the power and allure to get an individual to want to buy that is best to master and know.

Call it the E-Factor for Experience or Emotional Factor. Whatever name you give it, the truth remains the same. How a customer feels, particularly when they buy and make choices, makes the difference between closing a sale and not closing a sale. The E-Factor is the difference!

So, what are your customers experiencing and feeling when they walk into your office? How about when they call in to your office or business? What about at claim time, how do you make them feel; comforted, nervous, uncertain? Is their experience a positive one?

Your answer can be the difference between whether you have a successful business or not.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu

Sell the Customer the Experience Pt.1

Ari Weinzwig, cofounder of Zingerman's delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan ("That Place Up North") which generates $10 million in annual revenues describes to his staff the importance positive emotional experiences have in the day-to-day operation of his business…

"I tell our people that you want the customer to think they're the best thing that has happened to you all day. We're not here to sell a loaf of bread or a sandwich or an apple. We're selling them an experience. It's not enough to sell people a great bottle of olive oil. Who cares? You've got to give them a great experience. People are going to go where they have a great experience, where it's fun, where they are appreciated."

Now, I know we aren't in the delicatessen business. In fact, I'm glad we're not in the delicatessen business! What we do is much "cooler" than that. What we do ought to spark some passion within each of us. That passion translates into a genuine care for what we do…and who we serve.

Think about it for a moment. We help keep hopes and dreams alive in the midst of material loss, or worse yet, the loss of a loved one. We help keep families together that might otherwise succumb to the financial strains that can so often break the human will and spirit when tragedy occurs. We help people keep their self dignity and self respect by providing them with choices through the things that we do, particularly when it comes to our health products. We help people maintain peace of mind by taking the worry from them. We help people with a good conscience through the insurance, investments, and services we provide. We are cool…and what we do matters.

So, if a delicatessen owner understands the "business" importance of a good customer experience and how EMOTIONS factor into the decision to buy and stay with a particular sales professional or place, then why can't we?

Researchers tell us that 60% of the customers who leave a sales professional or place of business is not because of the quality of the product. In fact, only 14% truly leave or switch for that reason. No, the primary reason that the great majority of people "defect' or leave us is because of the way they are treated. Or you might say, they leave because of how we make them feel! Ah oh! You mean I need to evaluate my office systems to include making the customer "feel good"; to have a "positive experience?"

Yep! That would be my advice.

Customers are Always Emotional When Buying or Transacting Business.
Buying is NEVER an Emotionally Neutral Event. Turn it to the Positive Side of Things.

Copyright © 2010 - Tony Cefalu