It all started yesterday afternoon, I had a call from the DM (decision maker) at one of my largest production accounts (three devices) that he received the wrong toner. It happens, none of us are perfect, however, getting the wrong toner when you print all of your volume only once a week and you’re going on vacation on Wednesday turned out to be a very big deal.
My Client Care department was awesome and put someone on the road and drove more than 120 miles to deliver the last two toners we had in stock. I thought, “We’re awesome!”
Uh, not so fast, Murphy’s Law reared its ugly head and I had another call from the DM that two toners is not going to cut it and he needs to get the printed docs out before he goes on vacation. They need more. Late Monday, I e-mailed and called a few people at the office, however, it was too late in the day.
Tuesday morning, I knew the problem was still existing and tried to figure out where, where can I get this toner? My first call was to my good friends at Polek & Polek (They once delivered toner by sled in a snowstorm), but Mark informed me that they did not have any. I then remembered that Fisher (P4P member) is with a Lanier Dealer near Atlantic City. I gave them a quick call and they had two that they could spare. Thus, when I really needed to make some calls to set appointments (cause I got squat for this week), I set out on an 80-mile road trip to Copiers Plus in Egg Harbor Township.
It was 93 degrees, humid as heck, and the AC in the car was bunko so I opened the windows, the sun roof, took off my shirt (gotta work on the tan) and preceded southbound on the Garden State Parkway.
For those of you that are not familiar with New Jersey, the Garden State Parkway runs north and south and is the main corridor to all of the New Jersey Shore resorts.
I can’t tell you, how many bennys that I gave them the “you’re number one sign, on my way south. After 34 years of being a professional driver (cause we do a lot of that), many of the Bennys were just ticking me off with left lane, right lane, in, out, step on the brakes, pick your nose, and talking on the cell.
Finally, I arrived at Copiers Plus, grabbed the toner, and headed back North to my account that was located about 40 miles north of Atlantic City.
Now, you all know I’m getting somewhat older, and on the drive back, I caught myself starting to do the “head nod” (drifting to sleep). It must have been from all the heat and the constant driving, nevertheless, I pulled over and caught a 15-minute cat nap, then felt good as new.
I finally arrived at the client’s office around 2 p.m. My client was ecstatic! Matter of fact when I walked in both black devices and the one color device was going full bore. As I turned the corner, I saw the customer’s one lone Konica Minolta device and it was broke, saying “Call Service!” That made my day.
In the end, it was the customer who said to me, “Great sales people solve business problems.”
I thought that was awesome and I was happy that he was able to get his work out and that he and his family could enjoy a great vacation.
Good selling!
