Dave Baiocchi Leveraging our most important assets
Let’s face it. We all are ready to bid goodbye to 2020. With the obvious exception of 2008-2009, this year has created the highest level of disruption not only to our economic well-being, but more notably to our personal relationships, and social equilibrium. By the time you read this, election results will hopefully be behind us. Half of the country will be celebrating while the other half mourns. The resulting fallout may be the catalyst for yet another period of disruption. Let’s hope we can all just move forward.
With all of these obstacles clearly in view, how can we ensure that 2021 is a year of recovery? Health and social issues notwithstanding, if we want 2021 to represent a turning point, our businesses need to come out of the gate in January with new targets, fresh value propositions, and innovative offerings.
So, how do we build new value for customers while we are still climbing out of a damaged economy ourselves? Improving customer interactions without the benefit of accumulated resources is difficult indeed. There are ways however to improve our customer interactions without spending another dime.
Adding Value – Team Selling
We tend to operate our customer-facing sales departments based on interactions between two people. The customer and the employee (usually a salesman) are the only ones involved in the exchange. There are times however where we might invite other participants into the conversation. This usually happens however as a result of a request or concern that requires expertise or input from another source. A second voice brought into customer interaction, however, can create a unique opportunity for you to build additional value in the eyes of the customer. As a rule, we seldom do this without a “reason”. We also tend to limit customer interactions to only salespeople (Equipment Sales, CSR, or Vendor rep).
I’d like to propose that we adjust our customer contact planning and practices, to include a wider range of personnel, who can add both perspective and value to the interactions. The key here is actually providing value. We can’t just drag another employee along unless they are prepared to add something meaningful to the conversation. Team selling is powerful ONLY if the partnership addresses the customer’s objectives.
CSR-Equipment Sales
These two roles many times work the same field sales territory. The equipment salesperson tends to work on “projects” while the CSR works to manage the customer and his fleet on an ongoing basis. Although they are known to occasionally work together, most of their activity is performed individually.
The biggest opportunity for these two to “add value” is in “mid-contract” time frames. The equipment salesman, many times has little motivation or verifiable reason to visit customers between equipment replacement cycles. Unless the customer needs additional equipment, the CSR capably handles most of all other customer issues. What would be the impact, however, if the CSR made it part of his ongoing value proposition to include the sales rep in a once or twice-yearly call, where they both performed an audit of the customers’ material handling activities? They could generate a report that might suggest process improvements, fleet rotation, allied products, or other valuable measures. This does two things. It provides a point of value to the customer that is NOT currently being offered. It also raises the personal stock value of BOTH of the field reps.
I am not suggesting that they walk through every door together. I am suggesting that for customers with larger fleets (5+), this type of team partnership is one that engenders customer loyalty. The CSR is seen as part of a broader TEAM put in place to ensure customer satisfaction, and the equipment salesperson has a high-value reason for mid-cycle visits even in the absence of any known equipment needs.
Management (Parts, Service, Rental)
Many managers in our industry leave the selling to the field reps and focus only on operational efficiencies. If this explains your business model, I think we are missing some big opportunities. Once again, paired with a field rep, managers can add context, vision, and perspective to a customer visit. In my opinion, the service manager should personally visit the top 10% of service customers at least once annually. Accompanied by the CSR, they should arrange and execute a fleet management call and chat about the customer’s level of satisfaction on PM’s, repair calls, dispatch effectiveness, and invoicing. The same type of joint calls should be made by parts managers and rental managers on their top 10% of customers.
Training department, Dispatcher, Shop Manager
When we are involved in an equipment proposal, there is always a timeline that may include:
- Discovery of customer objectives
- Equipment Demonstration
- Proposal Creation and Presentation
- Waiting for a decision
- Getting the Decision
The hardest part of the process is the fourth bullet point listed above. We have demonstrated our product; we have presented our solutions and associated costs. Now we wait while the internal conversation takes place without us. In my years spent as a commission salesman, I always hated the waiting and was always on the lookout for how I could influence the transaction during this timeframe.
It never occurred to me that I could enhance my offering by continuing to schedule visits during the “waiting period”, only for the purpose of introducing high-value members of our customer-facing team. How valuable would it be for the potential customer to have some face time with our corporate trainer, our field service dispatcher, or our shop manager prior to making a decision? Properly prepared, these employees can add their experience and expertise to our offering, in order to broaden the customers perspective of why our dealership is the right choice. These employees will need to be prepared with something meaningful to say, but their input may be critical in the final analysis. Very few dealers do this. In most cases, these employees are delighted to be part of the process.
The same type of value can be built when the customer comes to the dealership for a tour. Many times, we walk the customer through the dealership and make introductions to staff members who may have had no idea a customer was coming in. They are subsequently at a loss to have a cogent message to share with the customer about how their department can be a value. Let’s not let that happen. Make it a regular practice to inform the staff, and have the expectation that each manager will engage the customer and invest just 5 minutes making a value presentation for their department.
Vendor Reps
The final spoke in the team wheel would be your vendor reps. Bringing along a vendor rep could be a value, but also a risk. I would limit the participation of a vendor rep to addressing specific customer concerns only. If you are proposing attachments, batteries, or tires represented by a particular company, it’s OK to bring the rep on a call, but only to address those specific items that are relevant. If the customer does not have a specific concern, I would limit exposure to only those who work for the dealership.
Vendor reps are necessary, and many of them are valuable. We must remember however that their goals and our goals are not necessarily aligned. They don’t work for the dealership. Their mandate is not dependent on our dealership getting the order. You may trust them, but please, proceed with caution.
In the struggle to differentiate our offerings from our competitors, and do so in a tight and damaged marketplace, we need to intentionally leverage our most valuable assets. Our people. To do this we have to imagine our employees engaging in activities that may be outside their customary day to day experience. The wide acceptance and use of web-based interactions only make this integration easier for all parties. Good team members should always be ready and willing to answer that call. Let’s think outside the box. It’s a new year!
Dave Baiocchi is the president of Resonant Dealer Services LLC. He has spent 38 years in the equipment business as a sales manager, aftermarket director, and dealer principal. Dave now consults with dealerships nationwide to establish and enhance best practices, especially in the area of aftermarket development and performance. E-mail [email protected] to contact Dave.
