A difficult customer is often a customer who does not correspond to us, who does not have the same type of behavior as ourselves. There are more specific types than others. There is the one who takes you a lot of time, the one who always complicates things, the one who calls himself an expert so he thinks to know much more than you ... There are plenty typologies of customers who are a little complicated. There is what we call a profile at the scope that allows determining the profile of the person comparing to yours. We generally face four typologies:
- Commanders: people who are very oriented towards their objectives, they are often very authoritative as customers.
- The consensual ones: they are the famous time-waste but who are very in the human relation, they take time but they are very nice to you.
- The processors: the very experts, very picky and want to know everything.
- Competitors: they need innovations, and recognition.
How to answer each of them?
It is essential to recognize the type of the client in order to understand what he wants from you. The commander expects you to meet his objectives, so you have to go straight to the point even if you find him authoritarian. As for the consensus, he is often slow in its decision so it is necessary to lower your rhythm but it will be necessary to accelerate at a given moment to achieve the phase of conclusion. Concerning the processor, he is a person who will play the expert. For this one you must make an effort, go into the details and anticipate his requests by being proactive to go faster. Finally, as far as the competitor is concerned, you have to value him and show him that your offer is extremely innovative. He wants to have the best and wants the offer to be directed to him only. You should just give him what he needs.
