Just Say YES – Guide to Building Customer Relationships

The Rock Band YES!

A favorite customer of mine called last week and asked if we could meet for an hour. It seems that she has a customer who asked her to do something that she isn’t comfortable doing.  But her motto is to “just say yes and figure it out later.”

What a great attitude.

We talk about saying yes to our customers but when faced with a request that we just don’t have the answers for, we fall back on “gosh, I’m sorry, I wish I could help you but I don’t carry that product, don’t offer that service, don’t know how to do that process, don’t want to do something I’m not good at.”

Rather than look for a partner to enrich the customer’s experience and give them what they need – we leave them without a resource.

Think about the last time someone said “no” to you.  How did that make you feel?  The conversation is going along just dandy and then you ask a question – they say nope can’t help you – and you are left with this awkward silence.  How do you pick up the conversation from there? You might ask “well, do you know someone who can say yes?”

Why not be that person?

In Alan Alda’s book “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed….and other things I’ve learned,” he talks about saying yes no matter what just to keep active in your industry. His example is saying yes to keep food on the table. He tells of a time when he said he knew a significant part in a play when in fact he didn’t – he learned quickly – but said yes first and learned how later.

As new business owners/sales professionals – we start by saying yes and taking every job that comes our way. Later we become more discriminating – but even so – we should still say yes.

To the customer we don’t want:  “Yes, I understand exactly when you are looking for and ABC Company is a perfect resource for your needs.”

To our loyal customer: “Yes, I can provide that service.” And then, like my customer – quickly find a vendor partner that you can collaborate with to make it happen.

Yes is a great word.  See how many times you can use it today!