My post on Monday that suggested that you should always assume your customer has a vendor got me thinking about the other side of the coin. Just as you are calling prospects who already have a vendor, so are your competitors. I’ve heard from many a translation buyer that they get multiple calls from translation companies each week or even each day! I experienced this myself when I was actively selling translation services. One guy told me I was the 4th translation company calling that day. I was skeptical, but many of my customers have said this isn’t far off from their own experiences.
If this was the case several years ago, I can only believe that it is more the case today. Many LSPs who haven’t previously had sales people are hiring them. Competition stems from all corners of the planet–not just in the same town, region or country– trying to entice your customers away.
Thankfully changing vendors can be a hassle and the value proposition for a new vendor must be pretty compelling to sway customers, but there are some very good sales people out there and it may be time to shore up your position with your customers. Here are a few ideas to consider.
Assign house accounts to someone – House accounts get stolen. I’ve experienced this first hand and it was decidedly unpleasant. I was sent in to save an account one time when management noticed revenue consistently tailing off. I went to visit and when I saw a lot of coffee mugs, pens and pads from my competitors on everyone’s desks, my heart sank. They were all very kind, but over time our competitors had edged in, because no one with sales training had been involved, no new solutions presented, no pro-active communication had been done. We had become order takers. It was a tough lesson and one that LSP didn’t make again.
The solution? Saving money on incentive pay can be a false economy. In this case sales should have been involved to some degree to ensure our position was secure, offering solutions, knowing when competitors were knocking on their door. We didn’t have account managers at that time. This account would have been a perfect candidate. Project managers with a bit of sales training and the ability to put together solutions for customers would have prevented some losses too.
Develop an account management strategy – your biggest and best accounts may be better off in the hands of an account manager, who is by definition someone who is responsible for managing the relationship with a specific account. They pro-actively and collaboratively build solutions for their accounts, present new ideas, build relationships with senior level people, expand the LSP’s reach within the account. Ring fencing against the competition is the name of the game. It’s tough for cold callers to penetrate these accounts. It’s possible over time, but not so easy.
Foster collaboration between sales and project management – for lucrative clients where you can’t justify an account manager this is probably your best bet and an effective way to ring fence against all those translation sales people wanting to steal your customers away.
Sales brings understanding of the client’s goals/needs/aspirations/problems to the table and project management can develop feasible solutions that meet them. As I say to all of the people who participate in my training courses, the most successful LSPs I’ve worked for fostered strong relationships between sales and project management. The solutions we developed together were far better together than ones done in isolation.
If you’re in London (or can visit London) on 21st September consider attending my Sales/PM Collaboration Workshop to get new ideas on how to improve this part of your business.
Incentivise sales people to maximise customer revenue – big companies are generally very fragmented when it comes buying translation services. Some of my customers had well over 100 people who had translation needs and we weren’t even scratching the surface of the total global spend. Navigating these customers can be daunting, but will certainly strengthen your position against competitors and will definitely help you survive a procurement exercise.
Consciously and consistently add value – customer needs change, grow, diminish and resurrect. Adding value to the relationship(s) where ever possible will help you stave off your competitors sales people. Talking to your customers and finding out where there business is going, how you fit in and how you can help them into the future adds value and gives customers reasons to stay with you and reasons to pick apart or ignore would-be suppliers. The old adage that knowledge is power is just as true in sales as it is in other aspects of life. Know thy customer thoroughly…at least more thoroughly than your competition and your position will be stronger.
Customers are funny beasts. None of these strategies are a fail-safe, but isn’t it worth upping your game to ensure you retain as many of your good customers as possible? It costs a lot more to win new ones than to keep existing ones. Think about the strategies above and consider investing in one or more of them, depending on your circumstances. Perhaps I’ve got you thinking and you’ll come up with an even better strategy to stave off your competitors. They are out there and they are calling your customers right now.