I went in to see a CIO recently and he told me a story about an unhappy salesperson. The sales guy was working a large opportunity to sell industrial machinery to an existing customer. Confidence was high, all sales steps were taken and the salesperson set a meeting to get the order.
The meeting was chilly. The salesman looked into the stony face of the general manager and wondered. He wondered where the warm smile and the firm handshake was hiding behind the grim demeanor of his customer. He covered a few details and extended the proposal with his right hand and with his left hand pushed a pen, his signing pen, to the GM.
The GM said, ” Why on earth would I buy another machine from your company if you can not service what I have?”
This was a good question. The salesman had no clue what he was talking about and he should have. He just did not have the tools to see all touches made to and from this key account in his patch. He asked the GM to tell him what he was referring to, embarrassing since he’s the salesguy, and the GM told him of support calls made, service emails sent that were not answered and not
This CIO, behind the curve, was now considering a key account management system.
