Admit that you just don't KNOW

Our perception of our customers thinking that we need to be absolute experts at everything pertaining to our product and business and have all answers right at the moment could not be farther from the truth.  I know I think this way from time to time and it is just not REALITY.  Now I am NOT saying that you should not be educated on your product to answer most questions when they come up.  What I am saying is when questions or situations arise that you truly do not know the answer to do not make up answers and dance around questions.  Think about this in terms of the weather-men.  There are many times when predicting the weather that they admit when asked How strong will the winds be in Hurricane Sandy that they answer well it is hard to tell at the moment and we will be able to predict this soon and report back to you.  When you are presenting solutions to your customers and they ask questions that are either too technical for you to answer or are just questions you truly do not know the answer to say something like this.  That is a great question Mr Customer and I am the first to admit when I do not know the answer to a question.  I am writing this down and will make a commitment to get back to you by (give them a specific date and time) 2pm tomorrow the 14th with an answer.  Is that acceptable?  Or I have not been asked a question like this before, great question, I will have to research this and get back to you.  Fair enough?  Admitting that you do not know builds a report with the customer ONLY if you get back to them in the time frame you depicted.  It also shows that you are HUMAN and HUMBLE and not a robot which will also brings some guards down.  Now one small caveat with this is IF the customer is extremely technical and you know that the meeting is going to be one of "those" meetings you better have the knowledge or have your expert with you to answer the questions.  This can be predicted only if you are doing research correctly and understanding your prospects and customers.  So, the moral here is admit when you do not know but be smart about what customers you say this to.

Be safe today with Hurricane Sandy!  This is a big one.  God bless.

Shawn