{"id":519,"date":"2013-03-07T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/?p=519"},"modified":"2019-04-03T08:17:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T12:17:19","slug":"thoughtful-thursdays-are-you-bullied-by-your-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/07\/thoughtful-thursdays-are-you-bullied-by-your-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughtful Thursdays &#8211; Are you bullied by your customers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It can sneak up very quietly, perhaps over a period of time. The signs are there, but often so subtle they go unnoticed until it is too late.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s thought is about customers who bully and take advantage of their suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>I suspect it occurs more often than one might think. I believe it happens because the supplier allows it&nbsp;in the name of serving the customer better. The truth of the matter may really&nbsp;be the&nbsp;fear of <a title=\"Thoughtful Thursdays - Losing a customer\" href=\"http:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/28\/thoughtful-thursdays-loosing-a-customer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">losing&nbsp;a customer<\/a>. A fear that can be so strong that the sales person will do almost anything to&nbsp;keep it from happening.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of bully behaviour<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increasing disregard for&nbsp;terms of payment<\/li>\n<li>Every project suffers from scope creep<\/li>\n<li>Consistently overestimates requirements with promises of more business<\/li>\n<li>They continue to do business with you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What might this behaviour indicate at the customer<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They sense a&nbsp;&nbsp;degree of desperation for their business<\/li>\n<li>A&nbsp; difference in&nbsp;perceived and real value of the product\/service<\/li>\n<li>Financial issues<\/li>\n<li>They are not aware of how your company does business<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What can be done?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t panic, analyze the situation with the information you have and determine what additional information is required<\/li>\n<li>Design the format and approach for the conversation you will have with the customer to obtain that information<\/li>\n<li>Do your homework and prepare for the meeting<\/li>\n<li>Schedule a meeting with the stakeholders, do not go over anyone&#8217;s head<\/li>\n<li>Be sensitive to different personalities you are working with<\/li>\n<li>Keep an open mind and stick to the plan<\/li>\n<li>Keep detailed notes during the meeting and be sure everyone in the meeting receives a copy<\/li>\n<li>Agree on action items and timing for the next meeting and confirm in writing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You&nbsp;must&nbsp;establish the line you will not cross and be prepared to walk away if need be. Sometimes it just doesn&#8217;t work out.<\/p>\n<p>They&nbsp;fact that they continue to&nbsp;buy from you&nbsp;is positive. Remember that there is a cost associated with changing suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>In my experience, these situations are for the most part preventable. Don&#8217;t stop building the relationships at all levels once you have the business. Nurturing the relationship is equally as important as delivering the product or service.<\/p>\n<p>Good selling,<br \/>\nRichard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It can sneak up very quietly, perhaps over a period of time. The signs are there, but often so subtle they go unnoticed until it is too late. Today&#8217;s thought is about customers who bully&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/07\/thoughtful-thursdays-are-you-bullied-by-your-customers\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,28,27,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-management","category-business-skills","category-customer-service","category-relationships","category-thoughtful-thursdays"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3503,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/3503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sakanashiandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}