One of the most common objections raised by business leaders when considering making a commitment to any type of training is cost. Careful analysis of historical cost cutting in times of austerity will almost always show the training budget was the first to suffer (along with marketing) and even when the economic ‘feel-good factor’ returns, many are nervous about spending money on the development of their most precious asset – People.
In many of my training programmes we discuss the ‘P’s: Process, Premises, Product and People. The reality of today’s market place is that an ever-increasing number of companies are jostling for space in an already crowded arena. Assuming that they can’t influence the products they sell or where their business trades from, the ONLY discernable competitive advantage that these businesses have control over is the knowledge, skill and attitude of their people and their ability to deliver a world-class experience for their customers.
Incredibly some businesses, despite record sales volumes and profit, will still hesitate to invest in their people. Why is that? Well, when times are good and the orders are rolling in many salespeople’s bad habits, a lack of management control of the process and delivery of an inconsistent customer experience go unnoticed or ignored; only when the market contracts and times get tough are these weaknesses exposed and its often too late to do something to stop the inevitable from happening.
All of this brings me onto the subject of today’s blog: Prospecting. I wanted to share this example of prospecting with you. To give you the background into it, the recipient visited a dealership and enquired on a vehicle. Depressingly (yet unsurprisingly), the prospect was never followed up until now, over 18 months later. I’ve hidden the name of the dealer, the brand and the sales executive because those details aren’t relevant but I haven’t altered the grammar or structure of the email. It is also worth noting was that is was sent in Arial Bold 16 font in a fetching shade of Doom Blue. The content of the email that the prospect received is below:
Hello Ms *****, you made an enquiry on a new ***** last year, as we are now the new ***** dealer in Milton Keynes. The email is to update our records did you purchase a car, and did you visit a showroom? Could you please email or call on 01908xxxxxxxxx
Kind Regards
*******
Customer support assistant
Milton Keynes ***********
A lack of training, process and management control is plainly apparent in this piece of misguided customer communication. Before we all leap to condemn our hapless ‘Customer support assistant’ (sic) we must first ask what the manager is doing. A Sales Manager’s responsibility is, amongst many other things, to manage enquiries and this should apply equally to prospecting. Therefore, in approximately 50 ill-constructed and grammatically inept words, this retailer has resolutely failed to re-engage with the customer and in all probability just confirmed to the customer that it was the right decision not to choose that particular brand or retailer. But at least they made some good savings from the training budget.