As a B2B sales professional I occasionally run into issues that need be dealt with quickly to make the customer happy. The customer is all ways right, even if they are wrong. That is something I learned many moons ago. Clients have the memory of an elephant, they always remember when things go wrong. When things do go wrong, how do you fix it to make the customer and your internal staff happy? The following is a true story of how a car dealer worked with me to meet a deadline.
I purchased a car virtually, sounds crazy, but I did my homework. I purchased the car via TrueCar. TrueCar, had done due diligence on all of the dealers in their network, so I felt confident this was not a scam. I funded the car and the dealer did not have the staff, due to Covid -19 to find the funding in their bank. The Dealer sat on the funds for a few days because their accounting person is now part time. I had made it clear I had a deadline to get the car for a family trip.
Three 3 days go by and I am getting anxious because we are now 5 days out from leaving. I called the sales person, but instead of reading him the riot act, I explained the situation and asked him to step up and get this done. Within the hour the car was released, transport was arranged and the dealer paid the fee to have the vehicle delivered to my house.
In the end, the dealer worked with me to meet my deadline, but I had to use my sales skills internally to make that happen. Many times we are faced with meeting client deadlines that push our internal deadlines. You are an internal client for your teams that are producing your product. I put into my mind that the sales person at the dealer was my production staff. I applied some pressure but did it in a good way and was able to get the product delivered to my client, which in this case was me. Remember it is easier to catch bees with honey. At the end of the day, you need to sell both externally and internally and do it with grace.
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