Think about this question. What’s your answer?

I recently spent quite a bit of time thinking about this, and after going back and forth as to what the answer is, I came to this conclusion.  It’s neither!

I think they’re both attracted to each other and, more importantly, because they’re attracted to each other, they wind up taking each other to a higher level.

Here’s my rationale as to my answer.

First, I believe bad customers and bad salespeople just simply connect — so let’s take that idea off the table.

Good customers are naturally going to find minimally average salespeople or better.  Conversely, good salespeople are naturally going to gravitate toward customers who would be considered average or better.

Reason I believe this is people tend to be attracted to people who are similar to themselves.  People like to work with people who have similar values and standards as they have.

The beauty of people being attracted to people who are similar to them is in so doing, they wind up lifting each other to a higher level.  This is why a group of talented people who come together for a common project will many times wind up achieving results far greater than they initially thought possible.

You might be reading this and wondering what difference does it make?

Again, I’ll argue it makes a huge difference, because good customers are more open with salespeople about sharing with them the real needs they have.  At the same time, great salespeople are better listeners and ask better questions.

The result is the customer will pay more because they’re getting more, and because the customer is paying more, the salesperson will give more.

There are always going to be people who will challenge me on this, but here again I have an interesting observation.

Top-performing salespeople never argue with me on this point.  This has me believing top-performing salespeople know it to be true. They do wind up dealing more frequently with great customers than a below average salesperson would.

Who do you find yourself working with?

I’m not looking to put anybody down, but I’ll challenge you to be thinking about the customers you have and then ask yourself if they your customers because of who you are.

Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.