Becoming an Advocate

*The following is an excerpt from Mark Bishop's book, The Trusted Seller; the foundation for the What Buyers Want sales training program. Contact us for more information.

Top salespeople act as a TEAMMATE to the buyer. The customer feels as though the seller and she are working TOGETHER to achieve the same GOALS.....

Becoming an Advocate for your buyer

Certainly by now, the behaviors that got you to this point should be deeply ingrained after much repetition. Yet it's only natural if you feel the urge to relax a bit now that you've become the primary supplier (or one of the select few suppliers) serving the buying organization. Don't rest on your laurels. You can't ease up on any of the nine behaviors we've covered so far.

Although people define customer loyalty differently, almost every definition addresses the issue of customer satisfaction. You've gotten to this point by consistently satisfying the customer. The minute you break a promise, your satisfaction score takes a bullet.

Narrow your focus.

Cultivating deeply enmeshed relationships with all your customers is a tough proposition. Not only is this difficult, it's probably also cost-prohibitive. It does makes sense, however, to "apply these practices to the 20% of your customers who give you 80% of your revenues, or better yet, the 80% of your profits if you are able to calculate profitability on a customer-by-customer basis" (Howard 2004).

Surprised at the suggestion to focus your efforts? Don't be. I'm a firm believer in starting small before deciding to take on the world. Assess each of your business relationships. Which are most profitable? Which could benefit from a more integrative approach? Is it in the buyer's best interests to pursue a more deeply entrenched relationship with your firm? If so, perhaps it's time to investigate this concept more fully with your boss and other higher-ups within your organization.

Convincing management (yours or theirs) to establish a long-term relationship with a particular buyer is "likely to entail an in-depth, cost-benefit analysis" as well as pointed discussions regarding what the best-case relationship should look like (Sharma 2001, 10). Put another way, both parties will scrutinize the expected gains over time compared to the potential tradeoffs; plus, you'll be considering the odds of truly achieving the relationship you want (Sharma 2001, 10).

Obviously, what I've suggested above is a more proactive approach in which you're helping the relationship to evolve further. Initiating such discussions is appropriate only when it's evident that both parties would benefit from a more deeply entrenched relationship. In other cases, the buyer will initiate the discussion. Regardless, once you reach this point, give the matter serious consideration if you and the buyer both believe it's in the best interests of each organization.

Lock, stock and barrel.

You cannot advocate effectively for the buying organization if you don't believe in what it's doing. Think about it. How can you walk into your boss's office and make a compelling case for adjusting component production if you don't think the buyer uses your components ethically when developing products? Can you argue passionately to get your R&D folks to customize a circuit board for a buyer when you doubt your customer's ability to create a market for highly specialized remote control newspaper fetchers? I think not. You've got to believe in the buyer's mission before you can advocate effectively for your customer.

If you don't believe in your customer's mission, ask yourself why. Do a bit of soul-searching to figure out what's keeping you from committing yourself fully to the buying organization. If it's within your power to change (and if it's a change you want to make), then do so.

Share freely.

When it comes to business intelligence or any scoop that is likely of interest to the buyer or the buying organization, don't hold back. At this point in the business relationship, an interesting dynamic occurs when you disclose information as a sales rep. The more proprietary information you share regarding your business or the buyer's industry, the more this works to your advantage in maintaining buyer trust. Trust demands "open communication � not just selective information exchange" (Fawcett, Magnan and Williams 2004, 23).

Unfortunately, sellers and buyers alike frequently do not disclose tactical and strategic information that, if shared, could be beneficial for advancing both forward. Ultimately, both parties must "learn to share all the information that affects a relationship's competitiveness" (Fawcett, Magnan and Williams 2004, 23).

How to Build Team Unity that Helps Your Customer

Roy Chitwood, a Seattle-based sales and customer service consultant, swears by a six-step process that helps you effectively build team unity, maintain clear internal communication and serve the customer (Chitwood 2004):

Gain buy-in. Before transitioning certain responsibilities to others within your organization, let your internal people know why the transition is important and gain their buy-in to proceed. If you receive any flak, you may candidly point out that "especially during today's uncertain economy, this could preserve all of our positions."
Establish clear goals. Set goals regarding how and how frequently parties will communicate. Set goals to increase customer satisfaction. �Whatever is relevant to your company, set goals so that your people know the end they're working toward."
Set expectations. Communicate clearly to each of your internal colleagues exactly their roles, the value of their activities and what you expect from each.
Establish processes. After establishing goals, you must discuss and track these regularly. At a minimum, touch base briefly each week with each person. Additionally, monthly meetings attended by all involved employees keep everyone updated and working toward the predetermined goals.
Maintain accountabilities. Employees can be held accountable only when their goals and expectations are clear. Once these are in place, it's not just your right to hold them accountable. It's your responsibility. When all employees reach their goals, you'll achieve your vision.
Set rewards. Reward your colleagues as they reach milestones that will help them achieve their goals. You've got to acknowledge and reward the team for a job well done. Share proprietary information relevant to the buyer. Don't fuel another Martha Stewart incident; obviously, you need to do things on the up-and-up. But when you have a piece of information that could benefit the buyer, share it. You gain credibility and the buyer walks away with the impression that he's talking to a salesperson on the inside track.

At this stage, it's inevitable that other relationships have formed (or still must form) between the employees of your firm and those of the buying organization. Make sure you provide the resources and environment that your relationship needs to thrive. You've got to make sure your colleagues � the intermediaries working with your customer � know what they're doing. Train them well; give them the scoop they need to be knowledgeable about this particular customer's needs. Establish and keep open internal communication channels.

Nobody wants to send a kid into the world without first taking every step to ensure their success, right? Well, this relationship is your baby. You'd better do the same to ensure its chances of thriving, particularly when you can't always be there.

Stretch those tentacles.

The very best sales reps establish relationships with key players deep within the buying organization. Two facts make this extremely important:

First, consider a situation in which your buyer leaves. When the torch is passed to New Sue, what motivates her to continue using your firm as the primary supplier?

The more deeply you entrench yourself (and your trusted colleagues) within the buying organization, the more difficult it is to be replaced. In fact, some even argue that it's wise to use deep relationships as a strategy for locking up key accounts (Wilson 2000, 12). I disagree with anyone who says you should initiate this purely as a means of self-preservation (your focus needs to be on what's best for the buying organization). However, you can't dispute the fact that it's more difficult to switch suppliers when the two organizations are really linked.

Second, access to better information is another important reason, beyond maintaining your position as key supplier, to network more extensively within your customers firm. You simply do a better job for the buying organization when you're well-connected. You learn plans firsthand � perhaps even before the buyer learns what's in the works. You get feedback directly. You identify opportunities to better serve the buying organization. The results are simply better when you're more connected and you know what's going on.

To accomplish this, know the players within the buying organization and make sure they know you. Dave Kahle, who twice earned the distinction of #1 salesperson in the nation (two different companies, two distinct industries), recommends you broaden relationships methodically (Kahle 2005). He says you should list all the important contact people within the account and then "carefully evaluate the state of the relationship" you have with each. If important people don't know you, he says to fix that quickly: "Make sure you have positive relationships with your key contact's boss, and the boss's boss. Work as high up the hierarchy as possible (Kahle 2005)."

If you question the payoff of building relationships deeper within the organization, remember the outcomes. This strategy not only helps you be more effective at serving the buying organization; it also positions you to better weather organizational change.

Giraffe-style.

The best salespeople risk political capital for their customers. When they need to stick their neck out by fighting internally on a buyer's behalf, they do it. The top reps do whatever it takes to ensure a pain-free buying experience for the customer � and they let the buyer know what steps they've taken internally to help the buying organization.

Not a bad strategy if you want to tighten the bond with the buyer a bit more. Research indicates that when a service provider's behaviors and practices reduce relational risk ("perceived risk within the relational exchange context"), it can affect customer loyalty. Specifically, literature on the reciprocity principle argues "customers are likely to act 'cooperatively' toward such a trustworthy service provider to maintain trust, by demonstrating behavioral evidence of their loyalty" (Sirdeshmukh, Singh and Sabol 2002, 9). In other words, if the buyer sees you sticking your neck out or perceives your company is taking on additional risk, it can further your attempts to win buyer loyalty.

If you don't take care of your customer, someone else will.

In an ideal world, the sale is made and the impact on the buying organization's processes or systems is negligible. With a quick snap of the fingers, the buyer can execute the necessary systems changes, get employees trained and help establish the requisite warranty/repair/return procedures. Every customer is completely satisfied, no shipments experience delays, it's just all good. Well, that's the ideal world.

In the real world, we both know that any vendor change brings about a flurry of changes within the buying organization � and, inevitably, things just don't go as smoothly as desired. Perhaps the best advice I can give you is this: Don't shrug off the problem with a casual attitude. The best reps don't. They make the vendor's problem their problem and they work their tails off to find a solution F�A�S�T. Their diligence in problem-solving, timeliness and frequent buyer communication enable them to recover admirably (or as admirably as possible) from service failures beyond their control.

One tactic you might consider for especially valuable accounts is to designate someone to handle after-sales issues. If your firm can offer such a resource to your customers, you may be pleasantly surprised at the results. I watched in amazement as one supplier employing this technique grew our $500,000 account to a $12 million account, nearly a 25-fold increase!

Keep in mind: Our members can choose any distributor they want. But now, they demand distributor 'T' because their in-house advocate makes life easier for them! Incidentally, our members not only demand 'T', but they've also voted this firm "Vendor of the Year" twice; in fact, 'T' has received three corporate awards over the last six years. And how did they do it? Ah, yes... they reallocated a single people resource to handle after-sales issues for a group of customers. Food for thought.

If you want to win buyer loyalty, you've got to focus on the after-sales issues � all the little things that can zing you later, making both you and your firm look bad. The best approach is to be proactive. Whenever possible, head off problems before they blossom into full-blown crises. Designating a dedicated resource is a great way to help with this. But if that's not an option (and really, even if this is an option), I want you to pay particular attention to these tactics employed by top salespeople:

Plan ahead. When ordering products, you may want to request delivery a few days earlier than needed (assuming early delivery does not pose a problem for the buyer). Refrain from sharing this info with the buyer (unless he'll learn on his own anyway), simply because you don't want him thinking that you expect your company to fail. You're just taking measures that may work in your favor later if a delivery problem occurs.

I encourage you to be prudent when using this approach; it can be effective when a buyer is relying mightily upon delivery by a particular date. Otherwise, you could earn a reputation within your firm for creating artificial deadlines, something that undoubtedly works against you if your order fulfillment crew begins assuming that all your future orders include such cushion time. But employing this strategy every now and then for "do or die"situations is a good strategy.
Communicate with your people. Clearly outline expectations and deadlines for everyone internally who plays a role in fulfilling your buyer's needs. Check back with each party on key dates to ensure critical tasks remain on schedule. Doing so helps you identify immediately if something isn't proceeding as planned.

If you've got a problem, explore options. Can you adjust subsequent internal deadlines to make up for lost time? Can another area help out to get your team back on schedule? What steps can be taken to rectify the problem?
Communicate with the buyer. If you've identified a problem that cannot be rectified internally, identify realistic best- and worst-case scenarios. Then tuck your tail between your legs, and head on over for an honest heart-to-heart talk with your customer.

The worst thing you can do at this point is to ignore the problem and hope for the best. Your folks screwed up. Alert the buyer as early as possible. Although it's not ideal, perhaps the buying organization can adjust internally to make the best of a bad situation. But it's just not going to happen if the buyer doesn't find out until the last hour.

Regardless of whether there are problems, make it a point to connect with the buyer regularly. (Otherwise, the buyer dreads hearing from you!) Send the buyer a newsletter or a monthly email containing proprietary, relevant information regarding your company's plans or products. Customize your efforts by adding a note or two explaining how the information can be applied to the buying organization. Plan ahead the efforts you'll make for a given quarter and mark your calendar appropriately. This helps you remain on course with your communication efforts; you're simply executing an already thought-out plan.

One last thought on communicating with the buyer: Give status reports periodically regarding the efforts you've made on behalf of your buyer. Many reps don't think they receive credit for all their sweat behind the scenes. Well, if nobody knows about it, it really doesn't count. Avoiding sounding like a martyr, but make sure the buyer knows the effort you're putting forth � and the results you've achieved.

Monitor product/service performance. How do your products fare? Is your firm serving the buying organization as it should? Solicit customer feedback � even if your company has a formal program in place. When a top sales rep receives direct feedback regarding poor product or personnel performance, she regards this as a challenge to improve the situation � and then does everything within her power to address the issue.

When a matter is beyond her control, she alerts the right people in her organization to the problem and makes it clear that a valued customer isn't happy. If the matter warrants change but is something that cannot be fixed, she digs until she finds out why. When the reason sounds weak, she plugs away until she finds someone with the power to initiate change. When the reason is valid, she accepts it. In either case, she shares the outcome of her efforts with the buyer. You should do the same; this practice (when combined with the others in this section) can help you win buyer loyalty.

Finally, make it a point to know all the people within your company who interact with employees of the buying organization. Unless you have a photographic memory, I encourage you to create a list of all the involved players within your company. Include:

Name and contact information of your colleague
Nature of the interaction that your colleague has with the customer
Purpose of the interaction
When (or how frequently) your colleague interacts with the customer
Name of person/department your colleague contacts at the buying organization

At a bare minimum, you'll remain "in the know" when communicating with the buyer. But you can also use this tool to check periodically with other involved parties � both within your firm and the buying organization � to ensure buyer-supplier relationships are solid at every point.

The squeeze test. Admit it: You squeeze the bread at your local supermarket before you buy. Well, you're not alone. No one wants a stale product - at the supermarket or otherwise. Keep that in mind when considering your company's offerings compared to those of your competition.

If your firm is not offering up-to-date products or services, perhaps it should be. Although you may feel pretty tight with the buyer right now, what's going to happen when the buyer learns about other solutions as they become available in the market? And, how does that make your firm look if it isn't offering the latest and greatest?

Building a solid buyer-supplier relationship goes well beyond delivering what your customers needs today. You've got to stay abreast of what they'll want tomorrow. Some literature suggests a "trust defect" occurs when a customer "feels forced to switch to a competitor" because its existing supplier has not "kept up in terms of providing innovative products and services" (Hart and Johnson 1999, 10).

Naturally, your role as a sales rep isn't to research and develop new product offerings. But you can � and should � be well aware of what your competition is doing. You need to know about innovative, new solutions within your industry. You need to know if your R&D team is tinkering with a solution to address a problem voiced by your customer. The best salespeople are aware of their own firm's intentions regarding new product development.

My message is twofold:

First, know what's going on. You've got to be in the know. When you don't know what's happening within your own company, with your competition or within the industry, it's hard to advocate for your customer.
Second, never tell yourself it's not your job to advocate for new research, new products, etc. within your organization. The people who are tasked with this responsibility aren't in the field daily. But you are. This doesn't mean you're right... or that your word should rule... or that you should expect people to take your suggestions all the time. But you do need to work hard to ensure your company passes the "squeeze test" every time your buyer considers its existing supplier (you!) in comparison to the competition. Is your firm fresh enough? Is it forward-thinking and customer-focused? If not, start shaking things up a bit. You're not just preserving your customer; you may be preserving your job.

Two things NOT to do.

For starters, never leave the buyer hanging. If there's a problem that requires further attention or follow-up within your company, remain involved and solve it. Don't tell the buyer to call so-and-so within your company. Know how ticked off you get after punching 43 digits in a feeble attempt to outsmart the automated phone system so you can find the right person with the right authority to solve your problem? And then you end up repeating yourself to a minimum of four people before you finally get disconnected and have to start over again? This is exactly the experience you want the buyer to avoid.

Finally, never leave an unhappy buyer out there. We talk. When a fellow buyer relays his horror story about the SOB who won't return calls and deliver the promised installation help, I pay attention to the name of the rep and the company involved.

No one with buying authority knowingly explores a relationship with a poor supplier. Going a step further, truly angry buyers go out of their way to share bad supplier experiences. Although your efforts at this point are to win buyer loyalty, you'll never reach that point if something happens to shatter the buyer trust you worked so hard to earn.

Final Thoughts on Winning Buyer Loyalty

Buyers don't advocate for suppliers who provide good service. But they recognize when a supplier provides exceptional service � service that cannot be replaced easily by another organization.

Buyers don't just expect certain behaviors and performance from suppliers who have earned their loyalty. They depend on you. The distinction is noteworthy. It's what earns you buyer loyalty and a ticket to guaranteed future sales.

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Becoming an Advocate

Top salespeople act as a TEAMMATE to the buyer. The customer feels as though the seller and she are working TOGETHER to achieve the same GOALS.....