For Paul J. Testa, interviewing customers is just as important as interviewing potential employees.
“It’s hard for people to turn away business, but it could be the best thing you ever did because you have to like each other,” he says. “I tell people all the time that when we’re talking about doing business, it’s like a marriage; we’re courting each other.”
Building solid relationships with customers starts with working with people you respect and who complement your culture and then understanding the customers and their needs.
Testa, founder, president and CEO of Testa Cos., attributes his company’s growth to the way it treats customers. In 2007, the construction and real estate company posted revenue of $38 million, and by 2008, that number had grown to $66 million.
“At the end of the day, my customers are the most important thing,” Testa says. “I want to say more [so] than my employees because the customers are the bosses.”
Smart Business spoke with Testa about how to evaluate customers and understand their needs.
Start with an interview. We were meeting with a church group about doing something with them, and we had to meet with the whole congregation and do a presentation. I said, ‘I recognize that while I’m standing up here, you’re all analyzing what I’m saying to you and what I intend to do for you and whether you want me as a contractor or developer. But you need to know that I’m interviewing you at the same time you’re interviewing me and seeing if I want you as a customer, because we turn down more work than we do every year because I’m particular on whom I’m working for.’
I like to find out about, obviously, the financing part of it. Are they capable at the end of the day of paying us? If they’ve had the process before with other builders and developers, and if they have, the first question is, why aren’t they going back to them? What happened to cause you not to go back to that particular builder? I need to understand that because they weren’t being fair with the builder or the builder wasn’t being fair with them.
It does not matter what you are selling or offering as service. The basic question is, why are you not willing to do business with the firm that you were in a relationship with [before]? Did they not give good service? Were prices to high? Were they not willing to admit their company could make mistakes, and then not be willing to fix their problems? Did they not deliver on time? Or the tough question, did the client fulfill their end of the bargain?
It could be a problem customer. It’s hard to let business go out the door, but sometimes the deals you don’t make could be the best (ones).
