Almost every potential sale is an opportunity to gain a new long-term customer. That's the philosophy VAR American Barcode and RFID applies to its business. The VAR turned an urgent call for assistance from a noncustomer into $50,000 worth of business over two months. However, it wasn't just American Barcode's response that landed it the sale. It was the fact that it responded quickly and took methodical steps to demonstrate to the customer that it could solve the problem.
Quick Response To Bar Code Printing Problem Wins Sale
American Barcode is a reseller and systems integrator of bar coding, RFID (radio frequency identification), and time and attendance solutions. The VAR received a call for help from a local medical supply company that was having problems with inconsistent print quality from its bar code printers. As a result, its customers, resulting in chargebacks and expedited freight charges, rejected some of the supply company’s shipments. Rather than delay response to the call because the company wasn't a customer, American Barcode responded that day. "I think the fact that we responded on the same day gave us an advantage over any competition there might have been," says American Barcode Account Manager Dan Trainor.
American Barcode arrived at the scene and discovered the print quality problem was due to the thermal transfer, wax-based ribbons the supply company was using in its Zebra TLP bar code printers. American Barcode tested different thermal transfer ribbons that it resells, calling on its vendors to send samples of their ribbons. After a week of testing, the VAR found that a resin ribbon from IIMAK eliminated the printing problems.
Before selling the ribbon to the supply company, though, American Barcode made sure it could deliver what it promised. It contacted IIMAK to make sure the vendor could handle the volume American Barcode would be requesting for the customer. "The customer had a large order pending and needed a solution right away," says Trainor. "But even though we found a solution, if we couldn't provide it - if IIMAK couldn't get us the volume in time - the solution wouldn't be any good." Because of the urgency, the sales cycle for American Barcode was less than two weeks, and the customer was using the ribbon within a month of making that first call.
Add Ribbon Sales By Monitoring Customer's Usage
Once the supply company began using the resin ribbon in its printers, it no longer had print quality issues, eliminating the chargebacks and freight charges. American Barcode didn't stop with that success, though. It followed up with the supply company two weeks later and found the customer had used more than half of the pallet of ribbons it had purchased. The VAR ordered two more pallets to be shipped right away so as not to interrupt the customer's business. Because of that thoroughness, American Barcode can boast that the supply company purchased 11,000 rolls of printer ribbon - $50,000 worth of business - in just two months. Furthermore, the VAR's responsiveness has led to discussions with the customer to provide it with a maintenance agreement for its bar code printing equipment.
