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“At Disruptive Technology we are constantly introducing new ideas, and we are taking them to market better, & faster than the competition. We rely on DISTRiX to manage our supply chain and we are delighted with the visibility and control it provides us. It certainly helps us to be innovative.”
Tim Dabbs, Disruptive Technology
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White Papers > How on earth would we manage more customers?
Chris Wright, Director, DISTRiX Limited
I was talking to my marketing guru Nigel Temple* about updating our company sales and marketing strategies. Our aim was to simplify the messages around a new product offering and how we might take it to market. Later the same day, I was talking to my project manager about an issue we were having. This concerned how to fulfil a delivery to meet a promise I had made to a customer. Then later that same day I had a service level review meeting with our support manager.
That evening lying in the bath I did some thinking. How could I ensure that if my sales and marketing campaign was wildly successful that both my delivery teams and my after-sales teams could cope? The bath was almost cold by the time I had turned my initial panic into a plan. This article shares the experience of how we managed to grow the business and have our delivery and servicing teams keep pace.
Nigel is a great guru and with his support we have grown our sales. Nigel has a seven step plan for his clients and he adds his knowledge and experience to customise the solution. He talks of vision, becoming one with the customer, the entrepreneur in all of us and customer attraction principles. Differentiation is critical and we have worked really hard to determine how we might excel in comparison to our competitors.
Interestingly, we decided our key differentiator is simply being nice people to work with and meeting our promises. “What it says on the can” is a compelling argument isn’t it? Nigel also coached us in areas of writing effective marketing words, internet marketing to getting the ‘4 Ps’ right.
And so to sales: the only advice I have to offer here is that it is essential to know your prospect and to qualify them quickly. Identifying the decision maker is vital, and strangely I’ve also found it better to hunt in pairs. In my business, we put a business analyst together with a technical pre-sales specialist, catering for both business needs and technical input. These skills rarely come in one person.
Meeting my delivery promise was giving my project manager a headache. Stock availability, limited resources and stretched equipment all had to come together in a short timescale and I could see his anxiety. However it was obvious to me that if one of our business competitive differentiators was ‘our promise’ and a key message in how we attracted clients, that it was essential that we fulfilled our promise.
A brand is a promise and I subscribe to this theory. Lying in my bath I determined that the link from the sales process to the delivery process had to be stronger. I had to get visibility to both the sales team and to the delivery team. “Don’t set customer expectations that you can’t meet,” I told myself as I reached for the towel. Most importantly, if you promise then ensure that you deliver. Visibility between the two processes - sales and delivery - is vital.
My support manager is a great customer facing team leader. Nothing is too much and he will always endeavour to do his best for the customer. However, on the day that we had our review, service levels had taken a slight knock for the second review period in a row.
My concern was: how on earth would we manage more customers? The issues appeared to be a poor hand-over from the delivery team to the support team. Little things falling through the gaps. (Does this ever happen in your business?)
These were the little things that we said in our sales pitch we cared about. A phrase I like to use is: “we care and we worry on your behalf”. The answer was to produce more visibility between the support teams and sales and delivery.
So from the realisation that we had a real business need, through a cold bath to the business plan – I determined to find a business system that logically linked sales to delivery to after-sales care, enabling me not to worry about selling too much and to still maintain my promise of delivering to order.
I found my answer in a product called DISTRiX. In fact, I liked it so much I bought the company – although I suspect I won’t get away with this as a catch phrase! Today, we are successfully integrating it into our business. DISTRiX is meeting its promise, and if you are looking for a solution that links sales and deliveries with after-sales then this is the product for you.
Chris Wright, Director, DISTRiX Limited.
Email: chris.wright@distrix.com Tel: 01494 470496
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