‘The Personal Touch’
By Wayne Cohn
‘I am the Business Development Manager at Coverpoint Solutions and my role involves developing and maintaining our supply chain and Sales and Marketing. I have written this Blog to share with you my day-to-day frustrations in the ultra-competitive IT Marketplace. I would be very interested to hear other people’s views on this subject, so please post your comments.
It was not long ago that the basics of buying and selling had an emphasis on a strong and binding human relationship between two parties. Most importantly, from a selling perspective, the focus was on how one or many individuals could look after customers and satisfy their needs. This could apply to any vertical market or segment.
As of now, I choose to talk briefly about the level of service and Account Management within the IT Industry. I am not one to name and shame, but at the same time it should be pointed out that the biggest culprits of red tape and bureaucracy are some of the major Hardware Manufacturers and Tier 1 Distributors that can supply an entire product range to help manage and maintain an IT infrastructure of any size. These are the companies and people that we rely on day-to-day, to ensure that we encounter minimal down time, enabling our business to grow and become more successful.
In fairness, their business models do dictate what is expected of their sales force in order to achieve their massive million pound targets. However, it can be clearly noted that too much is expected in terms of people achieving targets and this leads to attrition, which in turn leads to new Account Management. It is at this point that a valued customer could potentially fall prey to not being valued and past relationships not recognized.
The basics are no longer available, like getting a quote in two hours, asking for a call back or responding to a tender within a given timeframe. When was the last time you had a call from your supplier wishing you a Happy Birthday? I for one understand how difficult it is to win new accounts and maintain them. Maybe, the aggressive approach of winning as many new accounts as possible, instead of nurturing, retaining and maintaining their existing ones has impacted greatly on individuals or companies and this has ultimately led to losing them.
In simple terms, the relationship is partly owned by the person who looks after your company’s needs and not the supplier itself. Of course, each organization procures differently and listening to what their daily operation does will ultimately help in the sales function and this will bridge the gap between the two.
The good news is that monopolies do exist, but they have been reduced in size due to the fierce competition in the marketplace today, so as a buyer there is plenty to choose from. On that note, the importance of a clear customer experience, selection of the correct people and the building of continuous improvement are just a few things that I live by.
