How Many Sugars?

We recently had some workmen repairing our roof.

Whenever we have people working for us, we aim to ensure they are kept refreshed and cared for at all times.

When asking them how they wanted their coffee, I asked the question:

‘How many sugars?’

This common and simple question struck me as illustrating a hugely important point, which is as follows:

A customer knows how they want their service (a cup of tea reasonably sweet).

We need to know what to ask them in order to ensure we can give them exactly what they want (a reasonably sweet cup of tea).

Instead of asking for what they really want (reasonably sweet refreshment), they and we have settled on a simple unit of measurement.

So, in this case, it’s easy to give the customer nearly exactly what they want.

But the real question is: in more complicated situations: how do we know what the customer REALLY wants? What questions do we need to know the answers to? What measures and units can we settle on?

And how can we do this in a way that practises total integrity to our values?

These are some of the principles and questions we address in Slow Selling: please click here to join our top tips and updates list.