Bill Gates, in his book Business @ the Speed of Thought, predicted that in the new millennium customer service may become the primary value-added function.11 He recognized that customer service is the primary method of building and extending the partnership. Customer service, in its many forms, nourishes the partnership and keeps it alive.

Salespeople are in a unique position to enhance customer satisfaction and trust, the two major contributors to relationship quality.12 With adequate orientation and training, members of the sales force can build long-term, profitable, customer relationships. Recent research indicates that the building process involves five important service behaviors that are especially important in the context of business-to-business selling.13

• Diligence. Diligence combines two types of service behaviors: responsiveness and reliability. In today’s highly competitive, time-starved business environment, salespeople must provide service in a timely manner. Service behaviors that demonstrate both reliability and responsiveness include following up on commitments, returning phone calls, fulfilling customer requests, and being available when needed. There is a growing trend in which companies rely on their customers’ needs, concerns, and future plans.

• Information communication. This service behavior involves regularly relaying product information to the customer in a clear and concise manner. Communicating information must encompass the entire sales process. Early in the sales process, this may involve drawing objective comparisons between your product and competitive offerings, and continually reiterating a clear case for your product. After the sale is closed, information communication often involves providing updated information on product usage.

• Inducements. This service behavior is aimed at personalizing the relationship with the customer. In Chapter 4, we noted that the manner in which salespeople establish, build, and maintain relationships is not an incidental aspect of personal selling. Some service behaviors provide the customer with an incentive, or an inducement, for maintaining the relationship with the salesperson. Becoming genuinely interested in the customer, talking in terms of the customer’s interests, and doing special favors can strengthen the relationship with the customer.

• Empathy. As the information age unfolded and the global economy heated up, we learned that it takes more than quick and accurate information communicated through advanced technology to retain customers. Empathy is one of those high-touch abilities that mark the fault line between salespeople who are highly productive and those who are average or below average in terms of productivity.14 Salespeople who display a strong willingness to help customers and make an effort to understand them are demonstrating empathetic behavior.

• Sportsmanship. This service behavior can be defined as a salesperson’s willingness to tolerate setbacks and disappointments without displaying negativism. It means demonstrating good social judgment and professionalism during all customer interactions. If you have a 10:00 a.m. appointment with a customer, but you are required to wait until 10:30 a.m. for the meeting to begin, how will you handle this disappointment?