MalcolmSays

To me the root cause is incompatible objectives/metrics and lack of understanding about the other function and how it works. From this root cause springs factors like “poor” processes, internal politics and other disruptive actions. In my experience the problem is usually not limited to the relationship between Sales & Marketing.  Hands up who has a good relationship with Finance, Facilities, Customer Service, Manufacturing or HR?

The way forward starts with a simple customer focused business plan and set of objectives for the whole business. Rolling this through out the business with supporting plans and metrics will certainly be a major help. I’ve also used the buddy system to get two functions with a dysfunctional relationship to work together to produce their functional plans. This can be amazingly effective.

All of the above works but it takes time. Here are a few quick things that I’ve successfully used to get Sales to have a better relationship with Marketing and other functions.

1. Invite other functions to attend Sales and product training events.

2. Get representatives from Sales to attend and speak about the business at the staff meetings of other functions.

3. Create a balanced and simple service level agreement between Sales and Marketing.

4. Regularly communicate throughout the business the performance against the objectives and key metrics.

5. Ask other functions what can be done to improve the relationship with customers and act on appropriate findings.

6. Listen to customers and share the information between Sales and Marketing so that they can work together on appropriate actions. 

I’d suggest looking at the behaviors and features that builds trust in the first place. To me the top 5 are:

1. Honesty
2. Consistency
3. Professionalism
4. Excellent service
5. Great staff
Therefore any action that a company plans to take should be assessed against the impact that it would potentially have on any or all five of the above and features. If the action would result in a negative reaction simply don’t do it because that would damage trust. If you still decide to go ahead with a particular action HOW you plan to carry it out should then be assessed against the top 5 list.

The model for the most trustworthy retailer is always John Lewis and their supermarket chain Waitrose. Interestingly Waitrose are rarely the cheapest and in spite of the John Lewis promise to never be knowingly undersold some of their own products are quite expensive. But, since everyone trusts them on all 5 points price becomes much less relevant.

Malcolm says:

It could represent a big problem but I want to raise a “Not always” flag. What customers want is to be treated consistently. That can be consistently good or consistently bad.

The classic example of a highly successful company that consistently treats its customers “badly” compared to competitors is Ryanair. They are successful while customers know that they are not going to be treated well if anything goes wrong. They accept it as normal and of course like Ryanair prices and other aspects of their services.

Imagine what would happen if Ryanair suddenly started providing excellent customer service. Customer would immediately be thinking what’s going on, where is the catch? Customers want consistency. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting consistently better but make sure that you understand what it important to your customers before you do anything. If you don’t you might just find out that conventional wisdom is wrong.

In tough economic times it’s very tempting to deliberately cut costs. The secret is to ensure that those cuts do not negatively impact your clients. An often bigger issue in tough times is that staff get de-motivated and incapable of delivering the service that they did in the past. Put these two factors together and you end up with the type of bad service scenarios that many of us experience. The net result is often lost customers through poor customer service and lack of attention to detail.

No one wants to be around de-motivated people. The challenge for business is not to nit pick the details of customer service but to ensure that their staff are highly motivated to get things right. That will ensure that customers do not have to complain and they might just recommend them to their friends and stay as customers.

Malcolm says:

The problem is that almost all organisations have too many processes that are no longer appropriate for today’s business environment.  Even worse, in some organisations staff hide behind the processes and use them as an excuse for their actions or inactions.

I’m been working with the new Managing Director of a company who during his first 90 days is personally reviewing and rewrite the major SOP’s (Standard operating procedures) of the £50M company. He believes that it’s the best way for him to really understand the business and make very clear what he expects of his staff. It’s going to be fascinating to see the result. Needless to say he is coming from a very customer centric way of thinking.

Whatever situation you are in it’s always good to look at existing processes and ask two simple questions.

1) How does this add value to our customers?

2) Does the manner in which this process is carried out fit the objectives and strategies of the organisation?

Interesting discussions always follow.

Malcolm says

A lot of your competitors use the same types of actions to take care of top clients so you have to… see more something else as well. My research says that the most effective technique is to pass your customers leads and contacts that convert into revenue and profit for them. This trumps any other action in a difficult trading environment and often costs you nothing.

Malcolm says

Customer care in its broadest sense is a key factor for us to stay with a particular supplier both in our private and our business life. One of the biggest problems for a supplier of products or services is that they are over optimistic in thinking that their customers love them. Have a look at the first article on my web site www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML to get the whole story.

Malcolm says

One of the largest challenges for Customer Services is to convince their senior management of the importance and impact on customers of what they do. Many companies talk about customer being their top priority and delighting customers but often its just marketing blah blah and has no substance.

Customer Services often need help to get the right level of investment, support and recognition of what they add to the business. I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to do this is to get senior managers to spend half a day in Customer Services listening to calls and speaking to customers. I’ve also used other methods such as analyzing why customers leave. This type of research and factual customer feedback often has a major impact in identifying issues in other parts of the company that can be improved or have to be fixed to stop customers leaving. The 2009 goal for a Customer Services team is to be recognized by top management as the function who knows most about why customers really leave and why others stay as customers.

Malcolm says

Innovation is anything that makes life better for customers, easier for staff and cheaper for the business. Real success is doing all three at once.

Malcolm says

Step one, do not beat them up and tell them how badly they are doing. Step two, take the opportunity to engage other parts of the business to discuss what can be done to increase sales. Talk to Customer Services, Marketing and yes even Finance. Get a different take on customers that can be used to change how things are done. This current environment is a great opportunity to pull together the whole organisation to help and support Sales. With this extra knowledge and support Sales staff will be able to build better relationships with customers and improve results. Another key benefit is that top Sales staff will be more encouraged to stay with a company that helps them rather than just beats them up.