When I first started working in sales, I thought customers wanted answers. More specifically, I thought they wanted the person sitting across from them to know everything about the product, explain every possible option, and present the most impressive solution available.
There is certainly value in knowing what you’re selling. Customers can tell pretty quickly when someone hasn’t done their homework. But after spending more time in sales, and having experience on the operations side of business as well, I started to realize that product knowledge was only part of what customers were looking for.
Most customers weren’t asking me to impress them. They were trying to solve a problem.
That sounds obvious now, but it took me time to fully understand the difference. I became much better at sales when I stopped thinking primarily about what I wanted to sell and started paying closer attention to what the customer was actually trying to accomplish.
The Best Solution Isn’t Always the Most Complicated One
Sales can tempt you to demonstrate value by offering more. More features, more options, more capabilities, or a more sophisticated solution can make a proposal feel impressive. I understand why that happens. Nobody wants to sit across from a customer and appear as though they aren’t bringing enough to the table.
The problem is that more isn’t necessarily better for the customer.
Sometimes the simplest solution genuinely makes the most sense. If it solves the customer’s problem reliably and fits the way their business operates, adding complexity doesn’t automatically create more value.
I’ve had to learn to resist the instinct to solve problems the way I would solve them for myself. What would I choose? What seems like the best option to me? Those aren’t necessarily the right questions because I’m not the one who has to live with the decision.
A better question is whether the solution makes sense for the customer six months after the sale, when nobody is sitting in a conference room discussing how impressive it sounds.
Customers Want to Know That You Understand the Problem
One of the biggest lessons sales taught me was the importance of listening before offering a solution.
Again, that sounds simple. In practice, it can be surprisingly difficult.
When you’ve spent years around a particular industry, you begin recognizing familiar problems. A customer starts explaining something, and halfway through the conversation you already think you know where they’re going. I’ve caught myself doing that.
Sometimes I was right. Sometimes I wasn’t.
The danger is assuming that because you’ve seen a similar situation before, you understand this customer’s situation completely. Two businesses can experience what looks like the same problem for entirely different reasons.
I eventually became more comfortable slowing the conversation down. What is actually creating the problem? What has the customer already tried? Why didn’t it work? What would a successful outcome look like from their perspective?
The answers aren’t always what you expect.
Setting Realistic Expectations Can Be Uncomfortable
Sales naturally creates pressure to say yes.
Can you meet this deadline? Can you provide this capability? Can you make the numbers work?
You want the business, and you certainly don’t want to create objections that weren’t already there. At the same time, my operations experience has made me very aware that someone eventually has to deliver whatever gets promised during the sales process.
That creates a tradeoff I’ve thought about quite a bit.
How do you remain optimistic and solution-oriented without promising something the organization may struggle to deliver?
I’ve come to believe that setting realistic expectations is one of the most valuable things a salesperson can do, even when it makes the initial conversation harder.
A customer may not love hearing that a deadline is unrealistic or that a particular request will create additional cost. However, that conversation is usually much easier than explaining later why something you promised didn’t happen.
I’ve learned that credibility can be more valuable than getting an immediate yes.
Customers Notice Communication More Than You Think
Another thing sales taught me is how much customers value communication when nothing particularly exciting is happening.
People naturally think about communication when there is a problem. A shipment is delayed, something changes, or an unexpected issue appears. Of course, customers want information in those situations.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that consistent communication matters just as much during ordinary business.
Customers don’t want to wonder whether you received their email. They don’t want to chase someone for an update that should have been provided automatically. They don’t want to repeatedly explain the same issue to different people.
Often, a simple update is enough.
There have been situations where I didn’t have the final answer a customer wanted, but I could at least tell them where things stood. Earlier in my career, I sometimes thought it was better to wait until I had something definitive to report. Over time, I’ve realized that silence usually creates more frustration than an incomplete update.
Sometimes saying, “I don’t have the answer yet, but I’m working on it,” is exactly what the customer needs to hear.
The Sale Isn’t the Moment That Matters Most
Working across sales and operations has also changed how I think about when a sale is actually successful.
Signing the agreement feels important. Winning new business feels good. Those moments deserve to be celebrated.
But the customer probably won’t judge the relationship primarily by what happened on the day they said yes.
They’ll judge it by what happens afterward.
Did the company deliver what was promised? Did communication remain strong once the sales process ended? When something went wrong, did someone take responsibility and help fix it? Was working with the company easier or harder than the customer expected?
Those experiences determine whether someone buys again, recommends you to another person, or starts looking for another supplier.
That perspective has made me much more interested in what happens after the handshake.
Follow-Through Is Hard to Replace
I’ve become convinced that customers remember reliability more than almost anything else.
You don’t need the most complicated solution on the market. You don’t need to pretend every request is possible. You certainly don’t need to have an immediate answer to every question.
You do need to do what you said you’d do.
If you promise to call Tuesday, call Tuesday. If something changes, tell the customer before they have to ask. If you make a mistake, acknowledge it and explain what you’re doing about it.
None of this is particularly sophisticated sales advice. In fact, that may be the point.
The longer I’ve worked in sales, the less I believe customers are looking to be sold to in the traditional sense. Most are trying to make a good decision for their business while avoiding unnecessary problems along the way.
They want someone who understands what they’re trying to accomplish. They want clear communication. They want realistic expectations. Most importantly, they want confidence that the person making the promise will still be there when it’s time to deliver on it.
Sales taught me plenty about products, negotiation, and business development. The lesson that has stayed with me the most, however, is much simpler.
Customers want to know they can trust you to do what you said you would do.