John CRAWFORD He’s old school and we’re proud of it
Bean counter turned salesman proved a dab hand at figures
WHAT makes good sales staff in our industry? Some people can sell any product or service. One of the best gentlemen I worked with had previously sold baked beans, and then fl our to the bakery trade before joining our Company.
He liked to take me out to meet our bigger customers, and often lined up a few early morning visits. En route, he’d brief about the background and status of the buyer or MD we were going to meet – such as their hobbies and sports interests.
If it was football, there was the added dimension in the west of Scotland of the bitter rivalry between the two big Glasgow clubs, Rangers and Celtic.
When we arrived at the customer’s reception area, he’d sign the visitors’ book; quickly scanning the entries for the previous week or two, to see if any of our competitors had been in.
However, if I got tetchy when meeting a person we’d arranged to see, and that person kept us waiting for more than ten minutes, our representative would just shrug and say ‘it was all part of the job.’
When we got into the customer’s offi ce, our man would launch into whatever topic enthused the former. “Say anything to keep the customer happy,” was his motto.
He had only two faults: fi rstly, he was reluctant to call on customers where there was a possibility of a ‘rollocking.’
After all if you lose a customer for bad service, you’ve lost them for a few years or more. Whereas, if there’s an issue regarding price increases, you can go back
after six months or so.
Secondly, he didn’t like fi lling up the company’s standard sales sheets - he just sized up and estimated jobs by gut feeling.
I once sent for him when a longstanding customer phoned me to say he hadn’t seen our Rep for months. To which my sales friends stated: “This customer is very prickly, always moaning about the price and wanting a rebate.”
“Say anything to keep the customer happy” - and of course, the salesman did
I told him I’d arranged a visit the next day, but after our telephone conversation I was confi dent the customer was going to terminate the contract.
When we arrived I went in fi rst and told the customer he hadn’t paid his bill for four months, and asked what the problem was.
The customer replied: “I’ve been trying to get him (our Rep) to come in to see me about additional containers, but he’s been ignoring me so I stopped paying.”
So we then sorted out his extra containers, and I said: “I want the outstanding bill settled immediately.”
“I’ll write you a cheque just now, but I want some discount,” the customer concluded. So I gave him £50 off the bill!
It wouldn’t be uncommon for company sales forms to not be completed. This
meant this particular sales gentleman coming into my offi ce at 10am, asking me to approve a quote for the Regional Council- due to be lodged before noon.
He was off ering £29.75/1000 litres for the collection and disposal of wastewater. So, I asked to see his calculations.
“I’m in a rush and we need to get this quote in,” was the reply – meaning he had no calculations!
But I sat him down and interrogated him on round-trip times from the source to the disposal site, operating, disposal costs, gross profi t etc, only to come up with a fi gure of £29.69/1000 litres! So I signed off the quote.
Selling is a specialism, and not everybody is cut out for it. And in our business the Reps need two things when calling on customers: to be smartly dressed and to drive a clean car.
JOHN trained at Saltcoats Burgh in the late 60s. After a decade he moved to PD Beatwaste Ltd/ Wimpey Waste Management Ltd. He then joined the Civil Engineering Dept at Strathclyde University before posts at Renfrew, Hamilton, Inverness and East Ayrshire Councils.
A Fellow of CIWM, he served on their Scottish Centre Council from 1988- 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and was their President between 1991-92.
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SHM May, 2018
www.skiphiremagazine.co.uk
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