Back in the February 1994 issue of Telemarketing® magazine (the parent publication of this magazine), I wrote an editorial with the above title. Since then, I have received several inquiries about this very important topic. In fact, as recently as last week, we had yet another request for a copy of this editorial. Based on the extreme importance of this topic, I decided to revisit this matter and expand upon it with greater detail.
Most Companies Have One, But They Don’t Know They Do
As I have indicated in my editorial in 1994, many companies actually have a sales prevention department, but they are completely unaware of this fact. When I say “sales prevention department,” I don’t mean that these companies literally have a separate department with that title. However, the regular violations of certain important rules that I have indicated in this editorial actually constitute a cancerous problem within many companies.
To succeed in business, you need to understand your customers' needs as
well as your customers' needs.
Sales And Marketing Are Everything In Every Company
As you may know, I have been a student of marketing for the last 25 years; in fact, we do have a marketing test at TMC that 99 percent of the marketing managers who have taken it have failed. In my view, the test is a simple one and contains the basic knowledge that every true marketing manager must possess. There is no point in hiring a marketing manager who cannot even define marketing. In many of my previous editorials, I have elaborated on this topic, as you may know.
In many companies, the sales department is regarded as the most important department in the company. Of course, here at TMC, we do not subscribe to this thinking because we feel that every department is equally important. Having said that, my frequent associations with many CEOs within our industry and elsewhere have led me to believe that most companies, in fact, consider the sales department one of the most the important, IF NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT DEPARTMENT.
In my way of thinking, this is not true. I feel that if you are going to rank the departments, marketing should come ahead of the sales department. Here is why:
All Sales Begin With A Sales Lead
As I have indicated in several of my past editorials, one of the paramount responsibilities of the marketing department is to create awareness about the company, articulate the benefits of dealing with the company and highlight the company’s differentiation from its competitors. The cumulative results of the above mentioned marketing functions eventually lead to the all-important lead generation which is vital to any company’s growth and prosperity. In other words, the sales department will be crippled if the marketing department does not generate a stream of continuous, qualified sales leads for the sales department.
One of the paramount responsibilities of the marketing department is to create awareness about the company, articulate the benefits of dealing with the company and highlight the company's differentiation from its competitors.
Sales Prevention Diagnostics
Having stated the above importance of the sales and marketing departments, there are many details that need to be addressed if sales prevention is to be avoided. In this editorial, I will try to refer to as many of these problems as possible, and I ask our valued readers to address whichever factors that are most appropriate for their situations. Here are the areas that are most likely to contribute to sales prevention:
- Ignore The Golden Rule Of Integrated Marketing And, Most Important, Ignore The Golden Triangle. When a company ignores the rules of integrated marketing and the golden triangle, which includes print, online and event marketing, the company has, in fact, prevented maximum lead generation for the sales department.
- Ignore Marketing Completely. Believe it or not, many companies give lip service to marketing and, as far as I have been able to study, such companies either go under or, if they exist at all, they really don’t get anywhere.
I recall a pair of companies that
started out in the Chicago area at the
same time. Company A was a master
marketer and Company B did not care
about marketing at all. To make a very
long story short, the owner of
Company A is a billionaire today while
Company B is still struggling and has
gotten nowhere in the same period of
time!
- Waste Sales Leads. Many companies spend a tremendous amount of money every year to attend trade shows or advertise in print and online and generate a considerable amount of leads. However, research indicates that as many as 70 to 80 percent of sales leads generated are either ignored completely or followed up too late to be of any use. Indeed, this is one of the leading causes of sales prevention.
- Ignore Your Customers’ Needs And, Most Important, Ignore Your Customers’ Customers’ Needs. In this highly competitive business environment, the companies that go beyond the call of duty are those that will survive. Once again, as mentioned in many previous editorials, to succeed in business, you need to understand your customers’ needs as well as your customers’ customers’ needs. Let us remember that customer care is the only sustainable competitive advantage.
- Ignore Sales Training. Many companies, particularly the entrepreneurial small and medium-sized companies, have a tendency to ignore sales training. This is practically unthinkable. How can anyone expect a sales person to sell anything without knowing the benefits and features of the products or service they are expected to sell? Believe it or not, this problem continues to exist.
- Have A Nasty CEO. Many entrepreneurial companies are started by egodriven individuals. Wisdom and professionalism are substantially ignored when that CEO is dealing with customers. These types of individuals must never be faced with customers; it takes only one nasty remark to destroy a milliondollar deal. Believe it or not, we have observed this situation several times in the past and, unfortunately, there is not enough room to elaborate on it in this editorial.
- Avoid A Loose Cannon On The Sales Staff. This is perhaps the most damaging situation for any company. A loose cannon can create not only a tremendous amount of unnecessary problems, but he or she can destroy a relationship and prevent any and all anticipated sales.
- Avoid A Loose Cannon Anywhere In The Company. Obviously, such a person must not be tolerated by any responsible company. That individual can not only destroy the morale of the employees and create problems, but also, when contacted by customers, can create yet another major problem by destroying your relationship with the customer.
- Do You Have A Chronic Complainer On Your Staff With A Bad Attitude? Believe it or not, some people are “never happy unless they are unhappy.” Such people will complain chronically. Not only do these people destroy the morale within the company, they have the potential to significantly damage the morale and attitudes of the sales department. This problem should also not be allowed under any circumstances, at any company.
- Unwise Sales Compensation Program. One of the most powerful management tools is to develop a mutually beneficial compensation program that fosters accountability on the part of the sales people.
Long ago, we had a sales person who
our sales manager could not wait to be
rid of, for reasons of poor performance.
We changed the compensation program,
and the sales person in question
ranked in the top two in the entire
company. In plain English, compensation
programs should be results-driven
and require the sales person to meet
expected sales numbers while maintaining
better than 95 percent of his or her
customers.
- Lack Of Team Work. As a sports enthusiast and former coach for Little League soccer, I have learned that nothing is more important in any organization or any sports team than team work. One of the greatest things that I have heard along these lines is “teams win, individuals lose.” To promote team work, companies must provide a team goal and make sure that every individual meets his or her needed sales results; otherwise this team goal may not be met.
- Sales Support And Customer Care Should Be Second To None. In today’s highly demanding consumer environment, sales support and customer care is just as important as selling a great product or service. We all know people who have canceled a contract with a well-known manufacturer not because of product performance but because of lousy customer care and customer service. A situation like this qualifies as a sales prevention department because the unhappy customer is not likely to buy anything from your company if you have that kind of problem.
- Rudeness And Unprofessional Behavior Must be Eliminated At All Cost. It is management’s paramount responsibility to train and communicate clearly with the entire company that rudeness and unprofessional behavior, both within the company or with customers, is totally and categorically frowned upon and is not tolerated by management. We all have heard of rudeness and poor customer service reported by some offshore outsourcing companies. In my opinion, there should be no reason for such behavior.
Focusing On The Strategic Needs
Of Your Customers
In addition to avoiding the above problems, a progressive company with savvy management must focus completely on the customer needs and customer care. Today’s customers, in my opinion, are looking for the following:
- Better, Cheaper, Faster. It is clearly the formula for success for any progressive company. Customers demand better, cheaper, faster products. To survive, suppliers must comply at all costs.
- Customers Need Competitive Advantage. Obviously, with the highly competitive environment today, if you don’t have the competitive advantage, you cannot sell your products. Customers expect their vendors to give them competitive advantage and, most important, they expect their vendors to differentiate their products from their competition.
- The Customer Demands All Of The Above, Yesterday. That is, they want it and they want it now. To prosper, you need to reinvent your company to comply with all of the requirements indicated above in order to run a successful company and avoid lost sales.
It is management's paramount responsibility to train and communicate clearly with the entire company that rudeness and unprofessional behavior, both within the company or with customers, is totally and categorically frowned upon and is not tolerated by management.
In Conclusion
These rules were created as the result of years of experience in business. For us, these are the cardinal rules of successful business, and they should be the cardinal rules of any company. Indeed, over the years, I have personally lost a lot of money because of ignorance of the above golden rules of business, and my objective is to share them with you so you don’t make the same mistakes that I have.
The bottom line is that if you want to eliminate the sales prevention department, which exists in perhaps 95 percent of companies, you need to address all these problems and eliminate anything that is contributing to sales prevention in your company.
As always, I welcome your comments. Please e-mail them to me at [email protected].
If you are interested in purchasing reprints of this article (in either print or PDF format), please visit Reprint Management Services online at http://www.reprintbuyer.com or contact a representative via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 800-290-5460.
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