Tips for a Starving Salesperson: Part 6

Credit: Bill Gillespie

A sales rep appeared in my door. He was wringing his hands and near tears. We were behind on an order and sure to be late. It was 1992.

The project was a videotape sleeve. I suspect some will be too young to know what that is. Before thumb drives or email or text messages or dvd's...we stored video assets on tape. We were doing a VHS sleeve for an advertising agency. Their client was a benefits firm of some sort.

The rep was in a panic. "The project is due tomorrow. The order is for 15,000 and we only have 600 ready. They're going to want a discount and it's already sold cheap. I can't afford to lose this customer." I asked him to calm down while we gathered some facts.

The math worked like this. We had estimated assembling three sleeves per minute. The work was taking more like three minutes per sleeve. So, we had allowed 83 hours for assembly. It would require 750 hours to complete the task. We were definitely going to be late.

The rep was afraid to tell his client so I made the call. I introduced myself and explained what was going on. I told her how many I had ready and how many I felt comfortable promising per hour based on the talent level required for a good outcome.

The client was not "excited" by the news but could see we weren't running from the issue. We talked about her deployment schedule and determined that we could stay ahead of her demand. It was disruptive but kept the delay invisible to her client.

At the end of our conversation she did not fuss. She did not ask for a discount. She had only one question. "You're spending more money to produce this project. Are you going to expect me to pay extra? If so, I need to talk with my client."

Think about the swing in fortune. The rep was in a panic and ready to give away the farm. He knew it was the end of the road without talking to his client. Had we reacted based on his info...we would have fouled up.

Not only did the client not dump us, they became a staple of our firm. They thought of us as a "never run from struggles partner." Our sales and our price points improved.

Think about this when you manage conflicts. Clients are smarter than you think. They know things go wrong in production. Anybody is a good partner when things go as planned. Your value as a rep surfaces when they don't.

Printing is custom manufacturing. Sometimes things go wrong.

Include your clients. Trust them to manage their decision making. Be honest and transparent. You'll zoom to the front of the line if you do.

Gotta go. Spencer is about to give away the farm over a price increase on paper. I can't let him do it.