Make it a Practice to Expand the Customer Relationship by Bringing Customers to Our Facility - Best Practice #31

by Dave Kahle

Every now and then I encounter a salesperson who believes that it is to his advantage to have all the calls and requests from the customer go to him personally.  Picture a salesperson with his arms wide open, trying to encircle and control every relationship with the customer, every communication, and every transaction.

Salespeople with this mentality believe that they bring value to the customer by being the only contact with his company.

Unfortunately, this is one of those ideas that ultimately produces a mediocre salesperson.  It reduces the salesperson to being a telephone receptionist, customer service representative, researcher of esoteric products, technical service writer, and expediter of back orders – all of which can be done, in all likelihood, better and cheaper by someone else in the company.  It causes the salesperson to fill his day with busy-work – returning phone calls which could have been just as easily accomplished by someone else – and robs him of his selling time.

Are your sales people ‘sharpening the sword’?

Sales people often become stuck in their comfort zones and allow their skills and disciplines to slide.  It’s human nature.  But, it’s not good for them or you.

Help them burst out of their routines with a short, weekly reminder. Sharpening the sword couldn’t be easier with our Kahle Way® B2B Selling System program.

A few minutes a week, for less than the cost of lunch.

Salespeople who have created this habit often defend it on the basis of “good customer service.”  The implication being, of course, that no one in the company is as competent to handle the customer’s requests as the salesperson.

           Unfortunately the impact on the customer is just the opposite.  Customers generally want to deal with a capable and competent company.  One in which there is a solid infrastructure to support the products and services they sell, and which is staffed by quality people who are committed to their jobs and competent at them.  The salesperson who tries to channel all communication through himself conveys to the customer that the company is so lacking in structure and personnel that they must rely on the salesperson to do everything.  That doesn’t give the customer a warm and fuzzy feeling.

           The best salespeople understand...CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE.