Every month I receive a variety of questions from salespeople and their managers. These come from a variety of sources - my live seminars, the monthly phone seminars, questions that are sent into my newsletter, and issues that arise in the course of my consulting work. Out of all of these, I select those that I think have the most universal application, and respond to them here.
I recently gained an order from a new customer for 10 items. We back ordered four of the ten. My customer is quite upset with me and my company's purchasing agents. Our relationship is strained because of someone in my company's poor performance. What would you do?
Ah. The proverbial "backorder" problem. What would we talk about if we couldn't complain about backorders?
First, let's recognize that the problem is as old as the job of the salesperson, and we will have to deal with this problem until the day we retire. The problem is a result of conflicting pressures. On one hand, your company only has so much money and space, and just can't buy and hold or produce everything in the hopes that someone somewhere will eventually buy it. As a salesperson, however, you want everything available instantly. So someone is always going to be disappointed. Throw in the fact the customer probably doesn't want to pay anything but the lowest possible price for the product, and you can see that there is an inherent tension here. If the customer would be willing to pay twice as much for the product, you company could afford to build huge inventories. But, since that is unlikely to happen, your company needs to control its investment inventory so that the company has a chance of making money. In other words, you are always going to have some backorders!
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Ok. So what do you do about them? The first thing is to prevent them with clear communication and appropriate expectations. Don't assume that because you backordered a customer that means that your colleagues and uncaring or incompetent. That rarely is the case.
For example, if your company has been routinely selling about 100 of a certain item each month, and you bring in a new customer with an order for 20, it's unreasonable for you to expect that not to cause someone some problem. The sudden increase in demand from 100 to 120, without any prior notice, will probably mean that someone is going to get backordered.
The problem wasn't the poor job your purchasing colleagues did; it was the sudden increase in demand brought on by your new order. Further, if you promised the customer immediate delivery on an item he is ordering for the first time, you probably created unreasonable expectations in your customer's mind, and promised something that you could not really deliver.
It would have been more reasonable to have promised the customer a two or three week delivery on the first order, and to have informed your purchasing person of the coming increase in demand.
Many backorder problems can be prevented by using these two practices: 1) good communication with your purchasing people, and 2) reasonable expectations to the customer.
But what do you do if you are consistently plagued with a quantity of backorders that seem unwarranted? Go first to your purchasing people with respectful inquiries and a detailed description of the problem. No vague generalities or "sales person's talk" here. Be detailed and specific with the problems and the consequences of those problems.
If you don't get satisfaction, then bring the problem, in the same respectful and detailed fashion, to your manager.
Finally, if you still don't see positive improvements, and if the backorder problems continue to jeopardize your ability to service your customers, then at some point you need to consider whether your continued employment with this company is the wisest choice for you.
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If you have any comments or questions, email them to me. I do, of course, reserve the right to edit.
Here are a few articles by Dave
that you might be interested in reading:
- Strategic Planning for Salespeople... "Ready, shoot, aim." Unfortunately, that's the all too common description of the field salesperson's modus operandi. In a misguided attempt to stay busy and see as many people as possible, too many salespeople subscribe to the theory that any activity is good activity. There was a time when this was true. Customers had more time, sales was a simpler job, and any conversation with a prospect or customer was a good thing. But times have changed, and the job of the salesperson has become much more complex. The pressure on the salesperson to make good decisions about the effective use of his time has never been greater. Salespeople now must confront an overwhelming number of potential "things to do," and that requires them to make decisions about which customers in which to invest their time, to prioritize their activities every day, and to continually choose from a menu of possible activities. In other words, salespeople must now engage in strategic planning.....{Read More}
- The Impenetrable Account... How do you sell to an account that is in the hands of a competitor? It's a great question, reflecting one of the most perplexing and frustrating situations every sales person faces. In this article Dave expalins how to get an account away from your competition.... {Read More}
There are also many other action-packed articles for sales professionals that offer how-to solutions to every day sales problems that you can read online at www.davekahle.com/article.htm.
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