After coming to grips with the possibility that my profession would have little merit in a post-apocalypse zombie world, I stepped back on the grim scenario to attempt to answer the question, “Who are sales people?” To show mercy on the readers, there will be no schizophrenic philosophical debates between me, myself and I, or the use of high priced academic ramblings to define a sales person. Simply stated, a sales person is anyone who interacts with a client* during their buying cycle. Outside/inside sales executives, account managers, customer service representatives, district managers, receptionists, call center representatives, and especially delivery personnel. This sample of departments and job titles represents a body complete that I would like to call… (prepare yourself for a catch phrase)… the collective customer experience!
The collective customer experience (CCX) like the ancient Greek god Hermes, has many different faces on one body. The CCX is numerous customer facing individuals representing a single organization. If your organization has a retail floor, this group is massive. So it is vital that companies have a uniform approach to their CCX or have the entire organization on point, especially if there is any chance or opportunity to interact with a client. On the latter point, Zappos.com is mastering the concept of having every employee trained and battle tested in order to work on the frontlines of customer sales. If you want to see a poor example of this point, go to Wal-Mart when you don’t know where something is located – I bet you’ll spend a blood-boiling about of time searching. If you were to locate a friendly blue vest employee, there is a good chance they will not know either.
I’ll periodically come back to the collective customer experience in future post; but for now I want to focus on the first three titles listed above; sales executives, account managers, and customer service. In my humble opinion traditional sales roles have been blurred by technology, ease of information gathering, wild economic swings, and the need for our organization’s Greek Hermes to wear multiple hats to go along with all those faces.
In the next post, I’ll take a look at the “sales executive” role, which is the traditional “hunter” sent out into the world with only business cards and a quota. Once that sale has landed, I’ll step into the cubicles of our account management team, which is ready to take over long term management and work to grow and cross sell the newborn client. Lastly, I’ll look at the customer service team that gets involved to keep orders flowing through the cycle, resolving issues, and becoming the most valuable group to clients that are mature in the life cycle with your organization. If you are not investing serious time, exceptional talent, and massive resources into your customer service team, may all things holy be on your side! (If you’re not, and need help, contact me ASAP)
As this journey continues, I really am excited to explore the great and spacious new title of “business development manager,” which is the beautiful new spawn of sales and account management without any of the paperwork. Is this the next evolutionary rung for sales staff? Or is it just a cheap marketing plow to throw off overbearing, pain-in-the-belt customers that swamp great sales people with mundane chores? If you’re worried that I’ve forgotten about inside sales teams… fret not! We will have an entire series on office based sales teams, which will tie beautifully into our series on “How to correct retail sales pariahs.”
* A “client” is a respectful way to represent your qualified prospects, new partners, transactional customers, and long standing relationships.
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