Support,The,Sales,Cycle,Contin business, insurance Support: The Sales Cycle Continued
As we all know to live in this world we have to perform some activity by which we can earn money. There are many activities by which we can earn money and meet the standards to live in this society. And from one of them is franchise. Franc Small offices have unique needs, and thatincludes document shredding. Designed with the smaller business inmind, the Dahle 20314 is a cross-cut shredder that offers Level 3security and brings you into compliance with federal regulations. The
When venture capitals qualify business opportunities, theycarefully review the sales and marketing strategies of a company. Also the experienceof the management team is scrutinized before placing an investment. Theenvisioned support strategy, however, is hardly ever a subject of discussion.Investors are apparently not interested whether the support function will beoutsourced or kept in-house, or whether a case- or client-centric approach willbe taken. Yet, excellent support is crucial for the survival forstart-ups. Clients of start-ups may recognize that the product or technology issuperior over the offering of the large players in the market. At the same time,there is always the looming fear that the fledgling company will disappear fromone day to another. Nobody got fired for buying IBM, but many people wereforced to update their resume for trying out a groundbreaking technology thatnever worked. It is the task of the start-up to continuously reassure theclient that it did not make a mistake by putting faith in this new kid on theblock. The support team plays a very important role in doing so. Slow responsetimes from the support organization as well as incomplete or lazy responseswill have the client quickly turn his back on the start-up. Cyotas CEO Naftali Bennett understood the importance ofcustomer support. Prior to running Cyota he served in an elite commando of theIsraeli army. He applied some of the military drills from the army to hissupport force. He used to call the support hot-line at the most unusual hours (4:00 AM for instance) and would check howcourteous, professional and helpful the response was. Usually technical support is the least glamorous positionone can hold in the field of technology. The tech support guys are the bluecollar workers of the IT industry. They only get calls when things dont work. Andthey should not expect a compliment if they fix something; after all the systemis now simply running as it is supposed to. Bennett in contrast succeeded to turn the support team intoa true client relations team. He made budget available for support team membersto meet regularly with the clients. Support team members often joined salesmeetings. He also made sure the support function served as a fruitful source ofinput to the sales, marketing and product teams. Just to show how successful that approach was: Cyota neverlost a client, realized many repeat sales and was ultimately sold to RSASecurity for $145M. The lesson for investors, CEOs and managers alike: supportshould be regarded as a valuable source of information, rather than as a costcenter. In todays competitive markets, sales cycles do not end with signing ofa contract. The client has to be sold continuously on the value of a product ortechnology. The support organization is the epicenter of that ongoing process.
Support,The,Sales,Cycle,Contin