Ruben was excited about the call he just finished with the Facilities Manager at a school in his territory. The situation was a perfect fit for his company's new line of industrial faucets. Plus, the Facilities Manager told him the hardware needed to be installed ASAP or the school would face a fine from the local building inspector.
Abby prided herself on the level of customer service she delivered after the sale, and loved the loyalty her customers expressed to her. That loyalty also had a troubling side and it was beginning to show.
Kyle loves selling. He also loves the company he works for and the products and lines he represents. His cup is filled by going to work every day and sharing with his prospects, suspects, and clients about what is new at in his professional world. With so much positivity, Kyle does well for himself, and his managers are pleased with his production. So, what’s the problem here?
Bill and Pat were returning from their monthly poker game and while riding back in the car they both agreed they had witnessed a situation that they could apply as a "lesson learned" to their business careers.
Symptoms:
Joe teed up a nice little order at one of his smaller accounts. It wasn't a make or break type of deal, but it created some additional opportunities to expand the product mix and make a lesser account more profitable. In an effort to keep his sale on track, Joe emailed the customer to confirm his appointment for a week later and mentioned that he thought this should be a decision meeting on the product program he was offering.
Symptoms
Gary is having one of those days where he is angry, but also having some self-doubts. One of his biggest accounts just informed him they are switching to another vendor. All of this comes as a great surprise and he knows these events will create a whirlwind of damage control, finger pointing and endless postmortem conversations. His first thought is they are just jerks, but something is nagging at him about how this could happen on his watch.
Symptoms:
Jerry was having a year that was slightly ahead of last year, but he was frustrated that he wasn't doing as well as he thought he could be or should be. Although he had taken some sales training and learned some unique words, phrases, and approach tactics, he felt like he was struggling to say and do the "right" things when it came to managing his activities and sales calls. He wondered what he needed to change so that his daily work became more natural, fun, and productive.
Friday afternoon and Julia’s mind was already on the vacation she had coming up in three weeks. The past week she dealt with the one sales challenge that constantly caused her frustration, and no matter what rebuttals her manager told her to throw back at the prospect the result remained the same; no sales because her price was too high.
It drove Izzy crazy, and he had no clue what to do about it. Day after day, email after email, Izzy sent messages that were honest, professional and ineffective. His subject lines told the truth in short comfortable requests for the recipient to please read the message. In short, Izzy felt like all his email correspondence was going into black hole where no one read them or responded to them. He knew that getting some traction with his new line of beverages would be a challenge, but this was downright agony. Was everyone in the world so cold and callous that they just did not bother to send a reply, even if it was thanks, no thanks?
Jackson felt that lump in his throat and just wanted to scream. Big Shot Bob of ABC Engineering did it again; he promised Jackson he would keep his appointment this time after three cancellations or no shows, but his admin was apologizing for Bob not being available once again. Because ABC was one of the biggest firms in the metropolitan area, Jackson just could not bring himself to share his anger at being stood up once again.
