I recently had a restaurant experience that reminded me of the importance of good communication in a sales process. Far too often sales professionals get focused on their own process and forget about the customer experience. This dinner reminded me that in sales good, honest, open communication is essential.
The restaurant was a new place in downtown Los Angeles (downtown LA is seeing a brilliant revitalization and has a burgeoning restaurant scene). When our party of six arrived, we we’re greeted by the host who checked our reservation and quickly said “I’ll go setup your table.” As we waited by the front door, I noticed two other parties also waiting; one of two people and one of four. The host returned after a few minutes and took the party of two to their table. Then he returned to the front of the restaurant and started to talk with a party of three that had just arrived. After a few more trips into the backroom, the host returned once again and took the party of four to an open table that we could see from the front of the restaurant. By this time we had been standing at the front waiting for approximately 15 minutes. “It must be taking awhile to set up our table” I thought. As we continued to wait patiently by the front door, I entertained myself by watching the cooks prepare the food and observing the human interaction of the patrons. Again, the host walked into the back-room and came back to the front of the restaurant a couple more times. Never once did he explain what was going on, or the situation with “setting up our table.”
Finally, 26 minutes after we walked in, the host, on what was his seventh trip around the restaurant came to the front and said: “your table is ready now.” It was an astonishing relief to know that the host’s lips were still working, as he had failed to provide any communication since we walked in. When we reached our table, we sat down quickly, reviewed the menu, and ordered food and drinks all at once.
Once the order was in, we waited for 10 minutes and then received water glasses---but no water. Then we got one order of appetizers. After quickly tossing the hors d’oevres down the hatch, the second and third appetizers arrived---but still no water. So when the fourth dish arrived, I asked for some water. The H20 arrived about five minutes later. Never at any point did any of the staff explain the tardiness of the food or beverages. Eventually, after 50 minutes we received our whole order and clearly understood that the service at this establishment left something to be desired.
We then asked for the check. In an unusual fashion, the waiter presented the check within two minutes. What happened next changed the entire dining experience. After the credit card was put into the leather check-holder, the waitress quickly returned. She then turned around and walked back 10 paces until she was behind a corner. Within 15 seconds she whipped back around the corner like a horse heading down the home stretch and presented the receipt to be signed. Holy cow! Everyone at our table was shocked. How did they do that so fast? Where was the credit card machine? Most importantly, how come taking out money was the fastest part of this dining experience?
Sales is always about the customer. The way we communicate and the speed at which we communicate are key ingredients to providing a delightful buying experience. In B2B sales, just like in my restaurant experience, it’s important to be clear in your communication and respond in the manner that the customer desires. If they’d like to move quickly, you need to move quickly. If they want to slow things down, then you must respect that and slow your pace down. Matching their needs from a buying process is every bit as important as discussing your features and functions.
Where this new restaurant went wrong, was having poor initial communication with our party and then being very slow with follow-up actions without any explanation. However, what left the sour taste in our mouth was how speedy the dotted line was returned for signature. The totality was a terrible buying experience. The irony here is, if they had taken longer to return the check, the entire dining experience would have been chalked up to overworked staff that was slow. Instead, we got the feeling that they “just want our money.”