2. After the Sale: Building Long-Term Partnerships
CHAPTER 14
After the Sale: Building Long-Term Partnerships
Some questions answered in this chapter are:
How important is service after the sale?
How should salespeople stay in contact with customers?
Which sales strategies stimulate repeat sales and new business in current accounts?
Which techniques are important to use when handling complaints?
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3. “It takes more than promises to keep customers; it takes keeping promises.”
~Jim Allgood
Sprint
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4. Customers are the primary revenue source for companies.
The Value of Customers
For most salespeople, sales increases from year to year are due to increasing the revenue from existing accounts.
Customers are the primary revenue source for companies.
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5. Selected Expenses for a Small Law Firm Over a 20-Year Period
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6. Stages of Partnerships
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7. Set the right expectations Monitor ordering processing
Exploration
Set the right expectations
Monitor ordering processing
Ensure proper initial use of the product or service
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8. Follow Up
Call to say thank-you and to check whether the product is working appropriately.
Stay in touch to monitor changing needs or possible problems.
Follow-up with satisfied customers to promote opportunities for securing references.
Regular follow-up can be accomplished via:
Personal visit
Telephone
and regular mail
Follow-up signals the salesperson is dependable and customer oriented.
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9. Handle Customer Complaints
Critical to developing goodwill and maintaining partnerships.
Encourage buyers to tell their story.
Determine the facts.
Offer a solution.
What is the dollar value of the claim?
How often has this customer made claims?
How will the action taken affect other customers?
Follow through with action.
Achieve customer satisfaction.
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10. Handling Rude or Irate Customers
Follow the golden rule.
Prove you listened.
Don’t justify, excuse, or blame others.
Do the hard things first.
Call back if the customer hangs up.
Give the customer someone else to call, but only in case you are not available.
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11. Generating repeat orders
Expansion
Generating repeat orders
Be present at buying time
Catalogs and specialty advertising items
Help to service the product
Establish a good relationships with service personnel
Provide expert guidance
Provide special assistance
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12. Expansion (continued)
Upgrading
Also called upselling, is convincing the customer to use a higher-quality product or a newer product
Full-line selling
Selling the entire line of associated products
Cross-selling
Similar to full-line selling except the additional products sold are not directly associated with the initial products
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13. Seven Tips for Effective Cross-Selling
Product knowledge
Cross-selling skills
Incentives
Reasonable quotas or goals
Results tracking
Timing
Performance appraisals
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14. Commitment – Examples of Supplier Criteria
Hard savings
Payment terms, such as cash discounts
Improve process
Cycle time reduction
Inventory management
Vendor inventory management
Quality and innovation
Variable reduction
Supply chain management
Optimal packaging
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15. Commitment – Examples of Supplier Criteria
Soft savings
Commercial
Global initiatives
New markets
Improve process
Improve safety or environmental procedures
Quality and innovation
Training
Supply chain management
Bar coding
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16. Commitment (continued)
Securing commitment to a partnership
Commitment must be complete
Communication
Corporate culture
Corporate culture consists of the values and beliefs held by senior management.
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17. Direct Communication Between Partners
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18. Direct Communication Between Partners (continued)
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19. The Salesperson as a Change Agent
Champions
Positioning change
Determining the necessary resources
Developing a time-based strategy
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Change agent
Person who is a cause of change in an organization.
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20. Change and Resistance to Change
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21. Limited personal relationships Failing to monitor competitor actions
Dissolution
Limited personal relationships
Failing to monitor competitor actions
Failing to monitor the industry
Falling into complacency
Conflict
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22. Repairing Damage to Trust in a Conflict
Observe and acknowledge what has happened.
Allow your feelings to surface, but take responsibility for your actions.
Gain support.
Put the experience in the larger context to affirm your commitment to the relationship.
Shift the focus from assigning blame to problem solving.
Implement the solution.
Let go and move on.
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23. Summary
Developing partnerships has become increasingly important for salespeople and their firms.
Many specific activities are necessary to ensure customer satisfaction and to develop a partnering relationship.
The best opportunities to develop goodwill are usually provided by the proper handling of customer complaints.
The appropriate solution depends on many factors.
It is important that both organizations commit to the relationship from top to bottom.
Sometimes relationships break up.
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