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> Living on the Top Line - The Book > About Us > Blog Archive > Teaming Up at the Point of Contact
Teaming Up at the Point of ContactOur business has always been about one salesperson serving one customer and using personal selling skills to close the sale. Some people are better at this than others, hence, there is a pretty wide range of performance among salespeople. In some selling environments there is a T/O system wherein if a salesperson cannot close a sale today, he must turn the customer over to a sales manager. I have never liked this system for two reasons: First, the customer feels undo pressure and depending on what stage of decision-making they're in, this can turn them off to the store.
Second, in T/O systems, salespeople have no compelling reason to get better - they can just take the engagement so far and turn it over to a manager to close - or not.
Now, in this new retail reality we're all facing, I believe everyone needs to sharpen their engagement skills, and sales managers need to partner with salespeople, and be involved with every customer in order to gain first-hand knowledge of what's really going on out there on the floor with both salespeople and customers. This will help salespeople, managers and business owners to create new ways to solve problems they actually understand.
I think there should be a sales team on the floor that includes the highest ranking manager avaialable at all times. I don't want this to be in any way intimidating or invasive, but supportive and interactive. The more brains working to solve a problem, the better for everyone. Plus, there is the added benefit to retailers that action is being takne to deal with the new situation in our stores. Customers like management involvement. We like it in resturants when the owner or manager takes an interest in our satisfaction and our experience. I think furniture shoppers will like it too, if that involvement is non-intimidating and aimed solely at providing an enhanced experience.
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