Black Sales Journal

Sounds like a dumb advertisement doesn’t it?  Anyone who believes that a sales professional should work for free has a touch of a fever, but the actual situation plays out everyday.

Yet in reality, many sales professionals, and especially Black sales professionals find themselves in that situation, unintended of course.

It happens when you invest time and effort in making presentations to buyers who based on reasons beyond your control, take your presentation’s price, and your constructive ideas, and give them to your competition.  When that happens, they are actually saying you should work for free!

How It Happens

This can happen to anyone, any color, and any creed.  It is what happens when someone makes a decision to be courted and accepts the benefits of a relationship, yet not get married.  The problem arises when the fruit of your labor is used to better the position of the customer, even though they had no intention of making the move to you or your organization.

You come in with a ‘killer’ price, and a product offering that is exceptional.  You realize that based on the customer’s needs your organization can use a combination of products that are currently available on the market and couple it with some creative financing to make it palatable.   In the whole, your price and product offering is enhanced by your terms (financing, payment deferral, and other benefits) and you feel success is in the making.

As you know the customer can benefit financially and product-wise from the activities of the sales professional without ever making a real commitment to you, and certainly without putting any food on your table.  You may have felt this ‘sting’ several times before, and you do not have to be a ‘repeat’ victim.

You do all of the work, and the customer gets the benefit and any reward goes to the sales professional who followed your lead.  You have to ‘wait until next time or next year’.  Can’t buy much bacon with that! Objectively, this is part of the sales process, and a part of the process that you cannot avoid; yet you can manage.

Take Smart Precautions

To avoid this being your anthem, you have to develop your principles and rules and stick to them.  You also must work on gaining commitment before showing your complete arsenal of products and services during the process.  That commitment is based on the answers to the questions below.

When presenting, seek to get agreement on what you need to solve, and what level of price and program will “land the business”.  Logic would show that you could still be manipulated; yet this starts to get at some of the problem.  You will want to cover these bases:

Ask the all-important questions before the solicitation process.  These are the requisite questions that will define what it will take to separate them from the incumbent:

• Why are you looking for competitive quotes/bids?
• How will the quote/bid process be conducted?
• What pricing difference must be made? What will it take for you to change?
• How long have you been with the incumbent? Does the incumbent get the last shot?
• Is the playing field level with the others that are quoting (other than the incumbent)?

The purpose of these questions is clarity about the buying process and what definable difference that you must make.  Knowing the answers, if the buyer is honest, allows you to do what is necessary to be successful, whether with this customer, or another one.

An important point is that you cannot be hesitant to ask these questions.  They are part of what a true sales professional asks, and gets clarification of before the sales process.  What you learn about how the process is defined in the eyes of the customer will speak volumes.

I am sure that you sales veterans out there do this already, yet it bears mention for the new sales professionals

Don’t hesitate, ask!  Yes, the customer can still violate his/her own rules, but does so at the peril of alienating you and other sales professionals.

How Does this Affect The Black Sales Professional?

This affects all sales professionals, and it is part of the sales ‘game’.  It is what happens when customers must get competitive quotations of products and services because they want to check how they stand, or to satisfy a procedure that does the same.

Here is where it gets vexing.  Black sales professionals can easily be subject to working ‘without pay’ because of the complexities ofpreference and even prejudice (See Black Sales Journal 5/19 A Deep Dive into Preference, Perceptions, and Prejudice).  If a buyer has no intent on doing business with you as sales professional, or your organization, and is planning on taking your work and giving it to the incumbent, they are wasting your precious time and effort.   Issues regarding preference manifest themselves that way. The buyer strengthens his or her relationship with their current vendor, while at the same time improving their price and terms, thanks to your efforts.  Prolonged activities like this could obviously cost you your job.

In this way, being used is bad for your current employment health.  The above questions, if answered truthfully could save you some time, or at least help tip you off as to who the prospects are and who the ‘suspects’ are.

The Reality

You will always run the possibility of wasting time on good accounts that have no intention of moving their business because of their relationship with the incumbent.  They just want to use you for leverage to make sure they get a good price or program.  You have to make the decision of whether you want to be a willing participant, or should we call it a ‘not-for-profit sales professional’.

You have many choices that include not working with a prospect to contacting every few years to maintain the customer pending a personnel change of buyers.  The most important thing is that to increase your effectiveness, you don’t want to waste your time while you better someone else’s program.

You owe it to yourself, and it will make you more effective.

Always be effective!

Your comments are welcome. You can reach me at michael.parker@blacksalesjournal.com.

Fact: Only a small percentage of ‘situations’ involving discrimination end up needing court or government intervention, and that is the way it should be.

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As a matter of fact, you should realize that once items are forced into the ‘light’ of conversation, they are usually worked out, even if they are not totally agreed upon.  Employment grievances need to be dealt with correctly for an organization to maintain positive momentum.  How they are handled is evidence of the quality and commitment to fairness of an organization.

I am a believer that employment grievances must be ‘nipped in the bud’, or in other words, handled early and professionally.  If you are an employee who feels as if you are being discriminated against, you need to be prepared to detail your claims and concerns to your manager (See Black Sales Journal 3/3/2011 – When You Feel Screwed, What Do You Do?).  You should record in writing your concerns and your complaints for your own review.  Reducing concerns to writing is always a good practice.  You should not have to convince yourself that your claim is real as it should be evident.

The next important step is to seek counsel from a mentor or confidant for the sake of objectivity.  This gives you an opportunity to review with someone who is not emotional about the issue.  It is important for you to have that outside, objective view, as your objective is to make sure that you have a legitimate and substantiated complaint.  Your credibility is important, and this is just a first step.

Now the interesting part is that managers should do something similar with actions that they take.  Managers should consult colleagues as well as the human resources department regarding actions that may result in potential claims.  With the right amount of scrutiny, you end up with any decisions and actions that are markedly wrong being reviewed and cast correctly.  It is just that simple.  The exceptions to this are small firms without an HR department and those that have no systematic review.

The Equalizer

When discrimination happens, the federal government has put into place an ‘equalizer’ that can help to solve problems.  This process is not a lawsuit.  What they have put into place is an inexpensive way to challenge and be heard on issues involving racial discrimination.

The equalizers are the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) laws.  These laws make it illegal for employers to discriminate against an employee or potential employee in certain workplaces.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This agency that is charged with the responsibility to “promote equal opportunity in employment through administrative and judicial enforcement of the civil rights laws and through education and technical assistance.”

There can be variance in some state laws, but federal laws prohibit discrimination in employment for the following:

• Race
• Age
• Disability
• Sex or Gender
• Sexual Harassment
• Religion
• National Origin

That means using it after all other options have been exhausted including discussions with your manager and certainly with your human resources department.  There are many that are concerned about making those contacts, yet for something as important as your employment future, you need to be looking the people that affect you face-to-face.  There is no benefit to ‘guerilla’ ambushing your employer in this situation, you should have your discussions about the types of items described in Black Sales Journal 12/30/2010 – Preference, Perceptions, Prejudice and Your Employer.    Your manager needs to understand your concerns if you are aggrieved, and the first question that HR would have for you is, “Did you discuss this with your manager?”

Don’t be intimidated, have the discussion and once complete, reduce to writing in journal form the content of the discussion.  Do not rely on your memory.

For the Price Of A Stamp

Filing an EEOC claim is inexpensive in terms of cost, as it used to be the price of a stamp.  Note that if you are planning to file an EEOC complaint, you should use it wisely.  I would suggest to you need legal counsel and patience.  There can be monetary awards if they are warranted, but the process is not easy, and you should avoid any abuse at all costs.

If you have a claim, it should be evident to you and to those you discuss it with, including your counsel.  This is not the place to play out a vendetta or grudge, but if you are aggrieved, it is the way to go after you have the discussion noted above.

There are time lines with the typical deadline to file a complaint with the EEOC being 180 days from the act of discrimination.  If a state or local law applies to the same act, the deadline can be extended to up to 300 days.

The formal EEOC complaint can be filed at one of the field offices across the country (there are 53 field offices) or you can file by mail with a signed letter.

The EEOC does not accept claims on-line, but does have an online assessment tool that will help you determine whether you have a claim.

Use this information if you have good reason to, and remember that it is not what you know but what you can prove.  Have your ducks in line, or forego the process until you do have them in line.

Always be the professional.

Your comments are welcome. You can reach me at Michael.Parker@BlackSalesJournal.com.