Provide Problem Peace Of Mind

A customer of mine’s moving from a split hunter/farming approach to embrace greater account management rewards.  The reps seem excited about this, and one of them suggested that to truly succeed, they should consider the question: “what is the one thing you want from your relationship with your supplier and account manager?”.  He suggests this answer:

“I just want them to deliver what they say they’ll deliver.  When (inevitably) issues and problems occur, their attitude will be ‘leave it with me, the responsibility lies with me, I’ll get back to you (at a specifically named time) and sort it out’.”

As he explained, ‘there’s nothing customers despise quite like a vendor that after taking the business, buries their head in the sand and leaves the stench of unresolved issues hanging in the air’.