What do you do when your customer is making a purchasing decision that clearly is not in their best interests and does not support their business objectives? When they will not meet with you, how do you change their mind? — Peter, Omaha, NE
You can’t and you won’t. Here’s the real problem: your issue is based solely on your perspective and your opinion. You believe that you have the product they need. You are passionate that their decision making process is based on misinformation, possibly ignorance. Unfortunately, this is only your perspective. Do you really believe your customers would willingly make a bad decision?
The challenge associated with your question has more to do with how well you learned and explored their definitions and expectations for the product or service they desire to purchase. You probably heard them tell you what they wanted and your internal filter instantly decided what that definition meant. Your internal filter told you that despite competitive influences to the contrary, your product was the only one that met the definitions you interpreted.
What you needed to do at that very moment while still meeting with the customer was:
- Have them explain to you what they meant by their definitions and vision: what they want, why they want it, how it will help them.
- Armed with that information you then proceed by asking them to help you understand how they will determine their options: who will be involved, how they will evaluate the presentations, what are the most critical decision making factors, etc.
The above process gives you context and reality–their reality. You are currently in a position where you are attempting to interrupt their thinking because your customers have decided that your product is not what they are looking for. You believe you are advocating what you perceive to be the correct solution for them. You may be right. But, based on what they know and what you now know, your customer does not see it that way. Now you are banging on the door screaming “listen to me.” Too late. Next time, listen to them and understand what they really mean when they say “this is what I want.”
The time to provide your customers with what they needed was when you first met with them and engaged them in what they were looking for. Effectively listening and learning at that meeting would have provided you with the opportunity to give them exactly what they were looking for, not what you wanted them to buy.