Customer service isn't just a post-sale function; it shapes the pre-sale environment. A prospect's perception of your company's service, formed by word-of-mouth and online presence, directly impacts a salesperson's ability to succeed before they even make contact.
Customers are guarded with salespeople for fear of being sold. However, they are candid with customer service, freely sharing complaints and unmet needs. This makes the CS department an invaluable, and often untapped, source of sales intelligence and expansion opportunities.
When sales teams hit quotas but customer churn rises, the root cause is a disconnect between sales promises and operational reality. The fix requires aligning sales, marketing, and customer service around a single, unified strategy for the entire customer journey.
Brainstorming cannot reveal the true friction in your customer experience. Following JetBlue's example, leaders must regularly become their own customers. This practice uncovers how high-level decisions inadvertently create flaws in the customer journey that are invisible from the boardroom.
In a marketplace with endless options, product features are table stakes. The deciding factor for buyers is now the total experience. Salespeople have lost control of the buying cycle and must now influence it by delivering exceptional service and building trust from the first interaction.
The moment a customer buys, they signal maximum trust. This is the optimal time for a salesperson to be assertive with upsells, cross-sells, or referral requests. Many reps mistakenly push too hard at the beginning of the sale when trust has not yet been established.