Do you know (and follow!) the Rule of Three?

June 5, 2008

“I’ve got bad news, Boss,” said the account manager on the other end of the phone call. “I just got a call from Company XYZ, and we lost their account!”

“What happened?” I asked, expecting to hear a tale of missed deliveries, rude drivers or that old standard, high prices.

“Well, he didn’t really say…just that his boss told him they are going to start buying from Competitor ABC. What should we do?”

I asked the account manager to set up an appointment with the customer for the following day so that we could make an “autopsy” call to find out what had gone wrong and what, if anything, we could do to salvage the business.

I can honestly say that was one of the most dissatisfying sales calls of my career. It was clear from the outset that there was little we could do to win the customer back: Competitor ABC’s equipment was already in place and ours was sitting outside, waiting to be picked up. At least it wasn't raining! The shop foreman was very friendly and accommodating to our interview, but not very helpful to our investigation. Apparently service was not an issue; in fact, he said that our service over the years had been quite good. He also didn't think price was a factor. In fact, he wasn’t really able to give us any clear idea of why we had lost the business. It was exactly what he’d said: his boss had made the decision, and we were out of luck.

So, what's the moral of this sad story? The moral is the Rule of Three! The Rule of Three says that, no matter how certain you are that your main contact at a given account is the true decision-maker, you should be familiar and friendly with at least two other people in the organization. Why? Very simply stated, the more contacts you have within an organization, the more stable your relationship with that organization is.

In the example stated above, the fact that our account manager only had one point of contact, the shop foreman, left us exposed to the possibility of a competitor selling to someone above that person’s head; in this case, Competitor ABC contacted the Vice President of Operations and sold to him. Up to this point, the decisions about who to buy from had always been left to the shop foreman; now, though, the VP had decided to flex a little muscle and we were out in the cold. Perhaps if our account manager had been familiar and friendly with that VP, we would have retained the business. Instead, he now has the daunting task of getting to know the VP from the outside and convincing him to give us another shot.

Getting to know other people besides their one main contact intimidates some sales people, but don’t let it intimidate you. The fact that the customer already buys from you is your ticket to, at the very least, a “getting to know you” meeting with your main contact’s boss. Don’t be afraid to ask for it…you might regret missing the opportunity later! At the same time, don’t pass up the opportunity to meet and become friendly with people below your main contact as well; after all, that receptionist you smile at and call by name might be the purchasing agent who decides to continue buying from you (or not!) a few years from now. Even now, he or she might be the one who lets you know that the boss has been talking to one of your competitors.

The important lesson to remember in all of this is simple: shop supervisors sometimes quit, purchasing agents sometimes get fired, CEOs sometimes retire and owners sometimes sell their businesses. If that shop supervisor, purchasing agent, CEO or owner is your only point of contact in the organization, you leave yourself open to receiving the kind of disappointing phone call our account manager did. On the other hand, if you cultivate at least three points of contact in all the organizations you sell to, you greatly increase your odds of warding off those pesky competitors!

Until next time, happy selling!