Practice Is Over. The Game Has Begun.

There’s something really cool about getting a purchase order.

Sales has been working the opportunity for months. Phone calls. Emails. Meetings. Plant visits. Dinners. Probably a few cups of bad coffee along the way.

You’ve learned the customer’s business. You’ve figured out what they really need. You’ve met the people who will use what you’re selling, the people who will pay for it and probably the guy who was last to get on-board.

You built the relationship. You made the promises.

Then one day the PO shows up.

We got the order. Better yet, we got a new customer.

Ring the bell. Fire up some cigars…

We won!

And then comes the realization. That purchase order you just spent months working to get has finally been handed to you.

Practice is over. The game has begun.

Everything you said you could do. Every promise you made. Every expectation you helped create. Every bit of trust you built to get that piece of paper…

Now you have to deliver.

And that means everybody. Sales. Engineering. Purchasing. Operations. Quality. Parts. Service. Accounting.

After the PO, we’re all down in the dirt together. Nobody gets to stand on the sidelines and stay clean.

That purchase order needs to fit nicely into everybody’s pocket, toolbox, spreadsheet and task list.

Sales needs to stay connected to the customer and make sure what was promised is understood. Engineering needs to turn those promises into something that works. Purchasing needs to make sure the pieces are there when they’re needed. Operations needs to build it right and build it on time. Quality needs to make sure what goes out the door is what the customer expected. Accounting needs to understand what was agreed to. Parts and service need to be ready long after everybody else thinks the order is finished.

Nobody on that list is more important than the other when it comes to keeping the promise.

Because the customer didn’t buy your engineering department, your factory, your service department or your salesperson.

They bought all of you.

They expect the company they trusted enough to give that first purchase order to to perform.

Pretty simple.

Until somebody gets a case of amnesia.

Remember all those promises we made before the PO? The delivery date. The engineering change. The special requirement. The support after delivery. All those things we talked about while we were working to earn the business.

Then the PO hits and somebody says:

“Who told them we could do that?”

C’mon. We didn’t make these promises in a vacuum.

There were meetings. Phone calls. Emails. Drawings. Quotes. Customer visits. Internal discussions. People nodded their heads. Somebody agreed.

We made those promises together because we wanted the order. Well, congratulations. We got it. And a new customer came with it.

Now everybody who helped make those promises gets to help keep them.

That includes sales.

You don’t get to disappear because the PO is safely in the system and there’s another opportunity to chase. Get out in the shop. See how the order is progressing. Talk to engineering. Ask purchasing if anything is getting tight. Find out if production is slipping before your customer has to call and ask where their order is.

You spent months learning their business and building enough trust for them to hand you that purchase order.

Why in the hell would you suddenly stop doing all the things that got you there?

And when something goes wrong and sooner or later something will, stay involved. Don’t hide behind another department.

You were there when the promises were made. Be there when the promises have to be kept.

But this isn’t just about sales.

The guy in the shop has a piece of that relationship too. So does the engineer looking at the print. The person ordering the component. The person inspecting it. The person loading it on the truck. And the person answering the parts phone six months later when the customer needs something yesterday.

They may never have sat across the table from the customer. They may not even know the customer personally.

But what they do can strengthen that relationship—or screw it up.

Eventually the truck gets delivered. The machine goes to work. The component gets installed. The invoice gets paid. Everybody done?

Not even close.

Did it perform? Did we do what we said we were going to do? When something went haywire, did we own it? Did somebody answer the phone? Did we stay involved when there wasn’t another order sitting on the table? Because that first PO isn’t really the test.

The next one is.

Sales may bring that first piece of paper through the door, but what everybody does afterward determines whether another one ever comes through it.

And then there’s something even better than the next PO.

The referral.

A customer picks up the phone and tells somebody you’ve never met:

“You ought to check these guys out.”

Think about that for a minute. No cold call. No introductory email. No leaning on marketing for more qualified leads. No fancy presentation. No clever LinkedIn message.

And definitely no 1-800-QUICKQUOTE.

Somebody you’ve already earned credibility with just put their reputation next to yours.

You don’t earn that referral when you ask for it.

You earned it when engineering solved the problem instead of explaining why it couldn’t be done. When somebody in production caught something before it shipped. When parts found what the customer needed. When service answered the phone. You earned it when somebody said, “We screwed this up. We’ll fix it.”

And you earned it when the salesperson showed up even though there wasn’t another purchase order sitting on the table.

That’s a relationship sale.

It didn’t end when the PO came through the door.

That’s when the game started.

The purchase order found its way into everybody’s pocket, toolbox, spreadsheet and task list. Everybody got a little dirt on them.

Nobody got to stand on the sidelines and stay clean.

And if everybody did their job, maybe another piece of paper eventually comes through the door. Then another.

And one day the phone rings because somebody you’ve never met was told:

“You ought to check these guys out.”

Now you’re back where you started. A new opportunity. A new relationship. And another piece of paper you haven’t earned yet.

Time to get back to practice.

See you next week.

— HAMP