COS

NEWS

Over the past few days, I’ve been focusing on a number of advertisements that demonstrate the importance attached to customer culture.
Example no. 1: CIC’s campaign for non-commissioned advisors.

It’s a proven fact that when economic indicators take precedence over customer satisfaction, there’s a good chance that employees will focus on fulfilling their (in this case, commercial) objectives rather than customer satisfaction. CIC, like other companies in the world of financial services, has adopted this logic of seeking to strengthen the customer culture of its teams, and it’s all to their credit.

But then…. Does this mean that sales and customer satisfaction are polar opposites?
We’d have customers who don’t want to buy anything? Have no needs? So they’re not customers, are they?
I’m being deliberately provocative because I’m afraid we’re sending out the wrong message by trying to split “sales concerns” and “customer concerns”.

A salesperson will make sales, and a very good salesperson will make sales that correspond to customers’ needs.
So “good” sales (those that correspond to customer needs) are to be valued to the detriment of “bad” sales.
In my view, it would be a mistake to try and decouple sales and customer satisfaction. Ideally, we need to find the KPI that values “good salespeople”.
No, sales isn’t dirty and no, sales isn’t incompatible with customer satisfaction.

Instead, let’s rehabilitate the taste for good sales.