My background happens to be in the electric sign industry and I will be introducing a series of posts on this site that relate directly to that market. However, the principles discussed will be applicable to any business!
You and your team are all your own best customers. Provide clear and proactive communication. You are all there to serve the customer and you all play an important role. You do this by serving each other with respect.
Remember too that the quicker projects turn around, the faster you get paid. Fast and efficient turn arounds equal happy customers who are more inclined to buy again and to refer. Every team member plays a critical role in assuring customer satisfaction!
Involving the team – The team wasn’t always happy about this, but oh well. I think that it is important for the customer to know, and to meet, these other members of the company who will be integral in ensuring their satisfaction. For these folks to hide in the background is counterproductive to their own development as well as to their own accountability.
Everybody sells – Think about referrals from other team members. As far as that goes, the more eyes and ears that you have on any project will uncover additional opportunities as well as to help to head off any potential issues. At least you shouldn’t get blindsided!
When needed, you assume other roles – If I want help from others, I need to be willing to offer to help them if needed. I spent one Thanksgiving Day crating signs and then installing vinyl on a pylon tenant panel. I’m also afraid of heights. I was not the only salesperson on the shop floor. My wife spent the day weeding vinyl.
I once went on the road for a week surveying bank locations for a sign retrofit bid (we won) with nothing more than a camera, measuring tools, a paint wheel, and a collapsible ladder stuffed into the hatch of my Nissan 300ZX. Later I towed trailers of signs around the state to deliver them to our installers. Not with my Nissan.
Then there was the time that I totally screwed up the location of a brick-based monument sign in Denver and, in the middle of winter, the President and I drove out there and fixed it … after it had been completely installed. I was the go-fer. Teamwork. We had to use propane heat turbines under the truck to keep it from freezing up. Paint too. Everything froze, including me.
Every crisis is an opportunity – But only if resolved to everyone’s satisfaction and in a timely manner. The simple fact is that, if an issue is resolved properly, you will have a stronger relationship with that customer than you would have had if the issue had never occurred.
I remember the first deal that I did with a state bank that was wanting to expand rapidly. We were going to build the signs for a new branch and install sandblasted marble signs that would be shipped to us. We broke these marble signs during transport to the job site. All of them. What now?
We built replacements. In fact, they looked better than the originals! We could also provide them to the bank at a lower cost than their existing provider and we could now provide sign packages end-to-end. Lemons became lemonade. Many more branches followed. Competitors did not. They now knew that we backed what we sold and even what we did not!
Craig M. Jamieson
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