The Perception of a Difference: The Power in Buying, Marketing and Selling Customer Care

In the first five seconds of your first contact with a person or business, a perception forms in your mind: This ‘perception of a difference’ forms without your conscious knowledge or control and affects your relationship with that person or business from that point on. If the perception is positive you may agree to a sales appointment or may walk into the business and perhaps buy something. If the perception is negative, you will avoid further contact and do business with them only if they are the sole source for what you need. This book is the first in a series of three volumes, concerning the power of perceptions in our lives and how they affect our personal and business endeavors. This first volume begins with an illustration of ‘The Business Arch’ showing all the functions that exist in any business operation, as blocks in an arch. Each chapter shows why a weakness in any functional block, weakens, endangers the business as a whole. Trust is the Keystone of the business arch. The book includes true stories written in the first person conversational mode. The result is interesting and easy to read. The book is a powerful learning experience; the learning takes place as you relate to the people and situations in the stories. The stories educate the reader on the practical effect of the perception of a difference on all aspects of business or organizational relationships. You discover the five distinct steps involved in every purchase decision -- invaluable information for sellers of all types of products. The importance of the perception of a difference in marketing is clear as you read the chapters on marketing. Twenty-seven questions that must be answered successfully, to qualify a product or service for success in its planned market, are invaluable to anyone in business or starting a business. The chapters on selling, contrast inside sales, (customer visits the salesperson) versus outside sales (salesperson visits the customer). The stories reveal why successful inside salespeople rarely succeed in outside sales, and why those who do succeed in both are often in real estate or similar industries. Sales techniques are shown when used in a story, but they are not emphasized in this book. Practical tools, like time and territory management are presented in an understandable way. Customer Care, education after the sale, is emphasized in each chapter. The experiences of the many people, in the stories, drive home the fact that the care the customer will receive, after the sale, must be demonstrated during the selling process. It is demonstrated in all the little things the sales team does; that though the sales person may be the one most visible, no one sells alone; others are essential to the sale and to customer care afterwards.