Good morning everyone,
Let me know what you thought about last week’s blog post about the customer being always right. Where do you sit on that topic?
Today I want to dive into an area of opportunity to help serve your customer as well as your organization. In many organizations there are sales people and then there are account managers, or customer service representatives. Two separate people supporting the customer and I bet you can guess where we are going with this. Most of the time there are standard terms and conditions in the black and white program, then the sales person negotiates something in the grey area. We have all been in this situation. The customer calls for a question on their plan and the customer service speaks out the normal parameters to the result of the customer screaming” That is not what I agreed to!!!” Ever had that happen to you?
I worked for an organization where the sales people were all over the place with making side deals outside of the normal parameters. The customer service representatives were processing orders without this knowledge and issues started popping up. Customer relationships were paying the penalty. Business was starting to erode and the owner of the organization was getting calls from large customers venting their frustration. It was not a great situation.
To remedy this, the sales people were brought in for a sit down to understand how to get sales done following the standard program. There needed to be conformity because there is something else that happens because our customers talk. They will brag about the deal they received only to make the other customers resent the sales person for not giving them the same deal. Profits were eroding and things were just not flowing in the organization.
When selling a product / service the customer service teams as well as sales teams need to have an understanding of the program and where there are opportunities to make small changes if needed. Sales people and customer service representatives need to be on the same page so there is one message communicated to the customers at all times. This helps when some of those slick customers try to get “a better deal.” Come on we all have talked to Sirius XM radio to get that $5 a month instead of the regular rate.
Communication is key! If sales professionals are not communicating terms of the deals and with the customer service representatives then there will be opportunities for misses with the customer. The sales professionals also need to address as much of the terms of the agreement in writing so there are no issues for others to action against. It is up to sales professionals to support their teams and not just hoping others will just figure it out.
Both teams are extremely busy, so I recommend a sharepoint directory so that your customer service and sales teams can reference the signed agreements so that way they can check what was agreed to. Having this one location is crucial to the success of the organization! This way we can serve the customer effectively, maintain relationships, and keep profits up! Everyone needs to be on the same page!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business. I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”