The Pedestal Group

Or someone else will! I know we all try and I recommend to clients all the time to review your procedures to make sure it is easy, but here’s one we should all check out.  I needed to contact a vendor based on an email he sent me.  Here’s his phone number (a little bigger than it is in his signature so you can see): 

Now I am not going to tell you I was super-careful when I dialed or anything, but quickly looking at this information I dialed 880…. NOT 330.  So now I’m dealing with a vendor for one of my clients and I couldn’t even read the phone number quickly! Are you kidding?

So I ask you – beg you – plead with you!  If you are a sales person, be sure it is easy to contact you in multiple ways.  A friend of mine recently pointed out that you should have your email address in your signature so if people are using a cell phone, they can click on your email address. Or, if the email is forwarded and that person has you in their address book, the email address still comes through.  You should also spell out your web address rather than just have links so it is easy to click on it.  And while cutsie fonts are fun for party invitations, get them off your email signature.  It doesn’t help anyone if they can’t call you because the font is so flowery they can’t tell an 8 from a 3.

What ways can you think of to make it easy for your client?

It is so weird how things come up in themes for me.  Recently, several meetings I’ve attended had speakers who have said everything happens twice; once in your mind, and then once in practice.  When the first person said “everything happens twice” my first thought was he was going to talk about how to get things right the first time so you don’t have to screw it up once.  So imagine my surprise when it wasn’t a criticism, but a positive!

In my second encounter, the person who said it then followed up with a description of a program he put together. It was amazing to me because what he was saying was he THOUGHT about each step of the project but what I and another woman in the group heard was DO.  Two different styles that are so ingrained we couldn’t even hear it described differently.

This led me to several discussions with people to see if that is true.  I know there are tons of situations I walk into without much of a plan.  I’ll go to a networking event with a goal to meet 3 or 5 people, but not necessarily knowing who I want to meet or much about them.  Or I’ll start a project that has an outline but isn’t fully flushed out because much of what we discover needs to be done can be managed on the fly – definitely more my style.

And then I started a project with someone who is definitely a thinker.  For him, there is no question everything happens at least twice. And it may be more because after the initial think, he takes the first step and then thinks through it again.  My inclination is to yell, “ready fire aim!!!” a couple times but in reality, he just has a different work style and he’s been successful with it.

So what do I do with this information?  Well first, I respect my client and understand he has a different work style.  To help him do his planning, rather than have an open discussion, I’m giving him concrete examples to look at to direct his thinking.  That also gives me actions I can take making me happy.  As I interact with people, I’m definitely putting them on the “thinker/doer” continuum because I don’t believe people are either/or in most cases, but fall on the line somewhere.  It helps with how I work with people on committees and as clients.

So are you more thinker or doer?  How do you deal with the other?  I would love to hear from some thinkers because right now, nothing is happening twice for me!

When was the last time you went through your process as a customer?  For most people, it has been awhile.  Here’s a worst-case scenario I just experienced that illustrates a number of good points.

I have a client in need of a database product.  In the course of my evaluation of software, I went to the top software’s website.  I’ll be nice and leave them anonymous.  They have an on-line chat feature so I used it.  Twice “Alex” greeted me and asked how he could help and twice while I was talking he hung up.  I, thinking both times were software glitches, tried a third time. I got “Stephanie”. We got through her questions for me and she indicated I needed an account rep.  Great. On to the next part of the process. Instead, the person who left me a voice mail was Alex. When I returned the call, I was told they couldn’t connect me to an account rep without the client name. When I questioned why they needed that, it was because they might already be in the system.  Since they haven’t ever looked into a database product, I knew that wasn’t the case but when I said so, I was told I had no way of knowing that in a tone that sounded like he thought I was lying. Needless to say the call went downhill from there.

I did speak with another rep and when we talked about the client name piece, the second rep indicated that if they help a customer who is already assigned elsewhere, they don’t get the “credit”.  And there is no way to reassign an account from one rep to another so if I want to talk to someone at this company, I have to work through Alex. Period.  Oh -and just for fun – all the account reps and managers are in Vegas today at a sales kickoff meeting.

So basically a new customer calling in has to give their name, phone, company name, address, and email address so that the rep can see if they are in the computer and if they are, transfer them to someone else who may or may not be available.  It is not in the best interest of the person who answers the phone to answer any questions the caller has because it may not be their account.  And at the end of the day, they only get “credit” (I’ll translate as commission) for those accounts assigned to them.  None of this takes the customer’s needs into account. AND THEY SELL SALES SOFTWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I ask you – when was the last time you jumped through your sales process hoops as a customer?  Do you set up road blocks or systems that encourage the wrong behaviors?  Are people on an incentive plan to help customers or themselves?  It is definitely time to take a look.