Why you shouldn’t treat people the way you want to be treated?

Grant Leboff: Tony, one of the things I really liked in the book, because it’s a bit counter-intuitive, is we’re always told people speak in clichés, treat people how you want to be treated. Actually you say you shouldn’t do that in the book. It’s a really interesting take. Perhaps you can expand on that.

Tony Morris: Yeah, I always use the example of my wife and I. I’m very laid back as a customer, I’d probably say I’m an ideal customer. I’m very chilled out and it takes a lot to get me in a bad mood. Whereas my wife, bless her, is probably the opposite. She’s, I wouldn’t say she’s high maintenance, but if she gets bad service at a restaurant she’ll be the first to complain and make a real thing of it. Ultimately, if we were potential customers for somebody, you couldn’t treat us the same because our reaction would be different. My take on it is, it should be treat people how they want to be treated. I’ve got some clients who are a nightmare, they really are. The take up most of my energy, most of my time, but they’re my client. Although they might be quite difficult to manage and handle, that’s the situation if I want them to be a client, I have to adapt to that and treat them the way that they expect or want to be treated.

Grant Leboff: How do you think you get to the bottom of that? Obviously, if someone’s been your client for a while, you start to understand what they like, what they don’t like, what works for them and what doesn’t. Let’s say you just won a new client, how do you identify early on, in that sort of relationship, how you need to treat them?

Tony Morris: That’s a good question actually. I think, there’s a client I won about a month ago and I think I’ve only just got to grips with it. He’s, in terms of a behavior matrix, he’s a very analytical person, so much so that he’d avoid eye contact. He doesn’t like conversing over the phone. All our contact now is via email and I’m not comfortable with that, me as an extrovert, I’d love to have a chat, I’d love to go for a beer. He’s not like that. It’s taken me a month to realize that. I guess, to answer your question, when you take a new customer on I’d probably ask, so and so, what’s the best way that you and I should communicate with each other? What works for you? I think, hopefully, if they don’t understand what you mean, say would you rather speak, would you rather meet or should we do everything via email and see their response.

Grant Leboff: As a salesperson, are there any other signs that you think you can spot when you’re in a sales meeting or you’re having a chat with someone that starts to indicate the kind of person they may be like?

Tony Morris: Very much. The questions they ask are normally an indicator. An analytical person will crave detail. They’ll crave facts and figures. They’ll ask specific questions about maybe conversion rates, KPIs  and things they’re more like to be on the analytical side. Those sort of people don’t like to have lengthy emails. They don’t like fluff. They’ll like concise, accurate information. Also, their office, their environment, is a give-away. Me as an extrovert, you go into my office you’ll see pictures of my wife and my children and I’ll tell you about them within a minute of sitting down with me. Whereas, an analyst who’s opposite of an extrovert won’t be like that. I think it’s the environment, the questions they ask and also what their emails look like are tell tale signs of their behavior.

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