I Hate Them

salesman
What I’m about to tell you is frightening.  It’s not a long story but it has huge ramifications and implications, as I’ll explain…
Sue and I were at a major national event at the NEC in Birmingham.  It was one of those big consumer shows that gets all sorts of publicity.  For the businesses that have paid to exhibit there, this is one of the biggest weeks of the year.  Okay, so the scene is set.
We’re wandering around and come across a company selling something that we’ve been thinking about buying for our home.  It’s probably going to be a £5,000 plus sale.  There are only a couple of staff on this particular stand and both are already in conversation so we wait patiently for this guy who, it turns out, is actually a partner in the business.
We ask him some questions and fill out the prospect form, which he hands to me (by the way, he did actually call it a ‘Prospect Form’, which is a really dumb name for it, don’t you think?)
He then explains that he’ll have his sales rep (yes, that what he stupidly called him!) follow up with us and schedule an appointment to come out to our home so that he can give us a quote.
Now, you’re quite right to question why, at this point, he made no effort whatsoever to book the appointment right there and then and get it in the diary.  But hold on, dear reader, because it gets even worse…
We walk away from this stand with nothing, zilch. No testimonial booklet, no “shock & awe package”. Not even a brochure.
As I write this, it’s more than three weeks since that event and we have not had a phone call.
Even if they did ring now – which I suspect they won’t – there’s no way I’m doing business with them.
Why does this matter?  I’ll tell you:-

  • Firstly, the owners of this business spent their hard earned cash on exhibition space at a very expensive national event and then, frankly, pissed away the opportunities it presented.  Their wives and families are poorer because of their stupidity.
  • Secondly, what’s almost certainly happened here is that the owner has handed the ‘Prospect Forms’ over to a salesman who has done nothing with them.  That same owner, it appears, is too dumb and lazy to have kept copies of those forms, has not asked for – and got – an activity report from his salesman of the calls that he’s made and the results that have been generated and, neither has he checked up on him by ringing at least two or three of the leads who, don’t forget, the owner himself had met at this exhibition and that subsequently did not turn into appointments. Bonkers does not come close.
  • Next, the economy of this country depends on idiots like this and they are part of what I fear is, in truth, a growing number of inept organisations, both large and small, who are letting us all down.

The product this guy is selling is not manufactured by him.  In essence, he is a dealer, which means there’s an organisation above him, part of which will be a team with responsibility for sales and they’re not doing their jobs either because they’re letting him behave like this.
Large parts of his product are manufactured in the UK and, as we all know, UK manufacturing is up against it when faced with cheap imports.  So, the owners of those factories, the people that work in them, their families and children are all suffering because these buffoons are not doing their jobs.
And if you think about it even further, at least one of the manufacturers involved is a PLC and their stock will be suffering and, consequently, pension funds are diminished because of what’s (not) happening here.
And don’t even get me talking about all the technology and systems that are available that are not being utilised for practical, effective purposes here. CRM anyone?
Last week I met another exhibitor from that same event in a completely different environment and I was telling her this story.
She started complaining about the poor quality of the show this year and said that her company will not be exhibiting there again which means, of course, that the exhibition will take in less money, so they’ll cut down on their advertising, so less people will turn up….you get the message.
In short, these despicable incompetents and their sloth like ways of running their businesses are endangering our entire country.
And I hate them for it….
I couldn’t happen in your business could it?
Have a great month.
 
Nigel