Avoiding Sales Prevention

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John’s recent post Never Let Lawyers Write Your Contracts prompted me to think more widely about the things which prevent us from winning sales – even though that was not the intention.

Every business has to make sales, deliver a product or service and then collect payment – making a profit along the way. Most of the time these business elements work together – until we take our eye off the details. Perhaps we add something to our business to aid, for example, cash collection. At the same time, we inadvertently create a barrier to new sales. In this way, we all run the risk of inadvertently adding Sales Prevention elements to our businesses. We may regard what we are doing as common sense at the time – to boost service levels, improve efficiency or to improve cash collection. However, there is an inevitable creeping of issues that takes place over time which can lead to the common sense reason being forgotten. Here are some examples.

Contracts

Ideally, your contract documentation (which you will have had legally vetted) will be written in such a way that it assists the sales process. This means:

Clear, unambiguous and fair termination clauses – avoiding the dubious clauses favoured by some major companies (e.g. “Your cancellation letter must arrive on this <> or you are deemed to have renewed for a further three years.”);
Avoiding petty limits on service – a classic being “Only 1 day of on site support time is allowed for in this maintenance contract”;
Ideally, your contract documentation should assist the sales process – enabling you to send the contracts along with the proposal or quotation “so that people can check the small print” and be sure that this will improve the odd of a successful conversion.

Small Print

Anything less than a 10 point font is an obstacle to sales!
In addition to a legal review to protect your interests, make sure you conduct a commercial review to ensure that your small print is sales friendly – John covered this point in his post.

Customer/ Prospect Meetings

Be alert to your prospects expressing an interest in supplying services to your business on occasions – and these can be easy to miss when we are focussed on our own agenda and issues;
Make sure your reaction is measured and not a quick dismissal – as perceived by your customer or prospect.

Advertising/ Marketing of “Special Offers”

Avoid petty terms and conditions – extended warranties on cars are classic examples here;
Make it easy to meet any customer obligations – or at least easy to understand.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of Results-Zone. Results-Zone bring extensive knowledge and experience gained in Blue Chip organisations to businesses like yours. They ensure that your business is fully exploiting a well thought through operating plan. They work alongside you and your team – as business results managers. They ensure that your team and your business are elevated to the results-zone. They bring you “hands-on” experience – similar to employing high quality management skills without the risk or costs in recruiting full time employees.

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