We aren’t paranoid, we just know they are out to get us.

While out on the road with a very good rep who is building a new business, a great example jumped up and hit us in the face. During the day an irate distributor customer contacted the salesman. He was furious because of the way the rep had handled a problem with one of the distributor’s customers.

According to the distributor, the salesman had committed an unforgivable sin by sending the distributor’s customer to a competing wholesale source to meet an urgent need.
What happened? The end-user customer had called the distributor/wholesaler because he was short important parts to complete an urgent job. Why was he short? The facts were that the manufacturer — the rep’s principal — had filled the order 100% completely. An error had been made by either the customer/installer or the distributor, or both.

Customer in trouble:

When the customer called the distributor the “customer service” person told him “it’s the factory’s fault!”

The customer then called our rep, let’s call him Harry. The customer was absolutely irate. He did not indicate that he had talked to the wholesaler. He simply blamed the factory.
Harry heard the desperation in the customer’s voice and immediately realized that he had to get this guy relief. This was a true emergency. The guy had a lot of workers standing around in 100 degree heat on the roof of a building waiting for the parts he needed to finish the job. Dollars were flying out the window!

The Rep’s solution:

The rep knew that another wholesaler had the parts in stock. He chose to tell the customer this and tell him that this other source was actually closer to his location and that he was pretty confident that they would be able to get the parts ready for pick in within a couple of hours.
This solution worked. The customer got his parts and got on with the job.

Backlash:

The wholesaler who is Harry’s customer is furious. He feels that Harry took a major customer away from him.

CYA for Harry:

Harry is a highly experienced rep working for a very highly experienced rep firm. So, Harry knows that the key term when there is trouble is no surprises. Harry immediately called the customer to clarify what had happened.

The customer was very appreciative of Harry’s work and smarts. He said the second wholesaler really helped him and that, yes, he planned to work with that wholesaler in addition to the first guy. Note he did not say he was taking all of his business to the new wholesaler. He was just about to place a large order, unfortunately, including our competitor’s product, with the first guy.

He said he had been increasingly dissatisfied with the first wholesaler. He did not like the salesperson’s attitude. He felt that the guy was taking his business for granted and that the original wholesaler’s prices were not as good as they should be.

Using his head:

As noted, Harry has been around. He knows how things can blow up. He asked the customer to please call the manufacturer’s sales manager to bring him up to speed on the situation.
Harry also spoke to the second wholesaler about what happened and what they had heard from the customer. It was clear to the contact at the second wholesaler that their competitor had dropped the ball. They were appreciative of the “lead” and certainly intended to keep the customer focused on Harry’s products.

Carry the ball to the boss:

Harry immediately observed the no surprises rule with his direct boss, the owner of the rep firm. He called him and brought him up to speed.

Yes, they might lose the business from the original wholesaler, but what else could Harry do when he had a truly irate customer yelling at him. He saw his primary responsibility to make the customer’s project work well with his principal’s products. And, to keep this end-user customer for the principal’s products.

Options:

Harry did have some options. He might have told the original wholesaler to get the parts from their competitor to help their customer. In hindsight, he probably should have done this.

The bottom-line:

Harry probably lost a customer. Fortunately, the original wholesaler was a much smaller customer than the second wholesaler who helped the customer. That was a break.
The most important thing is for Harry and all reps to remember that they have to take a few minutes to get into the details of a troublesome situation. Had Harry thought about options he might have taken the step to push his customer, the original wholesaler, to go to the competition to satisfy his customer.

Harry and all reps need to know that they are in the middle and they will be blamed. Having a good set of policies for handling trouble is very important. What was the last explosive situation you faced? How did you handle it? What would you do now that you did not do then?

Reps have to be master strategists. Thinking on your feet is a vital part of your rep business. Digesting and re-thinking in order to do better next time is even more important.