Business Development & Customer Service go hand in hand

November 3, 2015

Being the Director of Business Development at one of the most exciting up and coming digital agencies is a true pleasure, but I know there is a stigma that comes with introducing yourself and being “the sales guy”.

I’m not saying that the perception of most towards sales people isn’t justified, I’ve seen first-hand the old ‘stack them high’ and ‘knock as many as you can into the back of the net’ sales mentality in action over the years.

This type of sales mentality tends to exist in the big agencies or companies with 100+ employees where every department internally is very siloed. This gives the sales guy the feeling of sell them whatever and move them on, usually to the client relations or customer services team.

At Venture Stream we think a bit differently. We’re not 100 strong and we don’t go in for every client trying to sell them a dream that might never come true, but what we are is a growing agency building a reputation of reliable, responsible marketers who can be trusted and have already gained partnerships with companies that most agencies could only dream of.

How do we do this?

We’ve got a rather simple mantra

We’re only happy if the client is happy

and this goes a long way to explaining the differences an agency can make. By breaking down those inter-department walls and treating the client the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot we are able to build a relationship that will last.

Sounds obvious I know.

One of the key factors in this is the way we present what Venture Stream can offer a client and what, in our holistic nature of looking at the company’s marketing needs, is the most important at that time that requires focus.

If you can take one thing away from the team here and the way we all manage our accounts, it’s the connection between sales and customer service. At no point during the ‘business development process’ is a client simply ‘handed over’, keeping that contact with the client from start to finish has proved a key ingredient in the way we succeed.

Working with a customer because that business is out there to be won shouldn’t be the main reason to go after that business. If you can’t satisfy the client’s needs and just bring business on for the sake of monthly targets, all you end up doing is overloading short shelf life work onto your colleagues. Inevitably creating a scenario that will result in that client leaving the agency within months of starting, usually at a loss to yourself once all has been factored in and the time you’ve needed to try rectify the error.

We are very strategic in who we, as an agency, feel we can try help and work with the brands that appreciate a strong consulting partnership and can see the benefit of our approach.

That approach always includes great customer care or ‘after sales care’ if you will. Never in the past year of being with Venture Stream have I brought, or seen anyone bring, into the agency some business and handed over the reins to someone that the client hadn’t met before. I find it hard to grasp how someone can sell the concept of the business to a client and then pass over ‘the account’ to a separate internal team that have to start from the beginning to build a solid relationship.

Sales and ongoing customer service, in my opinion, should go hand in hand. After all the best sales lead you can get is a current client referring you to someone, and you are only going to achieve that if that client has been looked after and had their needs met not just at the start but all of the time.

SALES + SERVICE = STRONG POSITION

 

We here at Venture Stream are in a strong position for any help or advice you may need, so even if it is just as an initial chat or about a specific tender please do not hesitate to contact us.