What recession?

Some people don't seem to have spotted there is a recession going on at the moment across the globe. My company has been looking for suppliers recently for an upcoming project. To narrow down the list we only contacted companies where we had a personal recommendation. One of the strongest placed companies obviously doesn't need the business because after the first contact they haven't called us back --even after we contacted them several times and got the person who recommended them to us to give them a gentle nudge! Unbelievable!

Another company never got back to us even once since we had our initial meeting. I hate that. If you don't want the business that's fine, just say so. Don't go into radio silence mode.

This was in total contrast to the company we will give the contract to. They returned our calls quickly. Sent through quotes. Were available for conference calls at short notice. Provided examples of their work before we even asked for it. A pleasure to work with.

I have a very simple perspective of things during the sales cycle.

If the experience is crap during the sales cycle, it is unlikely to be any better if you are an actual customer.

In these challenging times, I believe every company should be striving to significantly improve service levels all across their organisations. Reducing costs is only going to get you so far. Keeping customers (in particular) and getting new ones is how you will survive this recession. Not paying attention to service levels (or ignoring potential customers) will start to hurt your business sooner than you can imagine.

Kevin
ZeroTouch IT Ltd