It's a buyer's nightmare. Even when a buyer pretends not to be concerned about the consequences of non-quality, your presentation takes on a special resonance if you mention the risks involved.
Explanations: traditionally, the final purchase cost of a product is broken down as follows:
- the purchase price of the product ;
- administrative cost of purchase ;
- procurement cost; storage cost ;
- implementation costs;
- the cost of non-quality, i.e. costs incurred as a result of product quality defects.
While the first five components are relatively stable and controllable, the last one can vary widely and significantly affect the final purchase price. For example, Total's freight purchasing manager must have thought he'd made a good deal when he chartered the Erika, an old single-hull tanker, to transport his fuel. Until the tanker sank off the French coast, fouling the Breton and Vendée coasts. The result was a series of lawsuits, a boycott by motorists and an altered brand image that cost some one hundred million euros! That's the cost of non-quality.
As a salesperson, don't hesitate to highlight the cost of non-quality whenever you can.
Example: a seller of wooden pallets confronts a buyer from the food industry.
The buyer: "Your pallets are 0.20 euros more expensive than your competitor's."
The seller: "That's true, but our pallets have undergone a special treatment that stabilizes the fungicidal products."
The buyer: "So what do I care?"
The salesman: "I simply want to enable you to assess the consequences, for you and your company, resulting from non-quality. Admittedly, the risks are small, but they do exist, and my company has decided not to make you take them, even if it means paying more."
The buyer: "Don't worry about us, we know what we have to do!"
The salesman: "Out of a clear conscience, I'd like to tell you about it. That way, you can make an informed choice! The fungicides we use to treat pallets prevent the appearance of fungi and other moulds. But if they're not stabilized, they settle on the metal of the cans, and then on the hands that handle them. If these hands then come into contact with a mucous membrane, the consequences can be dramatic. An investigation will easily find the cause: a fungicide product on a pallet... And the media will ruin your company's image for a long time to come, not to mention the millions of euros worth of inventory you'll have to buy back from your customers!
(Note: this story is true! It happened a few years ago in France and Belgium, and affected a famous soda brand).
Excerpt from : " Les Accélérateurs de Vente " - Philippe LAFAIX and Michaël AGUILAR - DUNOD - 2005