Call me Back...Please!

A few years ago, I was talking to my logistics manager on the phone about an urgent problem. I asked him a vital question that I needed answered immediately, and he responded: "I'll get you the answer, and call you back in five minutes."

Whereupon I sat bolt upright in my chair, hand on the phone, ready to pick up the minute it rang. I took no other calls, started no other projects and didn't go to the bathroom because this guy was going to call me back in five minutes.

So, I sat there. Waiting…and waiting…and waiting.

After twenty minutes, my hair standing on end (I still had some hair in those days), my eyes wild with frustration, I called him back. He wasn't there. He was at the warehouse.

I immediately had him paged and got him on the phone. Then I exploded: "You said you were going to call me back in five minutes!" I said. "I've been sitting here waiting!"

He responded as if he was an orderly at an insane asylum, who was going to have to give another tranquilizer shot to calm an inmate down. "Richard," he said in a slow, patient voice, "I didn't mean literally in five minutes. I meant sometime later today."

I was stunned. How could two people have such different notions about the meaning of "five minutes"?

After going to the gym and setting a new world record on the Stairmaster, I had calmed down enough to reflect on the meaning of time to different people. It occurred to me that there's no standard perception when it comes to time; people seem to run on their own mental clocks.

As I talked to buyers, manufacturers and salespeople, I became increasingly convinced that this gap in how we see time is one of the major stumbling blocks in good buyer/seller relationships. People don't seem to feel the same sense of urgency when it comes to responding to phone calls and emails as they do when they place them. Salespeople grumble that buyers don't call back; buyers grumble that salespeople don't call them back — and both sound self-righteous when they complain. Everyone wants to communicate when they think it is urgent, but not when someone else does.

Salespeople call because they want to know if they are going to get the order, and if so, when it's going to ship. They need to know for both practical and emotional reasons. Practically, they need to know because management wants to project revenue and profit. The company also needs to plan production, and if that production takes place overseas, it becomes more urgent. Finally, many salespeople are paid based on their sales production — and they want the money. Emotionally, many salespeople feel their value is measured directly by their sales volume; they want to feel good about themselves, and locking up an order is a form of affirmation.

Buyers, on the other hand, receive scores of phone calls and hundreds of emails every day. They can't possibly respond to all of them, so they don't. Rather, they pick and choose based on their own sense of urgency. That sense is driven by pressures placed on them by their management — or, in the case of storeowners, by the bottom line.

This is how it goes: The sales manager calls the salesperson and asks whether or not he's getting an order. The salesperson, in turn, contacts the buyer to find out. But the buyer doesn't respond. The salesperson lets the non-response go until the sales manager calls to see what's happened. That's when the fun starts.

A cycle of unanswered calls ensues, with the salesperson repeatedly leaving messages. The buyer's message and email load increases, creating a bewildering level of unanswered communications. The buyer sees the salesperson as a nuisance. The salesperson sees the buyer as an obstacle.

This would be a simple interpersonal problem if not for the fact that salespeople have an urgent need to retrieve vital information. After all, manufacturers need to plan. Yes, the buyer needs time to make decisions, but if the decision comes too late, the order can't be produced in time.

What to do?

• Salespeople and manufacturers must realize that anxiety alone is not sufficient reason to begin asking for a decision mere days after the proposal has been made.
• Manufacturers can give actual, not exaggerated, timetables when providing sales information to salespeople. They need to say: "This is when we need the purchase order to assure shipping by the desired date. If it comes in after this, the shipping dates will move accordingly."
• Salespeople can make deadlines a major part of their presentations. Ask buyers to collaborate in assuring that shipping dates are met.
• Buyers can let salespeople know they're aware of the dates; if they can't comply, let them know promptly.
• Buyers, factories and salespeople can respond to the first contact within twenty-four hours. If there will be no response until a specific date, say so — and respond by that date.

A healthy sales chain requires that all participants be responsible in initiating and responding to calls. If we all take our roles seriously, everyone can generate more revenue and make life a lot easier.