I was working with one of my favorite B2C retail clients over the last two weeks. This is an Irish-owned business that in many respects defies the odds. The business depends indirectly upon the Irish construction sector, which as we know has effectively come to a stop - yet they have continued to succeed in 09. This includes plans to expand the operation later in the year.

When you consider, that their competitors are really struggling at the moment, you begin to understand how well this business is run and how solidly the sales team have performed.

This particular company’s referral business is quite simply amazing. It was clear from my conversations with the sales team, that the significant reason for this - is the quality of their sales/customer service experience they provide.

They all agreed that this is the edge that has allowed them to capture an increased market share. These salespeople have quickly realized that the post Celtic Tiger’s customer expectation has risen considerably. Simply put, the customer knows that his/her business is now more important than ever - and expects one trade-off to be more/better service.

Fortunately for this company and its salespeople, very few of their competitors have copped on to this same conclusion. They know this because many of their customers are telling them so, saying that the competitor’s sales team appear to be “not interested”, “not bothered”, “pretending to be busy” - or are simply choosing “to ignore” potential customers.

This may strike you as crazy behavior, but I ask, Is it in fact that unusual? I can recall many stories that would back this same conclusion. The car industry is going through a very rough time, yet I know someone who was virtually ignored when they went to buy a car.

Has the Celtic Tiger economy acted to condition some salespeople to expect “easy business” - and have these same sales people just continued in lazy mode?

Increased customer service expectation should be welcomed by real salespeople because it creates more opportunities for real salespeople.

I say, long live the recession if it rids our profession of these order takers (salespeople?).

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training