I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of selling and feel that every job has some sales aspect – even if it’s just selling yourself to your boss.  A teacher is selling education, a minister is selling religion, a politician is selling… well, you get my point.

I started out my sales career thinking all it took to be a good salesman was to treat your customer like you would like to be treated – the “Golden Rule” of sales.  Then one day, it dawned on me that Customer Service was a big part of selling. So I started putting more emphasis on Customer Service.

Recently, I talked to a potential new customer about how great Induron’s customer service was. I felt I had made a strong presentation, but it didn’t convince the customer to switch.

Shortly after that I read an article from Alister & Paine entitled, “Do You Need a Customer Service “Spring Cleaning?” It came as a big surprise when I realized that I had at least three of the five bad customer service habits described in the article.  It was a good reminder that even people who have been in this business a long time can always make improvements.

For example, probably my greatest fault during my years in sales has been that I worry too much. I worry about not getting orders shipped on time or my customer blaming our products for a failure that wasn’t our fault.  This article made me realize that spending more time solving a customer’s problems – rather than worrying about things I can’t control – will make me more productive.

And that, of course, makes for happier customers.