Create Better Ideas

Rebecca Tapp - Brand Ambassador

Excerpt taken from Rebecca Tapp's Brand Ambassador Form:

Rebecca has grown greatly in her own confidence and is reflected in her high performance in Billing for ALL Parts & Service for Jeffreys.  Rebecca has well over a 10,000 customer base for Jeffreys. Needless to say Rebecca has mastered the art of multi-tasking very well. She does a weekly review of the Back Order Detail Report to insure no missed orders for parts and service. She has also increased efficiency to catch orders before they get too old, and to insure customers are invoiced in a timely manner.

 

 

Michael Garner - Brand Ambassador

Excerpt taken from Michael Garner's Brand Ambassador Form:

I met Michael 10 years ago when he came into the shop I worked for as a service tech and replaced a spindle in a Haas machine we had. After helping with the job I told him in passing that if they ever needed help to let me know because the job looked very interesting to me. He took me to lunch and explained the unique situation he was in. Just hired by Jeffreys and put in charge of finding another salesman and a couple techs. Since that day, Michael has basically built up what we all know as Jeffrey’s West. No he hasn’t done it by himself, but I don’t believe it could or would have been done as fast or as good without him.

Tom Huntley - Brand Ambassador

Excerpt taken from Tom Huntley's Brand Ambassador Form:

Our customer was screaming for help. His machine was down and his shop would be put out of business if we could not help him immediately. Of course this happens at the end of the day and our turnaround time would have killed him. Tom was the closest technician we had available. I called Tom and told him the problem we had. Tom jumped into his van drove about 2 hours to the office in Greensboro to pick up a part, then drove to the customer’s location and fixed his machine. Tom got this job done very late at night. Our problem was that the job we had already committed to the following day was for another hot machine and a very good customer. Tom not asking for anything made the sacrifice and showed up early the next day to other customer to get their machine back up and running.

In this case we were able to satisfy two customers and get them back into production with very little down time. Both customers were greatly appreciative for the sacrifice Tom had made. These types of small sacrifices we make will result in us winning machine orders in the future.

Ken Wawrzyniak - Brand Ambassador

Excerpt taken from Ken Wawrzyniak's Brand Ambassador Form:

Ken has much more than a business relationship with his customers, he has friendships. The most important piece of advice I received from Ken; "You will never sell a thing until you sell yourself." Ken lives this each and every day. During our return trip from the International Sales Meeting, a situation with a customer came to Ken's attention. Pulling in his driveway at 4:00 PM, after driving four hours home, he jumped back in his car and headed to the customer, an hour drive. "This is something I need to talk to him face to face," said Ken.

Ken, in my opinion, is already a Brand Ambassador. He is the most honest, unselfish, and professional individual I have ever met. I am honored and privileged to have him as a Partner.

What does Legendary Customer Value mean to you?

Brook Barwick

Legendary Customer Value is a program that is designed to allow Phillips Corporation to accomplish success that is unimaginable in our current mode of thinking.  It is designed to create results that we do not yet know are even possible.  Legendary Customer Value requires each Phillips Partner to “Take a Stand”.  This means that each Phillips Partner in our organization will in every aspect of customer interaction cause that customer to realize such a profound positive experience  that the customer will be overwhelmed and astounded, giving them no choice but to only want to do business with us whenever possible and always recommending a Phillips company to their industry associates.  We commit to providing each Partner the tools and guidance to insure this happens.  Everyone in our organization will have the same primary job – To Deliver Legendary Customer Value.  All other things that we do will be simply tasks.

Our current reality is entirely made up.  We made it up.  We decided what it was going to be.  We tend to ignore things that don’t fit our reality.  The nice thing is since we made up our current reality, we can make reality anything we want it to be.  What we say and what we do creates our reality.  Words have a big part in creating and shaping reality.  From my GAP training an example was made relative to how powerful words can be.

“Olympic Gold Medals are hard to come by” – Example of fitting the word to the world

“I shall win the Olympic Gold Medal” – Example of the world fitting to your world.

Because our words can just as easily either open or inhibit possibility, it very much matters what we say. (GAP)

[Brooks began his exploration of “Legendary Customer Value” with some other Phillips Corporation partners at a “breakthrough thinking” workshop run by Gap International. Gap is a global management consulting company that partners with executives in producing exceptional growth for themselves and their businesses. Coaches from Gap are working with several of our senior leaders on creating breakthrough thinking for extraordinary performance. http://www.gapinternational.com/]

Turning a Negative into a Positive

“Sir, I am sorry to inform you that your new machine has flipped over on the highway.”  I have only had 2 machine tools damaged enroute to their destination.  The first time a Roundo roll coming from Sweden sank in the English Channel (along with a few thousand Volvos).  This time a truck carrying an LVD shear was blown off the road as it exited the highway (No one was injured).  The trucker reported only slight damage to the machine…

 

 

THIS IS OUR TIME TO SHINE!

 

I was taught at an early stage in my career that the best sales call that you could ever make is when something goes wrong.  This is your opportunity to show the customer why he made the right decision in buying from you.  If you are able to prove your worth, you will have a customer for life.

I was very glad to have a team of Phillips Brand Ambassadors on this issue.  Nancy Kovach, our logistics guru, and Jason Blair, our product manager, seized this opportunity to demonstrate what legendary service truly means.  Immediately, a plan was implemented to reroute the machine for inspection.  Damage was assessed, insurance claims were submitted, and a replacement shear was ordered.  Phillips handled all of the details.

I was in contact with the customer, who thanked me for the professional manner in which we handled the challenge.  While he wasn’t happy that he would be without a shear for a few more weeks, he was happy that he chose to partner with Phillips.

As a sales organization, you should welcome the opportunity to service the customer.  It gives you an chance to show customers why they can’t commoditize your offerings. 

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING

Every time I make a major purchase, I pay attention to the process.  I try to reconstruct the entire experience to see what I can learn from it. 

 I recently got a new mountain bike frame, and was looking to outfit it with all of the components needed to make it a bike.  I wanted to build it myself, but didn’t have a lot of experience in selecting components.  Further, I had never built a bike before.  I found myself scouring the internet and visiting local bike shops for the best information and prices.  I talked to everyone about getting the right components for my needs.  After 2 weeks, I found that almost everyone proposed the same components.  Surprisingly, everyone had their pricing within 3% of each other.  I was no closer to making a decision on a supplier.

I stopped at one last bike shop that I came across.  I told him that I was looking to build a bike and had a list of components for him to price.  Instead of going to his computer and pricing it out, he began to ask me questions.

Salesmen: Wow, this looks like you did a lot of work on this list.  Have you ever built a bike before?

Me: No I haven’t but I am really excited about working on it.

Salesmen: Where are you going to build it?

Me: At my house.

Salesmen: You can definitely do it, if you have the right tools, and a little guidance.

Me: I have a set of tools but they aren’t specific to bike building.

Salesmen: Many people build bikes at home, and you can definitely do it without many special tools.  If I could arrange for our head mechanic to supervise you while you build your bike in the shop, would you be interested?

Me: Absolutely.  How much more would that be?

Just by asking some questions this salesmen was able to differentiate his company from the competition.  He did such a good job, that I offered to pay more for his service before he even gave me a price!  This eliminated any need for him to negotiate.  Ask yourself this, did it sound like he was trying to sell me something?  To me it didn’t.  I felt that he was interested in my project, and uncovered what my real needs were.

 

Let’s bring this back to machine tools.  At Phillips, we don’t sell machine tools, we sell manufacturing solutions.  It is our job to ask the right questions to uncover the true need of the customer.  If a customer announces that he wants our best price on a new piece of equipment, we should make sure that we understand why he needs it.  We should question everything.  We should understand his goals, his challenges, and even his fears.  If we have properly interviewed, we are positioned much better to earn the business.

What are your best questions?

 

BTW, check out my new wheels!  The bike is a Chumba VF2.  They named the model after the CNC machine that makes the final cuts on the frame…you guessed it, a Haas VF2.

What is quick response time?

Your best Operator has caused a crash on your six month old VTL, it’s not a warranty issue.  What is an acceptable wait time for the supplier of your VTL to send a Technician?  Two weeks (not acceptable but sadly becoming common), one week (should you consider yourself lucky?  Is this good?) , how about in one to two days (would you pay extra for this type of response?).  Your neighborhood Machinery repair can do it in one to two days (at a lower price) but you can’t use them because it would void your warranty.  What is acceptable? What do you expect?

What if the reason for down time was solely due to machine failure, with no fault attributed to error due to you the user?  Would your expectations change?

I have a very well known customer I visited last month with two of our V60 fixed rail machines close to installation completion.  As he toured me through his plant I noticed many other VTL’s about the same size in groups of two or four determined by the manufacturer (and work flow).  About twelve machines in total, all purchased within the last six years.  As we walked past four well known brands he stopped and told me he will never by another one of these, he can not get service.  The Customer is in a remote area, about five hours away from the closest airport.  Is it fair that his only recourse after their expensive investment of four machines is to boycott further capital purchases from them?   He confided in me that they will be expanding and purchasing forty to fifty new VTL’s within the next five years, he wants’ to keep them the same so part inventory can be at a minimum.  I offered to give him a Service Technician full time at his facility to the end of the last machines warranty if a minimum of thirty machines came from us.

Would this be a deciding factor for you?