By James A. Baker · Founder, Baker Communications
Of course, this is all well and good, but why stop there? The sales process has gotten so complex these days that is no longer at all unusual for the sales end and the fulfillment end of the transaction to be handled by different people, probably working out of different departments. This is almost universally true in anything involving sophisticated mechanical, technical or IT products. After the sale is completed, the order is turned over to someone who has the professional expertise to carry out the installation and burn in stages. That is where the fun begins!
Don’t be surprised if the order itself is flawed in some way. Perhaps the salesperson misunderstood the customer’s situation, or the customer lacked the understanding to represent his situation correctly. In such instances, the company rep who arrives to install the product will likely discover that the product ordered will not work in the way that the salesperson promised it would. To complicate matters even further, these technical geniuses are very good at dealing with complex technical installations and esoteric theoretical processes; they are not always so great at handling people, especially unhappy people. At such times, these reps are likely to dig into a defensive position, blame the ignorance of others, throw up their hands and claim to be unable to fulfill the contract. And this disquieting message might very well be delivered to the customer through a barrage of technical jargon -- pawned off as an explanation -- that is totally unintelligible to the layperson.
