SEll sell sell!!!!!
Must hit our target for this quarter or there will be consequences!!!
Target hit, income up, everyone is happy – but at what cost? And who cares?!
Putting sales focused KPI’s on customer facing teams could be damaging your business in the long term, especially when it is coming to the end of a reporting period, and they need to make some quick sales to hit their targets.
From the employee’s perspective, they could be significantly increasing their stress levels because they know if they miss their target by a few £’s then they don’t get their commission bonus. It might have been a quiet month and other than running around the streets and dragging people on to the sales floor to sell them stuff (which I don’t recommend), what else can they do?
Then there is the ever increasing target they have to achieve, just because they hit it last quarter, an extra 10% has been added for next quarter!! More stress, more products being sold that may not be wanted!!
There is also the opposite effect, when someone hits their target early in the quarter and cuts back on the sales process because, well, what’s the point!! This could result in poor customer service and business lost to competitors.
Which brings me to the main impact – the effect on the customer, who came in to buy 2 things they needed and ended up leaving with a lot of things they probably don’t need, will never use, and either leave them untouched, or return them – which is an inconvenience to the customer to have to do that in wasted time and costs in travelling back to the shop.
So, put yourself in the customers shoes for a second, and imagine a world where sales targets didn’t exist for customer facing teams. Imagine they are measured on their success by customer feedback scores, quality scores and delivered on time scores.
Imagine the long term impact that could have to your business, with customers returning again and again to buy your products and services because they wanted to come back, and told their friends and family about the amazing service they received compared to your competitors who were still pushing sales.
Imagine when a customer isn’t happy about the service they received and someone wanted to take ownership of resolving the issue for the customer, quickly and effectively – instead of seeing a 1 star Google review left unanswered while all the 5 star reviews get a big thank you!!!
Imagine what that would mean to your bottom line and the growth and sustainability of your business. Imagine how engaged your teams would be, knowing they are doing what they can to improve customer satisfaction rather then push a product/service that may not be needed.
Always look at your business from the customer perspective. Only then will you have a business that is set up to grow and succeed.
