| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2540.1 | | HAAG::HAAG | Rode hard. Put up wet. | Sun Jun 13 1993 18:46 | 11 |
| just wait a coupla weeks. this account will likely have an entirely
different sales team or person. and they will quite likely know nothing
of the history of the account. july 1 approaches. it's time for sales
to pull their annual "shift logical left" with account assignments. and
man, does this ever torque off customers. however, when it comes to
this topic, from a customer perspecitve, DEC doesn't give a damn.
i wouldn't give the time of day to a sales rep that rags on a customer
because the customer brought in some other vendor at 1/2 the price. the
customer is free to select whatever they feel is the best deal. more so
today than ever before.
|
| 2540.2 | Unless You've Walked a Mile in my Shoes | GLDOA::DBOSAK | | Mon Jun 14 1993 11:03 | 62 |
| Folks:
In the sales world, there are some hard and fast rules. One of them
is: "Sell high, leverage down." The reason is that you want the
underlings to listen to the boss. It is also a requirement to work with
the technical recomenders. This is where we fall on our sword -- Note
the word "technical."
We should have a sales team in place -- The Rep is managing the
Executive AND the business issues of the recommenders. The
recommenders should be handled by a Technical person -- In a technical
discussion on a product, I can, at best, give a thirty second technical
discussion - And it isn't because I don't have a technical background!
The recommender needs more -- Sooo, without the technical person from
DEC in the customer's face, the Rep is faced with the routine of "Tell
me what you want and I'll get you the information -- The disconnects in
that scenario are many.
Regarding the nickel dime comment -- Customer's will drain you of time
and money if you let them. For the same reason the customer purchased
a Tape drive at half the price of, we should expect AND TRAIN the
customer to pay for what they need -- In their personal lives, they
would never go to a store and ask for something for free. They would
ask for technical information on whatever it is -- That conversation is
typically short and sweet.
If the S/R was whacked about the tape deal, it may have been because
the S/R was under the impression that he/she was in a partnership
relationship -- That's where the customer has an understanding that if
he/she wants hands on treatment, there's a cost for it and under no
circumstances is it free. That means that the customer may pay more
for an item -- But it's done to cover the cost of hands-on service. In
the commodity market we can command a 15-220% premimum in that
scenario.
Regarding the comment that "DEC doesn't give a damn." -- Here's the
deal -- I am Digital to my customer -- They look at me and they see the
word "Digital" tatooed on my forehead -- I care - about the customer --
and about the level of profit we pull from a deal.
I would rather walk than sell something at a loss -- The customer
absolutely knows there's no such thing as a free lunch. If they want
the benefit of a very good company, then they should pay a fair price.
Regarding the annual S/R shift left routine -- I'm not sure that
happens very much anymore -- In my unit, I have been on an accoount for
6+ years -- Other folks have been on their accounts 3+ years.
July 1 is going to be interesting -- I still have my same account and
will be getting others -- I'm not going to be interested in doing the
shift left routine on accounts because it means that I've lost an
investment of my time in effort -- Most sales folks think like that --
There is a benefit of changing accounts -- It's called getting stale --
There are things in my account I could pursue but don't because I
understand the account cold -- Another S/R might pursue a deal I'd pass
on because he/she didn't know what I did -- They'd probably get the
deal because they didn't know they were going to lose it.
Regards,
The Street Peddler
|
| 2540.3 | Lead, follow or get out of the way. | SMOGGY::CAROLLA | B.C. | Mon Jun 14 1993 15:40 | 25 |
| RE .0
Sounds like a bad situation.... here comes the pitch....
Drive all the customers issues to resolution. This does not mean
you have to do it all, but you need to list the customers concerns
as you see them and comitt to resolve the ones that fall near your
expertise. Mail this to your boss and the sales person offering
your help. Involve everyone that is needed. Get commitments and
follow thru. I know.... this is the account team process. Don't
wait for the AIM ( Account Issue Management) process to fall on
you. You might be the glue to bring it all together for the
customer. And NO I am not a "suit". I 'm an engineer that is still
part of many account teams and AIM teams.
re .2
Services people would love to hear from you. We have the technical
scoop (and if not we'll find it quickly). This is part of our jobs.
Don't sell from an island, involve everyone the customer needs and
dont give up on internal resources.
When it comes time to deliver tough messages to customers, everyone
on the team is reading off the same page.
Lead, follow or get out of the way
|
| 2540.4 | Not So Simple | WHO301::BOWERS | Dave Bowers @WHO | Mon Jun 14 1993 17:02 | 35 |
| In a situation like this, it's all too easy for a newcomer to see
everything as the fault of the sales rep. Not enough (free) licenses
for the pilot... Not enough (free) technical support... Getting
"uppity" about 3rd party purchases...
How many free software kits had the customer already glommed?
How much free support had already been provided?
Did the customer have the common decency to discuss his 3rd party
purchase with the sales rep?
Yup, customers can bleed you dry. Not only that; in my experience, the
one's who talk the loudest and longest about "partnership" tend to be
the worst bloodsuckers. I've seen this company spend muchos dineros
providing support for our "champions" only to have them:
decide that they could't beat the "IBM faction" and seek employment
elsewhere.
decide 3 years down the road that Sun Workstations were the wave of
the future.
buy third-party peripherals based on miniscule price differentials
without even giving the Digital rep a chance to meet the
competetive price.
giving a development project to a competitor (low bid) after
talking us into doing the functional spec well below cost (with the
clear understanding that the overrun would be bundled into the
implementation bid).
Maybe we were suckers in some of these situations, but they all cmae
from a sincere effort to develop a real partnership with our supporters
in the customer organization.
\dave
|
| 2540.5 | It is not a piece of cake !!!! | ELMAGO::JMORALES | | Mon Jun 14 1993 17:42 | 30 |
| Re. Last Few.
A little horrow storry.
This customer tired because a third party distributor
offered one of our products but have not follow-thru (have not
delivered to the committed date) calls 'BP' Office.
BP Office call us and informed that this customer is not
happy because we have not delivered the product in early May as
committed. We told them, who has committed early May, please look in
the system the S/W is not ready yet, it will be in May 27th, we will
deliver then.
BP Office, calls the customer back (California Customer).
In the meanwhile, we are expediting the S/W by Fed. Ex. P1 to deliver
on May 27th per our commitment. The California Customer decides to
cancel the order, but he/she does not call us or BP Office to inform
of their decision. Several days latter the S/R calls us to inform
about the incident. We were ready to ship.
A two week period passed by. The California Customer
can not get the product thru the third party....who does he call.....
you just guessed...us. It is May 25th, and now desperate the
Customer, after cancelling the order, wants the delivery...you just
guess it....on May 27th. We delivered on time.
Now, I think this clearly depicts, what other noters have included
here about customer behavior and our business saavy to work with them.
The saying goes: 'The Customer is ALWAYS right...dont't get me wrong
they are always right.....you have to be careful, tactful, have enough
business saavy on how to successfully deal with them......It is not
a piece of cake.
|
| 2540.6 | | SDSVAX::SWEENEY | You are what you retrieve | Mon Jun 14 1993 19:01 | 7 |
| I'm sorry, but .-1 is incomprehensible without a better definition of
who "we/us" is, and more specifics about what was committed when.
Rather than being a shining example of recognizing that the customer is
right, it appears to be an example of the common internal
mis-communication problems that have been discussed this conference for
10+ years.
|
| 2540.7 | | ZPOVC::HWCHOY | Mostly on FIRE! | Wed Jun 16 1993 13:01 | 17 |
| To be fair, let's not jump right on the sales rep. The customer wants
to suck you dry absolutely exist. To be fair, there are also others
that are fair (perhaps they were a vendor before?) and understand that
everyone need their paycheck and there aint't no free lunches.
I agree that "the customer is always right", but I also feel that
beyond some degree of decency, it is also our right to walk away if it
is costing us too much to do business with them. But then again, how
many sales rep can do that? How many SUMs (Sales Unit Mgr) will accept
it?
Perhaps it would be more constructive to hear how people have
successfully deal with such "blood-suckers" and come out alive. It
would also be useful to hear from non-customer-facing people who might
inject fresh thoughts and approaches.
BTW, I'm a sales support techie.
|