There is a basic distinction between the roles of salespeople and customer service representatives.
Salespeople need to move prospects through the sales cycle and create an escalated emotional state within in the mind of the buyer prior to closing. This establishes the value proposition that allows the customer to feel particularly good about their purchase and the strategic relationship is created.
The customer service role, on the other hand, is to maintain and advance the long-term strategic relationship by pulling emotion out of the conversation and diffusing a situation before it results in a breach of the relationship.
Therefore, these two important positions in an organization require two different skill sets as well as two different continuous training protocols. Consequently, organizations that understand this distinction will find it much easier to establish lasting strategic relationships with their customer base.
John Waechter, MBA is a certified Predictive Index Practitioner/Talent Optimizer helping organizations solve strategic and operational problems through workforce analytics and other data-driven and human solutions. Contact him at jwwaechter@comcast.net with questions or comments.