Question

Schmidt Business Forms

Background

Congratulations! As a new salesperson for Schmidt Business Forms, you have just completed

training and have been assigned the southwest territory. Schmidt Business Forms designs and manufactures a full line of stock and customized forms for use in all types of business. Operating throughout the United States and Canada, Schmidt is recognized as one of the three leaders in the industry.

Current Situation

Doctors’ General Hospital was once a major account in your territory. Over this past year, virtually all the hospital’s forms business has been switched from Schmidt to one of your main competitors. Due to the large volume and many types of forms used, Doctors’ has placed the purchasing responsibility for all forms in the hands of Jim Adams in the purchasing department. An experienced professional purchasing agent, Adams has been in this position for several years and has purchased significant volumes of forms from Schmidt in the past. In the course of calling on Adams at his office in the hospital, you have learned that Doctors’ dropping Schmidt as a forms source did not happen overnight. Although the loss of this account was not related to any single problem, you have learned that the switch

to your competitor was basically due to a combination of events that resulted in a loss of trust in Schmidt. Several shipments did not arrive as promised, causing major problems for both billing and admissions. Even though the final proof copies were correct, a newly designed, multipart computer form was found to be short one of its pages. This required emergency room staff to take the time to use a copier (located one floor up) until the forms could

be rerun and delivered two weeks later. The final straw concerned an admissions form that Schmidt had been supplying the hospital for more than three years. For some reason, a new shipment of the admissions forms was the wrong size and would not fit into patient files without being folded. In each event, the prior salesperson worked with Adams to get the problems resolved and the correct forms delivered. Discounts were also given to help offset the inconvenience incurred. Nevertheless, Schmidt has lost the account, the previous salesperson has quit the company, and you have inherited the challenge of winning back Adams and Doctors’ General Hospital.

1. Put yourself in the role of the salesperson for Schmidt Business Forms in the selling situation just described and review the Trust-Building Behaviors presented in this chapter. Using the following worksheet as a guide, discuss and give examples of how you might use each of the Trust-Builders to re-establish a relationship with Jim Adams and win back the Doctors' General Hospital account.

Trust Builders

Expertise

Dependability

Candor

Customer orientation

Compatibility

Answer 1