—Companies need BOTH for long term success!
I recently had a conversation with the owner and CEO of a medium sized manufacturing business. I knew he was running a very successful enterprise so naturally I began to ask him questions about his sales team. To my surprise he told me he didn’t have any sales folks in his organization. So naturally I asked Bob how he generated business. He went on to say that he is responsible for all sales. In other words he is the salesman and CEO. He determines which companies offer the most potential for his services. He sets up the appointments and makes the sales calls. And since he is in fact the CEO/ owner as well as the field sales person he naturally inspires confidence and trust in his prospects. They know if they have any issues the buck stops with Bob and he will make it right. When negotiating transactions his prospects know that if he quotes a price he doesn’t have to go anywhere else in his organization for approval. In addition if the prospect needs delivery by a certain date, Bob can make that happen by shifting priorities around on the manufacturing floor. From a clients point of view this is the best possible scenario. For if the CEO makes a deal he will stick by it. This philosophy will work successfully if 3 factors are consistent:
- The nature of the product being sold is such that significant revenue and profit can be achieved from a minimal number of clients.
- Your product fills a very specific market niche and therefore clients are seeking your company out
- Your product is such that a lot of ‘hands on” service is not required
In my opinion companies that fall into this category are very slim. For most long term business relationships it is critical to have a customer facing individual who is responsible to “mange” the client to make sure the competition doesn’t get a foothold. It is typically not enough to simply sell your first transaction to a new client and expect business to keep coming in without some care and feeding.
I made this mistake early on in my career. I opened up many new accounts in the New York City area and then moved on to another prospect. I assumed that new orders would be faxed in without my involvement. THIS WAS FOOLISH!
Additionally, a good account manager will not only keep the competition out but they will uncover other opportunities by being at the client’s site and asking the right questions in order to advance alternative solutions. A strong account manager inspires trust and respect and is offered new sales opportunities that would have never been uncovered unless he was working closely with the client.
The title of this blog post is “Don’t confuse new account selling with account management” Many people think of sales folks strictly as people who cold call and sell on a one off basis. And consequently they don’t establish long term client relationships. There are certainly people that fall into that category however that is not the type of sale this article is referring to. An individual with strong account management skills is equally important as an individual that has a knack to open new business. They are in fact two distinct disciplines. I go into great detail on this topic in chapter 13 of my book which is titled “Account Management/ Competition.” After all what is the point of continuing to open up new accounts and then have them fall to the competition in a very short time? Learning the skills involved in account management are critical to a career sales executives long term success as well as the long term profitability of the company they work for. If your organization does not have a solid strategy in place to MANAGE your client base, you run the risk of losing them to the competition.
Chapter 13, “Account Managent/ Competition”, goes into this topic in great detail. It is absolutly critical to transform from sales rep to account manager once the sale is done. This is one of the foundational “Universal Sales Truths” that UST provides guidance on.