Managing exaggerated expectations coming out of the sales process 1

[alcri]

This is a very sensitive, politically charged question.

To summarize- out of the sale process the client has formed an exaggerated opinion as to what they will get. They keep referring back to what they think someone has promised to them. I am having a hard time gaining credibility for the implementation team and although I can involve sales resources occasionally I almost do not want to – as this seems to be creating too much finger pointing and it got us in trouble to begin with. How do you have this difficult conversation with the client and turn things around?

Thanks
Alex

 

[IRstuff]

There's what someone said, and there's what's in the contract and specification. A customer who has neither is in for a rude awakening.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[KENAT]

Rely on what's in writing as IRstuff says.

If you can't achieve what's in writing, because sales promised too much, then you have to flow it back up the management tree until it comes down on the sales team to speak to the client.

Of course there's a chance the management will say 'achieve the impossible', in which case you need to start looking for a new job.

Sadly what you describe is not atypical from my experience.

 

[PSE]

Sales "should" (not that they do), continue to manage the client's expectations based upon response to the initial requirements for the work. They are the conduit to the customer (I know that may not always be a good thing).

Sales also "should" have been responsible for clearly identifying/documenting and getting approval from the customer the requirements of the work and get feedback from engineering prior to closing the sale. Whitewashing the requirements and glossing over expectations does no one any good.

You indicate that this is a politically charged situation. Not good and needs to be resolved at least at the next level higher than the "combatants".

Having to lower a customer's expectations is a difficult thing. If it needs to be done, be honest and up front about it. There is money at stake as well as repeat and future business.

Think about what would upset you most as a customer. Someone telling you that they cannot fulfill your requirements based on such and such, or someone who comes up with something that to your knowledge should meet your needs but in reality, fails to after you have purchased it?

Regards,

 

[subconcious]

Have you resolved this yet? If so, please tell us what you did. If not:
I have been on both sides, Sales and Engineering. Normally, client expectations are transformed into objectives, at least internally. Often, when client expectations appear to not match what engineering meant to offer, I have found that there was confusion in objectives.

So I came up with a trick that works for clients, sales and engineering. Pick one area of the mismatched exectations. Try to write down an objective so that it tells us two things: "Why is this objective important to the project", and "when do we stop working on it".

Beware not to simply list deliverables. A deliverable is the output but usually does not contain information as to how good it must be, what it does, why it's needed etc.

Now it is usually best to do this before signing a contract, but I have used it to renegotiate mismatched expectations. If truly sales has misrepresented the effort, there is still hope. The above will allow you to find what's realy important to the customer and what is not. You can readjust the deliverable to include important stuff and exclude non-important stuff thereby keeping to your original budget.


Engineering excellence culture

http://www.ktsprocess.com/

 

[DRC1]

Generay the sals guys are measured by volume of sales, while production is measured by cost to produce. thus the sales guys tend to trivialize details that can kill production. They are not production people. There objective is to make the sale. However, even if it is not in the written agreement, if the client feels what was delivered was less than what was expected, the firm will have lost. I would suggest someone from production or engineering accompany the sales team to dicuss the project with the client before signing the deal. They don't have to lead, or even say much, just make sure what the sales team represents is realistic. I would think that the sales team would quickly get a better idea of what production can do and be able to better represent the products.

 

[stockdam]

I think you have described something that happens far too often.

I'm trying to address a similar problem here by getting the requirements documented - but the level of detail needs to be more than just listing deliverables. The deliverable must be worded in such a way as it's clear as to what it will be......"how will we know that the deliverable meets expectations....what criteria will be used to judge it....what will a successful deliverable look like or contain?". These requirements must have an input from all parties within the company - not just the sales team. I'm trying to find a way of doing this so that requirements are signed off by us and by the customer.

Back to your problem. You'll have to grasp the nettle and talk with the customer and say there seems to be a mismatch between our understanding and yours. Ok so there will be an initial throwing of toys out of the pram by the customer but they should agree that it's in everyone's interest to resolve this now rather than later. Next should be a discussion of both side's views and then hopefully you'll be able to find a common ground. However if the sales team have said something verbally that is wrong then you've got a problem. I think the best you can do is try to deliver the very minimum the customer will accept in this area - they also know now that you will be trying to do the same thing so they will need to reduce their expectations otherwsie they will be disappointed. Maybe you will be able to give them your 'best price' for adding this feature so the customer will get the extra work done for a reduced price.

You then need to kick your sales team and make sure there's buy-in from the rest of the company before they agree anything with a customer.

 

[stockdam]

A comment on what IRstuff said.

Yes there's the contract and the spec and then there's what's said....

That's the way to loose customers in future.

What's said by the sales team can also be part of the contract. Ok so you might be able to win this battle by holding up the contract but unless you can convince the customer otherwise then they 'know' what was said and that's what they expect. Give them less and they will go elsewhere in future.

 

[dcasto]

If you want to see the ultimate in he said she said and the contract written word said, goggle directbuy and read about the law suits........