DEAR MARKETERS...

SALES AND MARKETING PERSONNEL... THE RISE AND FALL OF A COMPANY IS IN YOUR TONGUES!

Any time I'm called on to train sales and marketing people, I always warn them about deceptive marketing which has a long term adverse effects on the business.

I cut in during a briefing of young sales people by their team head who was telling the sales team to tell customers that they could be quickly REFUNDED by the company after buying the product while the company's policy said otherwise and gave condition for a refund in a very rare case after charging an Administrative fee. Their Team head was telling them to GO INTO THE MARKET AND GRAB IT! That's an attitude of CRUDE SELLERS who don't care about customer SATISFACTION. MARKETING focuses of Customer Satisfaction that leads to profitability.

In as much as Marketing and sales department is the engine room and hub of any organisation to keep it liquid with regular cash flows , majority of companies' woes came as a result of the misrepresentations (fake promises) made to customers by the non-professional and greedy ones just to make sales. They twist companies' offers and promise what is not in existence or in official Communications materials in a desperation to sell and get their commission then disappear leaving the innocent businesses and their owners in pressure when the time comes!

Stop putting innocent businesses and their owners into future pressures and problems when the customers could not get what was promised at entry point of sales. You can succeed to sell with deceit if the product or service involved is a one-off item but not a case of Real Estates products or Insurance products that have Maturity or development periods! However, remember that the major sustainable profitability lies on customer satisfaction which leads to referrals and repeated purchases

What happens to empathy and first understanding customers' needs before recommending a product or service to them? Be a problem solving consultant to them!

Most insurance and Real Estate companies face the negative outcome of this misrepresentational misbehaviour. Some greedy non-professional Realtors in Real Estates can lie to prospects on titles of Lands. Most would go as far as telling their prospects that the Land has a C of O or that they can get it within a year while the land is yet to have even a Deed! Some particular set of Insurance marketers would lie about interest payable on savings plans and not ask basic questions and get required documents to ascertain the level of their client's risk to be insured which determines yearly premium. If the loss occurs and the loopholes are discovered leading to denial of claims payments, customers would cry that Insurance is scaaam.

It takes nothing to build trust and sell trust. Let prospects see value and benefits to be enjoyed in the product not utopian benefits. SELL WHAT YOU HAVE AND THE BENEFITS ! AVOID BOGUS AND FAKE PROMISES! Don't be too desperate to sell or else you lose it! Maintain professionalism and comply with ethics.

Moran Cee Onyemaechi

Moran is a Media/Brand Communications Professional with years of experience and awards who has brought brands within and outside Nigeria to limelights from obscurity.

You can reach him on: moranzedu@gmail.com
08038395522 and 09093839041