RSSSales Is The Problem: What Is The Solution?
May 17, 2006 Sales Related, Top Posts
Over the past year or so, it has become apparent that we are not getting the sales results we’re used to getting:
- it’s taking 30% longer to close a sale than it used to;
- additional decision makers seemingly appear from nowhere;
- internal decision makers whom the prospects seek to include in their purchasing decision are either unfamiliar to the sales team or seemingly not relevant to the identified problem;
- goals aren’t being achieved and targeted prospects are not responding appropriately to our efforts;
- we’re losing business to unknown competitors.
Tags: Buying Facilitation®, gatekeepers, sales, sales process, solution
Decision Making & Partnering
May 8, 2006 Decisioning & Change Management
I’m currently starting a new decision making business that includes the collaboration many of the top decision making software vendors. It’s so exciting to collaborate with a group of people who are so visionary, generous, and kind. In reality, we’re all in competition with each other, and yet everyone has agreed to what I’m calling a Collaboratory: in the name of creating a new offering, we’ll use each other’s software to help us make the decisions we need to make, help us partner and develop rules and working criteria, and create something new that none of us had individually. And, we’re doing it together: companies that reside in different countries, with different business models, all getting together to create something bigger than any of us can do on our own.
Now… THAT’s what the internet has given us: the ability to bring everyone together to make the world a better place.
Customer Service
May 8, 2006 Random Thoughts
I recently had a computer meltdown. I suspect I had some spyware. Whatever it was, I was in deep doo doo. I called Dell and ended up spending one hour and 22 minutes trying to get to the right person who could help me, given I was out of warranty, etc. In any case, I timed it, having had a long history of problems with Dell. By the time I got to the right person, I realize – o horror – that I no longer had a Dell (precisely because of their customer service) but now had a Compaq. I got off the phone immediately, then called
Compaq. Within 4 minutes, I got to the right person, and about 6 minutes later my problem was resolved. And that is why I switched to Compaq.
Companies forget that we have a lot of choices these days, and they
absolutely must be taking care of their clients. I recently was working with a very difficult fulfillment house – Integrated Fulfillment Services out of Floral Park, Long Island – and ended up having to leave them to find another vendor. My materials were often sent weeks late after a promise of a 3 day turnaround, sent by the most expensive delivery imaginable ($79 for FedEx rather than the exact same service at USPO for $14), and no communication
(making decisions on their own without telling me, waiting to send material because they assumed the receiver didn’t need it, etc). They ended up costing me many thousands of dollars in lost business and good will. And when I removed my material, they charged me an exorbitant sum to ship the material and waited weeks before doing so, knowing that I couldn’t fulfill my client needs until the new fulfillment house got the material.
How do companies exist, not truly caring about their customers? How do they let customers leave with bad will, feeling abused? Even if the problem can have no resolution, at least to have a dialogue to see if there can be some sort of win-win and as few bad feelings as possible.
We all have choices these days. It’s time for good customer service to become part of our brands.
