Who's Your Win Report Troncmaster?

Here’s the words of a billion-dollar Divisional business tech Head. Explaining to me one of the perils of internal sales messaging;

“…we do plenty of Loss Reports, so so many, but no Win Reports – only ever the odd perfunctory ‘Congrats to Fred, who says well done to Harry & George…’ one-line email”

It is a lament I’ve heard many times.

There’s many barriers in my experience.

The tendency to gravitate towards the negative. When losing out, promotion of culprits to lessen the shade thrown on the salesperson. Such as a much-discussed feature still missing, Finance-mandated pricing too inflexible, or even cite a pre-Sales resource starvation.

Then there’s the ownership issue. Customer testimonials are traditionally the preserve of our Marketing cousins. These are unlikely to be speedy in construction. They can require multiple-sign-offs. Several back-and-forth proofs. And by the time the glossy pdf reaches the field, can be hazardously out of date or neutered of any big hit through relentless, sensitive edits.

And what about the moral teaser of how to use one client’s name with another?

I’ve overcome all of these – and more – and here’s a label that may well help planning for your own solution.

A tronc is the proper term (not slang) for the pot of money received in a bar or restaurant tip jar. Whether physical notes and coins or added onto bills by machine tap. It comes from a French word, meaning literally ‘collecting box’.

The troncmaster is the person that divvies up the proceeds. Often the head waitron. With the rise in electronic payments becoming so dominant, there is a battle to ensure that greedy managers don’t keep any extras in this central pool for themselves. To the extent that Westminster will soon see legislation to help those serving keep their rightful share.

Remember, we’re talking Sales stories here. Not the colourful crafting of Marketing collateral.

Who is your Sales effort’s troncmaster? Someone that can find where the good stuff may reside, get their hands on it, and pass it all around?

If it’s you as a lone operator, then you’ll already know in your own head which tale suits what pitch. When part of larger team, then there’s usually someone in a semi-admin or support styled role.

Finding that person with capacity is one thing. Yet then there’s one even tougher.

They need to gather the raw materials.

And that’s before we get to how these are re-figured into field-ready format, then disseminated, before becoming part of everyday selling.

It’s a bumpy old winding and unlit road. But one every single salesteam must travel.