Staying Above The Line

Last week the baseball world was rocked when umpire Jim Joyce admitted he blew a call at first base that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game (it would have been only the 21st perfect game in major league history)
Joyce said, "It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the [stuff] out of it, I just cost that kid a perfect game. " By all accounts Jim Joyce has been a good umpire over his long career. In a span of five seconds the only thing he will be remembered for is this blown call (much like Don Denkinger’s call at first base in the 1985 World Series).

It took guts for Joyce to say what he did. Would you have said it if you were in his position? How many people in your organization would have made an excuse and not taken responsibility for the call?

Pretend you are a customer of the company you work for. You bought whatever product it is your company sells. At the time of purchase you felt good about your purchase. Over time as you have had questions about the product, your salesperson has never returned a call or email from you. In fact
you’ve never heard from your account executive except when it is time to sell something, and even then it sounded like your account executive didn't know anything about your account.
Now it’s renewal time.
Your salesperson calls and asks for the business.
You tell the salesperson that you are not renewing because of the lack of customer service.
The salesperson then makes any one (or all) of several claims:

another person in their office dropped the ball on a project that was to be done,

another account rep was supposed to take care of you,

a person in the office didn’t tell them the information you left for them

a colleague didn’t enter good notes into the CRM for them to follow up

Basically the salesperson blames everyone and anything else except themselves.
What are your impressions of that salesperson?
Are you more likely to buy from that salesperson in the future, or do you only remember the “blown call” like in Jim Joyce’s case?

Now pretend you are the salesperson in this example.
If you are calling an account that YOU KNOW you haven’t provided any customer service, and the customer decides not to renew because of that lack of customer service, do you:

apologize for your lack of follow up

prove to the client that you will be more vigilant in the future,

Ask how you can make it right by the customer

blame everything and everyone else except yourself?

make an excuse because you think that making another person look bad will make you look good and if the customer thinks it wasn’t your fault they will still buy?

What options above will leave a positive impression with your buyer?
If the customer doesn't renew, what options might make them give you a call in the future?

The circle of customers that buy your product is probably smaller than you think.
Customers can spot and smell a lying salesperson right away.
It makes you and the organization you are selling for look bad.
Plus the other people you lied about will probably hear about it and your reputation will be destroyed in their circles as well.
A good rule of thumb to remember that if you do a good job, a happy client will tell five people about how great you are. If you do a bad job, the client will tell fifty people how bad you are!

Draw a line across the middle of a sheet of paper.
Above the line write the words: Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility
Below the line write: Blame, Excuses, Denial
Be above the line in your sales career. Your clients will thank you for it!

Everet"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Credits:
To see a picture of the play:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Robbed-Blown-call-costs-Armando-Galarraga-a-per?urn=mlb,245292
Joyce’s comments:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=300602106
Don Denkinger’s call:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/06/03/2010-06-03_denkinger_offers_support_for_fellow_ump.html