I’ve blogged in the past about the concept of “Sales as a Service” – in fact, one of the most important services that you provide to your new and existing customers. The concept applies to the overall sales process of course, but the quote and proposal aspect of the sales process is my focus.
Clearly, a properly, fully, and accurately configured solution is one of the most important services that the sales team can provide to the customer. In fact, it may be the most important service we ever provide – because a properly configured solution provides a smooth ride for the customer throughout the life of our relationship with them. A poorly configured, inaccurate solution will drive the need for far more services under less-than-optimal circumstances.
For those of us that provide services to our customers either as our primary business or in support of solutions we sell, it’s easy to draw the comparison between the “service of selling” to any other services we provide on a daily basis – and the customer’s reaction to those services is nearly the same.
Prompt attention: When a customer is asking for a quote or proposal, they respond to prompt attention and a complete and accurate solution to their problem just as they respond to a prompt response on a service ticket. Customers don’t like waiting for needed services for weeks, and they don’t like waiting for quotes for weeks either.
Accuracy and Professionalism: When we’re providing services to our customers, we ask our team to be professional, precise, and to solve the problem completely the first time. Services provided by the sales team should deliver no less a result. Customers don’t expect you to drop the ball on service tickets; they don’t expect it from your sales team.
Response in proportion to the Problem: When a customer is urgently in need of services or has a critical issue, they want to know you’ll take care of them. Some sales opportunities fall into the same category.
There are other similarities and comparison points between your traditional services and Sales as a Service as well. For example, it’s even more important to provide our current customers with excellent “sales service” than potential customers. When businesses talk about one of their vendors being “hard to do business with”, they are often citing the difficulty of getting a quote or proposal for new goods and services as one of the major factors in this difficulty.
Many of our customers here at Quosal are service providers, in addition to their product and project sales. Thinking of sales as a service can get the wheels spinning along the right lines, and introduce new thinking around the sales process. For too many organizations, the selling processes and particularly the quote and proposal processes are too much a “black box”. Thinking of Sales as a Service can help de-mystify this business critical art and science.
Sales IS a service – treat it AS a service; the positive results will really surprise you in a very profitable way.
Kent McNall
President and CEO
Quosal LLC
