The email from France: how one account manager talked his boss out of pushing

A fan mindset is the shared belief of everyone in a company that a satisfied customer is not enough. It often starts with one person who simply does it well. This is the story of someone like that, and of the email he sent me.

Two phone calls about a screen

A few years ago I was looking for a large digital screen for my office. I run a lot of training online and wanted something I could draw, write and present on. A serious investment. So I rang two suppliers.

The first adviser launched straight in. Specifications. Resolutions. Connections. Five minutes without a single question for me. His knowledge was impressive. I hung up with more questions than answers, and quite irritated.

Then I rang the second one. That was Marcel.

Marcel asked two simple questions. What exactly do you want to do with the screen? And roughly what is your budget?

And then he listened. Properly. After that he explained in plain language which options suited my situation best. He even suggested a screen that was a little more expensive, because he genuinely thought it was a better fit. And he explained exactly why.

I bought the more expensive screen. I still use it every day. And when someone asks me where to buy a screen like that, I know the answer without thinking.

I am a fan.

A thank-you, and an email back

That story became the opening of my first book, Sales, Oprecht & Ontspannen (Sales, Honest & Relaxed). The book became a number 1 bestseller and an English edition followed.

At some point I realised: Marcel has no idea. So I sent him a short message. Thank you, and this is what you set in motion.

On a cold Friday at the end of January his reply arrived. I still keep that email.

Marcel had reread our whole email thread from back then. Everything he did then, he still did now. And then he wrote something that moved me. His boss did not always agree with him. His boss wanted him to push harder.

Marcel felt that something else should count in sales. He described it as an order of things:

1. First the customer's question.
2. Then the product that really fits it, and being honest about what it can and cannot do.
3. Then a correct and honest explanation.
4. And only after that, margin and targets.

Because if you are simply decent, honest and correct, he wrote, you will hit those targets anyway. He ended with a line I have used everywhere since: "Honest is not always the quickest, but it is always the best."

What happened next

It could have ended there. A lovely email and a warm feeling.

But Marcel asked one more thing. Would I tell his boss as well? His boss is French-speaking, and by then the book had come out in English. So he could read it.

And he read it.

A few months later a post appeared on LinkedIn. Not from Marcel, but from the director and co-founder of the company. He wrote how good it feels when a trainer describes, in his latest book, a customer's experience with one of his account managers. "Pas besoin d'en dire plus", he wrote. No need to say more. With a photo of the book, open at the page about the screen, and a bravo for his whole team.

The boss who wanted Marcel to push harder now put him proudly in the spotlight. For everyone to see.

What does this story teach us about customer focus?

I read that post a few times. And each time I thought: this is what it is all about.

Look at the chain. One account manager did his work honestly and in a relaxed way. He turned a customer into a fan. That fan wrote about it. The story reached the director. And the director went from "you need to push harder" to "look at what we do here".

From one customer conversation to a whole organisation.

Marcel really only did two things. He asked what I wanted and listened. That built trust. And he explained what the best choice was and why. That is taking a customer by the hand. In fifteen years of customer research with our agency WUA, exactly those two things kept coming out on top as what weighs most for customers.

There is another lesson here, and it is about leadership. When you push for results, people tense up. Staff start pushing. Customers feel it. And customers who feel it become anything but fans. Marcel did not let himself be pushed. Because of that, his director got to see something pushing would never have given him: a customer talking about his company unprompted.

You make fans together

My new Dutch book Van klant naar fan (From customer to fan), out on 14 November, opens with this story. Because it shows in one go what the book is about.

You do not make fans alone. You make fans together. From the director to the account manager to the colleague who ships the order. If one person does it well and the rest just do their job, it stays one nice story. If everyone sees it and shares it, it becomes a way of working.

Want to know more about selling without pushing? Read done with pushy sales as well.

What can you do tomorrow?

Think of a colleague who did something good for a customer. Someone who listened a little better, gave honest advice or solved something that was not their job.

Say so. Tomorrow, in the team meeting, by name. Or send them a message, as I did with Marcel. And if you have had a Marcel of your own, someone who made you a fan, let them know. You never know how far a message like that will travel.