By David M. Fellman
After my seminar presentation at the recent SGIA Expo, I was approached by two printers with the same concern, and it's one that I know reflects one of many printers' greatest fears--the idea that you'll hire and train a salesperson and that person will do good work for you for a while, then leave and take his/her customers away too.
As I told these two printers, it's a real concern, but it can only be an issue if you do a lousy job managing that salesperson and your company in the first place!
Here's one of the most basic principles of sales management. You should never let a customer be the salesperson's customer, you must act to make sure that he/she becomes your customer.
BROADENING THE BANDWIDTH
The key is to broaden the bandwidth between your company and your customer. You can't let the relationship be limited to your salesperson and his/her contacts at the customer company. It's important that the people at the customer company have relationships with other people at your company; your CSR's, your technical people, your delivery people, maybe even your production manager--and if we're talking about significant customers, those relationships need to include you as the owner too!
Beyond having some relationship with the buyers at your customer companies, it's a good idea for you as the owner to establish some relationships at a higher level--perhaps owner-to-owner or owner-to-senior manager. If you make all of this happen, you really can "bulletproof" yourself against losing customers if/when a salesperson leaves.
I've gone out to talk to customers many times after a salesperson has left--both as a sales manager and as a consultant--and the message has always been the same: "Yes, John or Jane is leaving us, and we expect that you've been asked--or that you will be asked--to transfer your business to his/her new printing company. Well, what I came out to remind you of today is that John/Jane was only one of the people at our company who was involved in the work you've been giving us…and the rest of us want to keep your business!"
I can't guarantee you that this strategy will work every time, but I've had a very good success rate with it in the past. And I think it's fair to say that the few times it didn't work, the problem was not with the "we want to keep your business" conversation, but rather with the underlying relationship (or lack thereof). Again, if you work to make sure that all customers are your company's customers rather than your salespeople's customers, you're at least halfway toward protecting yourself in this sort of situation.
It's been said that it's part of human nature to resist change, and I think it's been proven in the marketplace that most printing buyers prefer to stick with a seller who does good work for them. The key it to make sure that they think of your company as that seller, not just your salesperson!
Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Raleigh, NC, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact Dave by phone at 919-363-4068 or by e-mail at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website at www.davefellman.com.