How To Cope With Losing a Big Account

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

•  
  1

  IanP2

  07/01/09 | Report as spam

  RE: How To Cope With Losing a Big Account

  Dr Sulkowicz deals here with controlling the impact of losing a large account on a business and the individuals involved and is right in everything he says.
  
  However let us look a little at why accounts are lost and for the purpose of the exercise let us assume that it is a long standing account.
  
  #1 The competition undercut us in price - then the salesman wasn't serving the customer well, by not understanding that new market dynamics were forcing the price down or the buyer didn't understand that the new vendor is using loss leaders to win the account and he will pay heavily in the future.
  
  #2 The customer was unhappy with our service, probably the most important and common reason for switching suppliers. Far too many salesmen switch off when a customer becomes a routine call and forget to 'sell' to them. A good salesman always treats a repeat order as a new sale and makes sure he visits existing customers regularly. A significant secondary role of every sales rep is to act as his customers change agent within the vendor company and to champion the customers needs and schedules against other priorities.
  
  #3 The competition offered something extra to win the sale. Again, the salesman wasn't in there, understanding what his customer really wanted and what would tempt him to switch suppliers. This is what 'added value' really is in the B2B world and a sales rep's prime role is to glean this information.
  
  #4 The customers needs changed as his market changed and the old vendor didn't fit the bill. Exactly the same respose as #2. The salesman wasn't doing his job effectively. He should be constantly advising his employers, the vendor company, of changing technology, markets or whatever.
  
  In reality the loss of a long standing account should never, ever be a surprise. If it is then the rep has failed to communicate effecively, either with his customer or with his employer, usually both.
  
  Conversley a good, truly professional buyer would always be in touch with different levels in the long-standing vendor company E.G. with the sales desk, or a 'C' level sales exec. and should be flagging up failures and changes - or at the very least giving appropriate notice of changes in buying policy so that the vendor can absorb the pain.
  
  
  Ian