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Solutions June 2005
Mailbag
Editor’s
note: The following letters
are responses to a question posted
on DMIA’s members-only broadcast
email system. The poster sought
insight on handling a salesperson
who demands excessive time and
attention from the company’s
customer service representatives.
Improving
Sales Rep/CSR Relationships
Meet
with the CSRs to define any current
problems, including ones with
the needy sales rep, and determine
what the sales rep asks of them
that others don’t. Then
send a memo to all salespeople,
defining a short list of tasks
you would like sales reps to handle
themselves. Empower the CSRs to
say “no” when the
line gets crossed.
Terri
Pummill, CDC
Vice
President, Sales and Marketing
Concept
Forms
Grand
Rapids, Mich.
We
have CSRs with specific salespeople
and accounts. We do this for a
variety of reasons: 1) Customers
like the consistency of speaking
to an experienced person for their
account. 2) It’s faster
for an experienced CSR to do a
repeat or new job from certain
customers. 3) It allows us to
have a face behind the name. 4)
Customers develop a bond with
their CSRs, keeping accounts happy
and protecting against a salesperson
leaving. 5) We believe it’s
a sales benefit.
Each
CSR is expected to support at
least $1.5 million or more in
sales per year. That is the target
amount for sales reps to reach
to have their own CSR instead
of sharing one. If an account
requires a dedicated CSR, we can
evaluate the sales to determine
if we need to charge extra if
accounts don’t achieve this
level (a monthly retainer). If
a specific salesperson requires
more support, it gives us a basis
from which to share in the expense.
I
realize this isn’t perfect
because all sales, profitability,
accounts and salespeople aren’t
equal, but at least it’s
a formula. We do have salespeople
who pay for a portion of their
support personnel.
Andrew
Kohn, CDC
President
Jerome
Group
St.
Louis
What
should a salesperson expect from
the CSR staff? Some basic parameters
should exist. Also, if this salesperson
is using an extraordinary amount
of support, his or her sales report
should reflect efforts to gain
sales opportunities, and consequently,
new sales. If that’s the
case, I would support the sales
rep; if not, the sales rep needs
to explain the use of her time
and your resources.
Robert
Sanchez
President,
United Print Group Inc.
Long Island City, N.Y.
Andy
Kohn’s suggestion about
making it a salesperson issue
via charge-back for CSR cost is
good, but I worry about the effect
on morale within the CSR department.
CSRs may be motivated more by
their rank or status, and the
importance of their role than
by money. Training and recognition
work well with our CSRs. These
motivators are highly influenced
by peer standing.
What
we have now is a CSR department
with trained professionals who
are very detail-oriented. They
have job descriptions and procedures
to provide outstanding customer
service. They talk about client
retention and quality control.
They have internal and external
customers. They manage the clout
we have with our manufacturers
by being fair, honest and appreciative
of the value vendors provide.
(We learned all of this through
our experience with the Society
for Service Professionals in Printing,
now known as DMIA’s Customer
Service Special Interest Group.
It’s online at www.sspp.org.)
Our
CSRs have a logical, linear mindset
(“first we get a, then b,
then c…”). They know
how to deal with sales reps whose
minds work like this: “first
c, then g, then a, and I’ll
apologize later about b, d, e
and f.” We assign clients
to CSRs based upon the needs of
the client. Sales reps and CSRs
work as a team to identify needs,
then provide solutions and execute
on promises.
Our
company has a CSR manager and
a sales manager, both of whom
teach sales reps to introduce
the client to that client’s
CSR. They explain that the CSR
is absolutely critical to our
solutions. Then, the CSR has permission
to call the client to fill in
the gaps and learn the expectations.
The
best way to prevent a salesperson
from demanding excessive time
and attention from CSRs is to
explain the role of the CSR and
the sales rep in the total solution
your company provides to customers.
Your customers perceive, interpret
and assign value to the company’s
offerings, not the sales rep’s.
We have learned that two heads
are better than one, and that
multiple points of contact help
the customer solve problems better.
Steve
Visio
Vice
President and COO
Executive
Data Control Inc.
Springfield,
Mo.
Editor’s
note: The
following letter is a response
to a Question of the Month about
e-commerce and operations software.
The
Value and Challenge of E-Commerce
We
use industry software for our
e-commerce services. While it
allows customers to perform functions
such as warehouse releases, reporting
and status checks, we’re
faced with an enormous challenge
from our customers. They want
more services online, and they
want it for all of the services
we provide. We sell commercial
printing, digital printing, mailing
services, promotional products,
creative services and fulfillment,
as well as traditional forms and
forms management. I believe many
of our member companies are diversifying
similarly.
Our
industry software companies are
making great strides, but are
they enough? Many of us are faced
with the need to have a software
system that is fast, flexible
and customizable to our different
business competencies. Almost
as important is the support we
need to make the changes our customers
desire. Too often, we have to
pay for the development ourselves,
and it takes months to get the
feature or module we need. We’re
all faced with the option of moving
along at our software provider’s
pace and ability versus spending
large amounts of dollars and resources
to go outside our industry and
get something else.
Robert
O’Connell
President,
Vanguard Direct, New York
DMIA
Board Member
Talk
to Us
We
encourage feedback about stories
published in Print Solutions,
as well as in DMIA’s E-Weekly
and Independent Management Report
e-newsletters.
Question
of the month: If you could give newcomers
to the industry one piece of advice,
what would it be?
