Selling To Key Receivers
One of the most important concepts I learned as a new sales consultant was that three
rules apply
to all organizations today:
■ Rule #1 – everyone in an organization is a salesperson.
■ Rule #2 – not everyone believes rule number one.
■ Rule #3 – everyone has customers.
The most successful, customer-centric managers we encounter live by these rules.
They work hard
to
create a culture that gets everyone involved in generating sales
revenue. They know
that lots of
people
do not consider themselves salespeople;
But they recognize that everyone
in their organization
is a
salesperson because
everyone, regardless of job title or job functions,
has colleagues, who we
call key receivers,
as customers.
Customer-centric managers think of the company’s employees as key receivers. Managers in these
organizations recognize that they oversee a volunteer workforce,
and they realize that
their success
as
managers depends, to a large degree, on their
ability to persuade employees to
work at fulfilling
the
company’s mission.
We’ve noticed that these managers faithfully follow their company’s sales process
when interacting
with subordinates. They know that the methodologies they use in
working with customers, to
present,
persuade and move customers to commitment,
works as well when interacting internally
with key
receivers.
We don’t think it is an accident that companies that are satisfied with their
implementation of highly
complex CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
systems share a common approach
to
managing
their employees. Instead of
simply
announcing the arrival of new CRM software,
managers
solicited
input
from all
affected business units during the project’s planning phase,
communicated
openly
with
all employees impacted by the new system, launched modules in
stages to
promote user
adoption, and
addressed the cultural shift issues that a
major change
in
software often entails. In
short, they approached
their employees,
theirkey receivers, as
customers of the new software system!
A willingness to accept the three rules that apply to all organizations today, and
a
commitment to
treat
everyone in the organization as a “customer,” helps create
a true customer-focused enterprise.
In these organizations, providing excellent
customer service becomes the habit of the company’s
key receivers.
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Copyright © 2006 Selling Up™. All Rights Reserved.
About the author: Steve Chriest is the founder of Selling Up™ (www.selling-up.com), a sales consulting
firm specializing in revenue and sales improvement for organizations of all types and sizes in a variety of
industries. He is also the author of Selling The E-Suite, The Proven System For Reaching and Selling
Senior Executives and Profits and Cash – The Game of Business. You can reach Steve at
schriest@selling-up.com.
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