Your New Account Manager is Here to See You

2020-06-22T13:41:06+10:00

Polity is a national software company, based in Canberra.

Their major client is Lektrit – a highly diversified Australian conglomerate.

They are meeting at the client’s office, in the Rudd Gillard Rudd Abbott Turnbull Boardroom.

Polity: ‘I’d like to introduce you to your new Senior Account Executive, Scott, who will be taking over your account’

Lektrit: ‘Where’s Malcolm?’

Polity: ‘Er, we had to let him go, I’m afraid. We had an off-site where everyone was supposed to drink the Kool-Aid and a number of our managers saw him watering it down with San Pellegrino’

Lektrit: ‘ Well, we agreed to Malcolm as our key executive in the contract over two years ago and now we have to go through this process all over again. Why didn’t you consult with us?’

Polity; ‘We didn’t think you’d matter… I mean, mind, and to be honest, your contract is up for renewal and we felt we had a better chance of renewing our business with you if Scott was leading things.’

Lektrit: ‘But there are so many outstanding issues with implementation. The energy costs of the new computer system we installed for your software are through the roof, the TCO you offered based on writing off the legacy system on tax is unresolved and we still don’t know what’s happening with the support team you were going to hire from overseas.’

Polity: ‘Yes, and that’s why Scott is the perfect person to help you through all that.’

Lektrit: ‘How? Since he took over we received an email that the Head of Customer Service is now the Head of Operations and the Head of Engineering is now GM of Sales and the Head of the Support Desk resigned to spend more time with her family…in Port Douglas.’

Polity: ‘Trust me, Scott will sort all these issues out.’

Lektrit: ‘When?’

Polity: ‘It would only be fair to give him 3-6 months to get his feet under the desk and…

Lektrit: THREE TO SIX MONTHS! We need this sorted out – it’s costing us a fortune in lost revenue and higher costs. You decided to make this change, not us. When are you going to make decisions that are directly linked to making us better?’

Polity: ‘Sorry, I don’t understand.’

Lektrit: ‘Us…your client… the people who pay you, the people with whom you signed a contract to do certain things.’

Polity: ‘We seem to be at cross purposes here. Polity is a private company and our goal is to maximise our own results. We reserve the right to make whatever changes are necessary to make us feel all gooey inside. Many of us have low self-esteem, you know, so we grow big, bravado egos to compensate for it. It’s quite normal in our industry.’

Lektrit: ‘Well it’s also quite normal for clients to move to another supplier if we’re not happy.’

Polity: ‘What’s the name of this boardroom again? Good luck with that.’

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease.

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two politicians.

Published in   Account Management/Retention, Blog, Executive Level Selling, Presentations, Sales Management