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In my experience, there are two extremes related to how companies handle salespeople and customer service. On the one hand is the group who expect their salespeople to do no customer service after the sale. They are supposed to be out there getting more business. The office will handle their customer service problems. The other group expects the salesperson to handle all customer problems and training too.
This story is about the first group of companies. When I was the vice president/regional manager of a small business, my boss knew I was the best salesperson in the company. As a result, when we had a major customer service problem with our biggest customer in the region, he told me that the service vice president would handle it.
Nevertheless, my region's service manager and his technicians were getting increasingly frustrated with not getting the parts they needed to close service calls. I couldn't afford to focus exclusively on sales until this situation got resolved.
What my boss failed to appreciate was that I had a problem selling more contracts when I was losing faith in our ability to take care of the customers.
Here is how customer service, especially in a small business, affects the business-to-business sales rep:
- Reputation- Confidence in the company products and services
- Word-of-mouth from unhappy customer
- Customer Expectation
Reputation
As a small business owner or manager, you are concerned with the company's reputation, naturally. However, the salesperson is concerned with both your reputation and his. His ability to get in to see executives or even the buyers for a company are determined by his reputation.
We like to think that salespeople will be with us forever. The reality is that sales reps turn over more than any other position I have seen. If they hit a slump, few companies will keep them on the payroll. So they are concerned with their reputations both from their ability to make sales now and from their ability to get future employment. The more you appreciate their situation, the better and longer they will work for you.
By the way, when that company failed, I was blamed by my largest customers for lying to them. Even though I had no ability to make the company deliver, even though I had believed what my boss told me, I was held accountable for what I committed to them - as an agent of my employer. So, yes, customer service is the salesperson's concern.
Confidence in the Company Products and Services
Although there are salespeople who can sell anything as long as they get a commission, they are a small percentage of the community of professional salespeople. In my opinion, they are really con men in business suits. Your salesperson's confidence in the company products and services means everything to you.
As a small business, that confidence is especially critical. When most salespeople lose that confidence, their enthusiasm wanes. Your prospects and customers detect that lack in their voices. Even if sales reps pump themselves up before the call, their energy comes across as inauthentic and uninspired.
Word-of-Mouth from Unhappy Customers
There is no such thing as being able to treat a customer poorly and keep it a secret. In particular, most small businesses live and sell in a local community. I had a consulting job close that my project director and I felt was going great. We came in the morning of the second day only to meet the wife and co-owner of this small business. The night before, she told two friends about having us in. Both had bad experiences with our company. Unhappy customers talk.
You need salespeople who care enough about customer satisfaction to get involved to advocate for resolving the customer's problems with your products and services.
Customer Expectation
The final, and most important, reason that customer service is the salesperson's concern is that he or she has been the point of contact your customer trusted enough to buy from. Customers expect their sales rep to get involved. I had to attend meetings with my major account to hear their complaints so I could go back to get them resolved. There was no way for me to avoid getting involved to try to get this situation fixed so we would have a happy client again.
If you want to build long-term customer relationships, look for salespeople who are enthusiastic about your products and services and who truly care about customer satisfaction. Customers expect your sales reps to interface for them with your company. And their livelihood depends on keeping customers happy. In summary, customer service is the concern of your salespeople even though it shouldn't be their primary job. I suggest you celebrate that you have people who care.
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