Sep
4
Written by:
Dave Neal
9/4/2010 1:09 AM
I was consulting with a client helping them create their strategic sales plan. The concept and notion of 'the customer is always right' was brought up as a stop gap between sales and operations.
The management team stated that repeatedly the sales team seemed to drop this "bomb" on the entire enterprise causing internal strife and sub-optimizing profits.
The client sighted the typical mantra from Sales:
- if we don't do it now someone else will
- the customers pay the bills
- don't blame me if we lose the business
- ok you tell the boss we can't do it
- etc., etc.
A book could be written on the ever present tactic sales professionals use and customer's consciously or unconsciously reinforce to get what they want.
The problem is played out in two lethal insidious ways.
- Internal tension and mistrust is created between sales and the rest of the organization that negatively impact profits, morale, and effectiveness.
- The customer never faces their own internal problems because the sales professional consistently handles the problem externally.
To prevent this all too frequent problem, sales professionals must take the initiative and facilitate true problem solving between the customer and the company.
This implies the company needs to institute formal mechanisms that make it easy and effective to engage internal resources and connect them with the customer to find systemic solutions.
The best sales professional view these situations as great opportunities to drive deep and wide into both their organization and the customer's to create an attitude and structure for future problem solving.
Don't let your sale managers, sales team or sales professionals exercise short term laziness or feel good tactics employing the "customer is always right" bomb mantra!