For some time I’ve been considering writing a post about something that I see increasingly more often and it gets me very worried: buyers never revert to suppliers or salespeople, therefore the negotiations are left “in the air”. The title of this post, “Don’t leave me hanging”, comes from a supplier I met not long ago who literally begged me to give him feedback about his offer, no matter if it was a positive or a negative one. He said it smiling, trying to pretend it was a joke, but I could feel his bitterness, probably coming from previous unhappy encounters.
In my 25+ years working in business, most of the time I was on the side of the buyer, but my current job and another one I had about 10 years ago were in sales. And not any type of sales: the second most difficult type of sales: sales of marketing services, which, in my opinion, is surpassed in difficulty only by insurance selling.
The issue
sellers face increasingly more is the lack of feedback from the potential
client after submitting an offer, or after an initial contact. From personal
experience (mirrored by other salespeople’s experience too), about 80% of my
time at work is dedicated to follow-ups with clients and potential clients.
Because they simply do not revert in any way to messages. Why does this happen?
And why does it happen increasingly more?
· people don’t feel comfortable giving bad news;
it takes effort and energy to tell someone (s)he is rejected. I recall a
situation some years ago when I was running a tender together with a junior
buyer who, when facing the stage of announcing the winner and the losers, said
that she would like to call the winner and email the losers because it is not
comfortable for her to give bad news. I told her that she must treat all of
them equally: either email everyone or call everyone. Similarly, many people
prefer the easier path – simply not reverting to the sellers, rather than
saying “no”. Cowardice? You may say so….The result is a guaranteed
loss of image for the person doing it, but also for the company he/she
represents. So, beware of these consequences before engaging in this wrong
attitude!
· people are increasingly busier and
may choose not to spend the appropriate amount of time to give feedback to the
seller. I sympathize with the time issue – I feel it myself daily, but to me,
this is not an excuse. A simple, 2-line polite negative reply will not take
more than 30 seconds but will work miracles for your (and your company’s)
image.
· the decision-making process in the buyer’s
company is very long/very slow. I’ve
been in multinationals and I know that sometimes you need a bulldozer to move
things, yet this should not prevent the buyer from sharing with the seller the
process and its length. In this way, the buyer builds trust and realistic
expectations from the seller. To give you an example, I closed a deal with a
multinational company and the contact person told me to expect that the
contract signature will take between 6 to 9 months. While I did not like it, I
respected the transparency.
· some people simply don’t care –
and to me, this is the worst possible reason because CARING is not trainable –
you either have it or not. Also, when facing such a person, ask yourself
whether you want to do business with him/her.
I may be
too blunt, but I believe all 4 reasons above boil down to whether the buyer is
PROFESSIONAL or not. Being professional means that you:
· appreciate the effort put by the
seller into the offer, no matter how poor the offer is (or how less engaging
the approach of the seller is)
· treat the seller in the same way
you would like to be treated
· give honest, fair, and impartial
feedback, with the intent of helping the seller improve
· close the
discussion/negotiation no matter what (be it with a YES or with a NO, but close
it!)
In my
negotiation training, I always recommend buyers to work at least one month as
sellers, to see how it feels being “on the other side”. I guarantee
them they will feel different and they will see the life of a salesperson
through a different lens. When I joined an advertising agency as Business
Development Director about 10 years ago I thought sales it’s going to be fun
and enjoyable. Sadly, it was too seldom like that, because most of the buyers
treated me in any way BUT professionally. But my biggest gain out of that
experience was that I learned how NOT to behave when I’m the buyer. And, a few
years later, when I became Procurement Director for a large FMCG company, I
swore to myself that I would never forget the learnings from my sales
experience.
I recently caught myself shocked by someone’s fast reply to my
intro message and by the invitation to a face-to-face meeting in the following
week. Then I realized that I was shocked by NORMALITY, by PROFESSIONALISM, and
this truly saddened me, because normality should be the norm (like the name
says it), not the exception!
So, what
are my key bits of advice to the buyers and sellers who read this post?
· buyers – please
treat sellers with respect, set expectations and always give them feedback, in
a reasonable timeframe. Don’t ever forget that the seller must also want to do
business with you (in other words, the seller must buy you and your company as
a client) – so you have the opportunity to differentiate from your competitors
by simply being professional! I lived myself the situation when suppliers
refused to participate in a tender organized by the company I was working for
because the reputation of the company was extremely bad (caused by the frequent
pitching of the assignments, therefore not allowing a supplier to fully prove
its capabilities).
· sellers –
don’t give up and follow up with buyers, kindly asking them for feedback on
your offer or business proposal. Ultimately, don’t be desperate and accept any
client! Think very carefully whether you want to have a certain company as a
client or not.
