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INERTIA - Can It Boost Your Sales?

James DeSena, MBA, CSP

 

Why is it that people don't switch to another company when they are dissatisfied with their present vendor? The short answer is "inertia." Think of your own experience. People will stay with a vendor because they see it as being too inconvenient, too costly or too time consuming to switch, as long as the problem with the vendor doesn't exceed a certain threshold. That threshold is when the pain of staying with the same vendor is greater than the pain of switching. Inertia means that a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. People will endure minor, even some major problems with a vendor they have been with for some time. The vendor will have built up a reserve of good will and the perception is that when there is a problem, it is an anomaly, something that won't happen again. Of course, if a problem reoccurs, the reserve of good will can quickly evaporate. If the vendor corrects the problem the customer may stay with the current vendor, but there may be at best one more time that there could be a problem that the customer would forgive, but that isn't assured.

Inertia works in favor of the present vendor. If you are the present vendor, you have a chance to correct the problem and keep the customer. If you are a new vendor trying to get an entry to a new customer, inertia works against you. But time may be on your side. If you keep in touch with the prospective customer, you may just get the chance to start providing some products or services as a way of the customer testing your capabilities. If the old vendor really has major problems, you may be asked to take over completely and immediately. In either case, it would have been because you were persistent, present and in front of the customer's mind. Out of sight, out of mind, out of business.

Make inertia work for you. Make sure you don't give your customers a reason to be unhappy. Always be looking for ways to improve their level of satisfaction. Don't settle for the status quo. Be a leader and find ways to breakthrough the limits of service that constrains other companies. If your customers love the service you provide, it would take a major change in personnel to unseat you as a preferred vendor. If you are trying to land a new account, make inertia work for you. Become the outside force. Look for ways that you can do things for the customer that the present vendor can't or won't do. At the very least, speak with the customer to find out about the current situation and how he or she likes it. Let the customer know that you would like an opportunity to be tested so that you could be available in the event they need a second vendor. Be alert to changes in the customer's situation. Stay in touch with the customer, so that one day when you make the call he or she will say, "I'm glad you called."

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