At the first sign of trouble, the salesperson who disappears has damaged their relationship and put future business at risk. It doesn’t seem to matter how or why the client is struggling to produce the results they were sold and promised. Much of the time, the client’s problem is not the result of the salesperson’s actions or the lack of action. Most of the time, it’s a problem of the teams that deliver the solution.
Even though you don’t work in operations, you are the one that acquired the client, making it your client. It is also your company’s client. Both you and your company are responsible for helping your client solve their problem and realize the value you promised. There is a way to think about your responsibility and how and when to engage with client problems.
As someone who spent time selling in an industry with no end of problems, I found that it is easier for salespeople to talk to clients. In part, it’s because we speak client fluently. But it is also that feel a sense of accountability to our clients. Without accountability for results, you put your relationship at risk.
How a Salesperson Should Engage with a Transactional Client Problem
Your client is missing a shipment they were expecting. Another client has an error on their invoice. Still, another client needs a report on what they spent with you in the last year. Let us describe these everyday problems as transactional.
These problems don’t need or deserve the salesperson’s time and attention. Until the shipping department starts making cold calls and booking meetings for salespeople, no salesperson should search for the missing shipment. Nor should the salesperson work on an invoice problem or pull reports for their clients.
When a client calls you to report a problem like the examples here, you can take the call, make a note, and hand it off to the person who is responsible for whatever they need, telling your client you’ll follow up later. When handing off the problem, tell the person to call the client and give them their phone number should they need something in the future. And then ask them to notify you that the client has what they need so you can follow up.
How a Salesperson Should Engage with a Strategic Problem
Instead of a missing shipment, your client is missing shipments every other day. As a result of missing these shipments, your client is failing their clients. Instead of a missing invoice, your costs have increased by more than fifteen percent, requiring the client to agree to a hefty price increase. Your client needs better results, but they have refused to make the changes that would allow them to acquire the strategic outcomes they need.
These are not the kind of problems that can be solved by operations or accounts payable. When you say you want to be a trusted advisor, you are committing to addressing your client’s problems and challenges, including the ones you and your company create, and the ones your clients create.
Because you acquired the client, you have consented to helping them solve their problems. When you shirk your responsibility to your clients, it won’t be long before your competitor displaces you. See: Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition.
A single shipment being missed is not your problem, but a consistent pattern of missed shipments is something you are going to have to help your client and your company solve. Maybe there is a problem placing orders or that someone on their dock has been putting the shipments in the wrong place. What makes this your problem is that is not a single transaction. It’s a pattern.
It is your responsibility to address the price increase. Those who fear their conversation might be tempted to send a price increase letter without speaking to their client. This is to fear the greater danger, the loss of the client due to not communicating the price increase in a face-to-face meeting and why it is necessary.
Of all of the strategic problems here, a client that is unwilling to make the change that will allow them to generate the results they need belongs to you. In fact, this is a problem you likely created by not acquiring the commitment to change their process. The level of difficulty here is often high. Failing to acquire the change can cause you to lose the client.
When You Avoid Problems
It is difficult to win a new client. When you do, you need to retain and grow that client. By avoiding your client’s strategic problems, you open the door for a competitor to walk in and explain how they are able to help with the problem you have left unresolved. The longer a problem is allowed to exist, the more you are at risk.
You can never be a trusted advisor if you avoid dealing with the client’s strategic problems and challenges. Your success in sales is some part of your willingness to engage with problems, occasionally the wicked problems with no present answers. The salesperson who hides from these problems will have a tough time succeeding in sales.
How and When to Engage with Client Problems
It is important that you know how and when to engage with client problems. You should send the transactional client problems to the people that own them, following up with your client.
When the client's problem is strategic, you need a face-to-face meeting, showing up in person to help address and find a resolution. An ability to show up and help your client solve their problem makes you part of their team and someone they can trust to ensure their results and their success. These successes also belong to you.
By handling client problems, you can expect your contacts to provide you with other problems and challenges, allowing you to keep the client and grow your business and your relationships by providing them with whatever they need help with now and in the future.
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