By Jill Konrath, Contributing Editor
"I really care about my clients," Terry told me as we were driving to an appointment. "I try to do the very best I can for them and make sure that their needs are met."
"Sounds good," I thought to myself. "But I wonder if it's true."
Most service providers I know go to great pains to point out to me just how client-focused they are. They want to make sure I know that they're not pushy or manipulative or sleazy in any way when they're selling their services. Yet, when they get into meetings with prospective clients, they quickly switch into a seller-centric mode of operation before they even know what's happening.
That's exactly what occurred in my sales call with Terry. Before we went in, I asked her to tell me what she'd said to get the appointment.
"I told him that we'd introduced some exciting new services that I thought could help reduce turnaround time in their production area," Terry told me.
While the meeting appeared to have a client-centric agenda, what actually played out during our time with the prospect was an entirely different matter.
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