Today we are excited to share with you a guest post from Jason Karaman.
Sales and customer service are often thought of as separate entities and in a certain sense, they are. On the surface, sales personnel have the goal of maximizing the company revenue by selling more and gaining new customers. On the other hand, customer service personnel have the goal of aiding customers with problems and helping maintain a positive customer experience. From the outside, these two departments should work together to give the customer the best overall experience possible.
However, the modern business landscape is rapidly changing. Now, salespeople not only have to be experts at selling, but experts at customer service as well. Here are several reasons why it’s important to have sales associates who are capable of helping customers when necessary.
Customer retention becomes more controllable. Often times, salespeople are the first point of contact with the prospect. If the prospect trusted the salesperson enough to buy from them, they will ideally carry that same trust when the salesperson is trying to convince them to remain a customer. The salesperson has a vested interest in keeping the customer happy so, he/she will work as hard as they can to help service the customer until they are satisfied.
Issues can be addressed quickly. For a lot of customers, their primary point of contact with a company is the salesperson who sold to them in the first place. If the salespeople are trained on handling issues, they can be addressed quickly before they spiral out of control. If issues are left to fester in the mind of a prospect, they can become huge problems that tend to go viral if left unchecked.
Salespeople can enhance the customer experience by recognizing better opportunities for the customer. While salespeople work to fix the customer needs and problems as best as they can, sometimes, those needs or problems evolve and change with time. A salesperson who is trained in customer service is better able to recognize new needs and problems. This opens up the possibility for the salesperson to alter the original arrangement to a more agreeable solution for the customer.
When you have a sales team who is capable of providing excellent customer service, you greatly increase the chance of retaining customers who have issues. After all, the goal of sales and customer service departments may seem different, but they are really the same – to achieve sustained business success. Having a sales team who can help with customer retention is a way that can be achieved.
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Jason Karaman is a sales and customer experience professional and author. He studied Management at Purdue University, graduating in 2013 with an emphasis on Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Philosophy. Jason also earned his MBA from Jacksonville State University in 2015. He now works as an executive at a multinational sales-driven company.
Jason’s passion for teaching and writing about sales & business has earned him the title of “Top Customer Experience Influencer of 2017” by CCW Digital. He has been featured in numerous publications and has held several seminars on the subject of integrating sales with customer service. His first full-length book, which is an introduction to selling based on these principles, will be released in 2017.
Attracted to the easy-going nature of coastal living, Jason currently lives with his wife Ashley in Beaufort, South Carolina with their two pets- their dog Austin and their cat Onyx. He’s a fan of Purdue football and basketball and enjoys reading in his free time.