May The “Sales Force” Be With You

Are you your own worst enemy when it comes to obtaining new business?

I would like to tell you a rather sad but true story about an Office Manager (that would be me) trying to obtain a new phone line for her office. It goes something like this:

A not so long time ago in a galaxy very nearby (Apparently, I have watched too much Star Wars with my 9 yr old son) an Office Manager of a wonderful up and coming marketing technology company set out to acquire a new phone line for the ever burgeoning office she manages. She did her homework and the math and decided upon a company that the office already had a relationship with. Surely, this company would want her business, because isn’t it true that the more connections you have with a particular customer, the more likely you are to keep them? So, she sent a message to them through their online request form asking for a sales rep to call her. She knew her message had been received (or at least she thought so) because in her email inbox she received notification that they had. But, alas, the days went by and not a word was heard from them.

However, this did not deter the ever faithful Office Manager. She decided that maybe a phone call would be more effective, but unfortunately she was again thwarted in her quest by extremely long wait times. What was she to do? So, she braved another email request. Again, to her dismay no one contacted her. By this time, the normally sweet tempered Office Manager was a little put out. She made one last attempt by placing a phone call. It finally seemed that perhaps she had reached the end of her quest—a real live person answered the phone and actually took her order. She was promised that the new contract would be emailed to her in short order and then the new phone line would finally be installed!

At this point you may be thinking to yourself that, although this sounds much more painful than it should have been, all’s well that ends well, right? I wish I could say that this was the end of the story, to add insult to injury, it was not. Unfortunately, the email with the new contract never came and the Office Manager once again was forced to call. To her utmost dismay there wasn’t even a record of her ordering the new service. How could this possibly be? Did they really not want or need the new business? To make matters worse, the representative that answered the phone either could not or would not help her. The Office Manager at this point could only think- “HOW HARD SHOULD IT BE FOR ME TO GIVE YOU MY BUSINESS?!  I called you! Isn’t this a sales person’s dream?”

I pass along this sad, but true tale in hopes that it will help you think about how easy (or hard) you’re making it for current or potential customers to get your services or products.

As Obi-Wan-Kenobi would say, “Use the Force Luke”. That would be the “Sales force”! And I’m pretty sure he meant, “Use it well”.

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