Neglected, Undeveloped Customers Are Striving For A Better 2010 And Represent Untapped, Unmanaged Opportunities

Published: Graphic Impressions - February/March 2010

INTRODUCTION

Almost every client I've worked with over twenty-three years has what I'll call "House Accounts." Those are accounts that tend to buy something over the course of a year.

However, when I ask, "Who's responsible for developing revenues and improved margins in these accounts?" And individually, "Is this all the printing this customer buys?" The answers too often are something that sounds like, "All of us sort of take care of them when they call us."

My interpretation: No one is responsible for developing and improving the supplier's role in those customers - and some of those customers over the last decade have grown significantly.

Now let's turn to the list of customers who haven't bought in the last twelve to thirty-six months. I tend to ask something like, "What happened to these customers?" And the answer tends to sound like, "We just haven't had time to follow-up on those, or reassign them."

Then, I might turn to the list of "Top Five (or Ten, or Twenty) Customers for each Sales Rep." 2009 and already for 2010 - will predictably and understandably show a decrease in revenues from 2008 - for most of the names on each list. And I'll tend to ask a slightly different series of questions, that sound like, "How many different departments and individuals at each customer are we calling on?" And, "Are we calling on the HR Department?" And, "Who is the agency of account, and are we calling on that agency, also?" And, "How many names at these customers are on your mailing list?" And, "How many names to our organization's master self-promotion mailing list have been added, deleted, or changed - in the last 90 days?"

Sometimes I'll ask, "Are prospects that Sales Reps are pursuing reviewed with the Sales Reps' supervisor, before company resources are committed to the account development process?" Too often the answer is something like, "Not really - we need volume from almost any source in today's market," which infers that all dollars are equal, which of course, isn't true.

Next, I'll ask whoever is primarily in charge of business development, and responsible for managing the business development process and team, "How many major customers were reassigned the past six (or twelve, or eighteen) months for lack of development?" (Most of us can guess the most frequently heard responses to this question.) And, "What did we find out about why these customers were down in revenues with us in 2008? And these in 2009? And already, in 2010?" (And why are some customers up in revenues?)

Finally, I'll ask, "How many of our Sales Reps (and CSR's, and Estimators) have received a written performance review in the last twelve months?" Regardless of size or sophistication of the organization, the practice too often is one in which "Sales Reps' paychecks are understood to be their performance review."

CUSTOMER OPPORTUNITIES DESERVE TO BE MANAGED

These observations and anecdotal situations are intended to give readers the chance to reflect on immediate opportunities to improve what's occurring, not occurring - and what might occur - in their organization.

Now I'd like to share several observations that should give additional opportunity to reflect.

As an additional observation, one of my growing awareness is that very, very few organizations in our industry have a written business development plan - for each major account, or for each Sales Rep, or for the organization - as a whole. (Lack of a written plan tends to support lack of follow-up - and lack of accountability.)

Written business development plans can start from creation of basic questions, and lists:

  1. Which customers are we most important to, and why? (Isn't that a profile of who we should be pursuing?)
  2. What major accounts should we contact in the next 30 days? (Will the CMO follow-up re. did those contacts happen, what was accomplished, and what's the follow-up?)
  3. How productive is each Sales Reps week? Are they turning in to their supervisor a Weekly Itinerary - at the first of each week?
  4. Which major accounts have not asked for a quote in the last 30 days? Last 60 days? (And at what point do we call them to inquire? Is there a standard on this issue in our organization?)
  5. How often do we have a business development education and training session? How often should we, and what should be the content?
  6. How often do we review samples in the business development team, and especially to a depth that allows the samples to be intelligently reviewed with major accounts by other Sales Reps?
  7. How often do we review useful research websites, and how information from those websites can be useful in developing business?
  8. Do we know the (a) sources of pain, and (b) performance priorities for our top twenty or thirty accounts? (Why, and why not?)
  9. What should our written self-promotion plan look like for 2010?
  10. Shouldn't we be focusing on how to improve each customers' revenue streams through our capabilities? (e.g. How important is "revenue development" for nonprofits, higher education, and major medical facilities?)
  11. What requests occurred over the last 30-60-90 days that we couldn't respond positively to? Do our people know how important it is that we document these requests? How do we document complaints received by Prepress, Delivery Personnel, and Sales Reps and CSR?
  12. Who's proactively managing our Quote Log? (Do we have a Quote Log, and does it include, "When do we expect this job to be awarded?")
  13. If we have digital imaging production capabilities, with how many customers have we discussed developing a Quarterly Employee Benefits Statement for them? (What are the economic benefits to reducing their employee attrition by 5%?)

SUMMARY

Most customers have ambitions to make 2010 better than 2009. If that is believed to be true, or often true - what should be our organization's role in that process? (Are we waiting for the phone to ring?)

Over the last 60 days, I've experienced a few, aggressive, "got-their-act-together?" business development leaders in clients capturing significant chunks of surprise business.

Common traits in those individuals included that:

  • they were actively involved in their major accounts - they never let-up,
  • they were intimate to those customers' business performance issues, and
  • they were constantly providing those organizations with suggestions, market research information they had dug-up, and had ultimately become an informal part of those customers' senior management teams.

I had the opportunity to ask several of them what their competition was like, and what their competition was doing.

General, common response? "Our competition doesn't know what's happening; they're still asking for something to quote so they can save the customer some money, and help them buy at a lower price."

There you have it. Some suppliers are fighting to provide a lower price/M, and other suppliers are working to provide a better overall business performance for the customer.

If you were the CMO or CEO of the customer, which supplier would be more valuable to you? The one who can provide a 3% lower cost per M of print, or the one who truly has a better program for your organization's overall performance?