‘’We Lost the Customer!”

This declaration was made by a sales person in a meeting. Everybody was worried. The loss of a customer is a big deal. You have to account for the effort that goes into building a customer, the revenue stream from the customer and also you are worried about the loss of reputation.

Digging deeper though I asked the sales person who the customer was. The name he mentioned was one which did not ring a bell. I asked when the ‘customer’ had last made a purchase from us and the answer was never. Did they ever place an order which we were not able to deliver? No, they had not placed an order replied the sales person. Had the ‘customer’ made a commitment to purchase? No, said the sales person, he had approached the ‘customer’ with our terms of business and they were not acceptable to them, therefore he had termed them as a lost customer.

Here we now need to understand that not everyone out there is a customer. In this case the ‘customer’ was not even a viable prospect. As a sales person you need to understand that there will be potential customers, there will be prospects and there will be customers. A customer only becomes a customer once they have actually made a purchase from you.

Prioritize your time and efforts. Creating a false image in your mind of a ‘customer’ will only steal your time away from more fruitful efforts.