Stubborn customers are a pain in the bass

Some people get nervous talking to prospective customers. Not me.

Earlier in life I worked as a sportswriter and had to interview giant, sweaty athletes who were standing naked by their lockers. So talking to landscapers about their green-goods purchases is no problem.

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But you never know how prospect visits are going to go. Sometimes they’re great and you walk away beaming with delight.

The potential clients see your unique selling positions and what you’re selling is a fit with their businesses. It’s a slam dunk.

Other times you leave beating your head on the steering wheel. How could they be so stubborn? Can’t they see the benefits of buying from me rather than the competition? Where’s a stick, so I can beat some sense into those people?

It happens to everyone

A great example happened just recently. I set up an interview with the general manager of a landscape company.

She hadn’t bought from us before, but regularly asked us to quote her prices on plants. She didn’t buy from us, she said, because we were too expensive.

In her office I told her how we do business at Skinner Nurseries, and that we were all about service. I then asked about her experiences with her current green-goods vendors.

It all came gushing out. She couldn’t stand that she couldn’t trust them to deliver trees sight unseen. She couldn’t depend on them to deliver quality so she’d drive out in advance to personally tag what she wanted.

She hated it when deliveries arrived late or when she had to return shipments when the wrong plants arrived. When she picked up plants, it was a long, drawn-out process that frustrated her to no end.

How much, I asked, was it costing her company every time she had to tag trees? Could I earn her trust that we’d deliver quality every time?

What did it cost when deliveries had to be returned and her crews were left standing around doing nothing? How beneficial would it be if I could cut her pick-up times by two-thirds?

Time is money, and she completely understood my message. She seemed completely on board. But, she said, all the purchases had to be approved by the owner and he was extremely price conscious.

The big guy

As we finished our conversation, the owner pulled up. After five minutes he hadn’t come into the office, so we went to the garage to see him.

He was sitting in his bass boat, Camel between his lips, going through his lures. It was 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and he was heading to the lake.

The manager introduced me and, without looking up, the owner said, “You are too @$*& expensive.”

I tried to give him the same pitch I gave the manager, but he wouldn’t listen. “This is a business. I have to watch the bottom line,” he said.

The problem was that he didn’t see all the problems that poor service caused. The manager did, and she had to fix them. Meanwhile he remained disconnected.

I drove away frustrated, but it wasn’t a complete loss. I got a commitment from them to visit my nursery. I’m convinced this might change things.

Witnessing our service and quality firsthand should blow them away. I also think I have the manager on my side. Maybe she can talk some sense into her hard-headed boss.

So, like I said, it’s not a complete loss. At any rate, I’m not ready to go back to sports writing. I’d rather get snubbed by a hard-headed contractor than an overpaid, egotistical athlete any day.

“The Harvest”

The summer can be a real breeze.

But I prefer after the freeze.

It’s like a parade,

When I grab my spade,

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And go out and dig me some trees.

- Todd Davis