The Revenue Growth Habit Snapshots in Revenue Growth I was talking with Mike, the head of


sales and purchasing at a larger company where the same person handled both items. He told me a fascinating story. One of his large suppliers made a mistake serious mistake on one of his orders, and Mike (rightfully) came down hard on the supplier. He really chewed him out. Then, Mike says, he never heard from the supplier again. Me: And how long ago was this? Mike: Four years ago. Me: How much business did you do


with them? Mike: About $4M per year. Me, shocked: And how big was the


company?


Mike: $20 millions. At this point I have to pick my jaw


up off the fl oor. Me: But don’t you need the product? Mike: It was great stuff, I wish I could still buy it now. Me: So why don’t you just call him? Mike: Nope, that’s not how it works. He needs to call. Wow. Let’s debrief this. A salesperson got


yelled at, and never called again. He was afraid. He did not want to get yelled at again. So, he simply did not call again. Ever. Forever. The company has lost $16 million in


revenue in these four silent years. The owner has lost a couple million dollars in profi t.


And the salesperson is out many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because he is too afraid to pick up


the phone. Wrap your mind around this. And also this: the customer would


still buy, if only the salesperson would call. But he is not calling. And the customer is not buying.


* * * 32 ❘ January 2018 ®


A salesperson, Chris, is telling this story during a client workshop I am leading with around 50 of colleagues. Chris: I had this customer I wasn’t


really clicking with, so I did what you advised me to do: just call her and talk to her.


Me: Great, what how did it go? Chris: I called her, and I said “Hi


Mary, it’s Chris, how are you?” Mary: Fine, what do you need? Chris: Nothing, just calling to say


hello.


Mary: What’s wrong?! Chris: Nothing at all, I was just thinking about you. How’s your family? Mary: Really? Nobody has ever asked me that before. They’re fi ne. Chris, talking to me now: We had a


conversation. We talked for 20 minutes. We caught up. We connected. Business never came up.


Me: Excellent. She bought more


later, didn’t she? Chris, smiling: Yep. Me: When? Chris: About two weeks later she called me and gave a lot more business. The business takes care of it self.


* * *


Mark, a President of a large distribution conmpany. He relayed the story:


I was on the phone with a prospect, following


“I got a call on my cell phone from


a new CEO of one of my suppliers, and it was the fi rst time anybody had ever called me on that thing!” Just like that. Me: Weren’t you annoyed that


somebody called you on your cell phone?


Mark: No! We had a great conversation. It was great!


Alex Goldfayn is the CEO of The Evangelist Marketing Institute, LLC, a revenue growth consultancy. Alex Goldfayn is the author of The Revenue Growth Habit, selected the sales book of the year by 800-CEO-Read. He is the CEO of The Revenue Growth Consultancy. Visit his website at www.evangelistmktg.com.


* * *


Here are the common threads here. Our job is to communicate.


The more that we communicate, the more people buy. The less we communicate, the less people buy.


Customers like it when we communicate.


They appreciate it.


We think that everybody is calling our customers. But they are not.


We think that we will be bothering our customers. But we will not. We are helping them. And they know it. And they like it. Everybody likes to be helped. Help your customers. Communicate with your customers. They’ll thank you with their money.


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