The Chimichanga Sales Moment

I was having dinner with my friend from Amazon (think books, not rivers) solving most of the world’s problems from Presidential elections to the most vexing of issues, which is better on a chimichanga, guacamole or sour cream. The waitress came by and as I was prone to do, I teased her a bit.

Now here is the litmus test of good service. Does the waitress choose to get upset, or does she find a nice way of playing along reasonably and finding an appropriate way of having fun, but clearly setting her boundaries. (When I was younger, thinner and had more hair, the boundaries were considerably different than they are today…) The quandary here of course is that while fun is fun, she has a job to do and part of that is earning tips while not allowing customers to go beyond where you are comfortable. On one hand, if you push back too hard as a service professional, your income goes down. If you don’t set any boundaries, you run the risk of losing control of your agenda altogether.

How so like a sales call this is. So what do you suppose is the best way to handle this situation?

In my mind the first most important way is to recognize it isn’t the first time it has happened, nor will it be the last. If the service professional knows it is coming, how much more prepared can they be? Forewarned is forearmed says the old adage and it seems to me that we as sales professionals will face the same kinds of crises and issues day in and day out as we do battle in the war on commerce.

Here then is rule one of ANY service professionals life. Be prepared. (With apologies to the Boy Scouts who, you know, really coined the phrase…) If we know it is coming, doesn’t it make sense to prepare language and memorize it for the moment we need to trot it out and use it?

What does the language look like? Well ok, it will change for every situation though many of the situations will be similar.

Here though are a few clues what to build into your language:

Respect - It may be hard to do when someone really ticks you off in an interaction but it is important to remember that they are responding from their issues which you really have no way of knowing. Keep in mind that they have no control over how much you respect yourself, they are hurting, and your respect for them will go a long ways to solving the real underlying issue for them which at the very root, is a question of worthwhileness. A respect statement can be very simple but lets your buyer or customer know that while the context may be one of near strangers, you respect their value and expect them to respect your value as a human being.

Value - The value statement continues the effort with a proactive statement that they are valuable to you, in whatever way is true and real, and help them believe it with some indication they can see from their current situation.

Boundaries - Boundaries set up the limits of interaction and behavior that you are willing to accept. The sub text message of this simply says, no, while the overt message takes the edge off of a direct conflict with what someone may want that you don’t want to give.

Offer - The offer is a way to provide a solution within your boundaries to solve what the person is looking for. Maybe it isn’t what they wanted but by offering it, presents a subtle message that you care about what they wanted while not crossing your own boundaries for them to have it. It adds to the thanks but no thanks model with some horsepower that adds your heart in the mix as appropriate.

How would that look then for a waitress getting hit on by an older guy?

Maybe something like, “I always like it when you come in, (Respect) you make me laugh (value). If I were prone to dating older men or customers, it might be interesting (Boundaries). Would you like me to introduce you to my mom (offer)?

Please don’t ask me if I have ever heard that line before, nor how long I may have been speechless afterwards. I can only tell you that it took all of ten seconds to say and was both powerful and effective in shifting the moment.

So, just for fun, what kinds of power-lines can you write for situations you face?