The Sweetwater Shuffle

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Phil Graham

Honorary PhD
Mar 10, 2011
651
1
18
Atlanta, GA
Hey all,

How many of you get a call about 1x a year from Sweetwater, courtesy of a new rep that is overseeing your (zombie) "account."

I always feel bad for these new reps, who are trying to revive my business with Sweetwater after I bought [something not memorable] in [(present time) - (5+ years)]. No wonder they wash out after about a year...

P.S. I like Sweetwater, I recommend them consistently to smaller clients who benefit from hand holding, but I'm not their use case customer.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

Justice C. Bigler said:
Yep. here too.

I've had a couple of new reps that have contacted me. Haven't bought anything from then in about 6 or 7 years. I just tell them that I'm pretty committed to Full Compass.
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It's just good sales procedure. It has proven itself time and time again in many industries that keeping in touch with your customer base even if you've only bought one cable five years from them. Nothing more, it's part of being a good salesperson.

Best regards,

John
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

John Halliburton said:
It's just good sales procedure. It has proven itself time and time again in many industries that keeping in touch with your customer base even if you've only bought one cable five years from them. Nothing more, it's part of being a good salesperson.
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John,

No doubt it is sales 101, and it is effective in aggregate. The entire software CRM industry is based in part on this truism.

I merely find it comical when it happens to me.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

I'm not a fan of theirs at all, and when they call, I let them know. Their 'no hassle' return policy indicates that items can be returned within 30 days for a full refund. However, when I returned an item to them, they charged me a 15% restock. Of course, they said that it wasn't a 'restock fee' but a devaluation fee. Since the item had been opened, they had to discount the amount they gave to me. Clearly different than how it's stated on their website.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

I have been using Sweetwater allot lately. Since Amazon started charging sales tax in Florida and Sweetwater is usually the same price. Both have free shipping (I have a prime account), but I like the personalized service. My rep calls me to confirm he received the order and I have had a few questions that he assisted with.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

Aren't there laws about telemarketing and the time frame between conversations with a customer? Perhaps Sweetwater's calendar is designed to maintain their contact list?
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

That's the one thing I like about Thomann, they only use your contact details for use to contact you regarding orders and nothing else. They don't even send you marketing emails unless you specifically sign up to them.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

I need to step up my game. I had a customer call today, who last ordered in 2008, and he was insulted that I did not remember his email address.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

Jack Arnott said:
I need to step up my game. I had a customer call today, who last ordered in 2008, and he was insulted that I did not remember his email address.
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Jack,

Do you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system? If you had a CRM system, and were diligent about using it, you can indeed appear like a superhero to these infrequent clients by retaining this kind of information, their previous orders, their idiosyncrasies, your last touch point with them, etc. all a few clicks away and quickly recallable with a few seconds of chit chat on a phone call.

Have a look at Sugar CRM or Salesforce. For less than $50/month you can have way more customer touchpoint capability than you'll ever need for pro audio:
http://www.sugarcrm.com/pricing
http://www.salesforce.com/crm/editions-pricing.jsp?d=70130000000rynQ&internal=true

Cheers,
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

I just went through a two day salesforce training. It's kinda like a salesman's version of facebook, where you can create customer profiles (accounts) and link these acounts to people, events, past sales and potential projects. Truly a powerful tool.
 
Re: The Sweetwater Shuffle

Thanks Phil!
I do have most of their info on my quickbooks.

But in this case I was on my mobile. I also deleted him from my webmail address book because I was constantly getting spammed when he opened every troll virus that came his way.

One thing my version of quickbooks does that is odd, when I change a shipping address, then it changes all the prior invoices. In this case this is key, because I have shipped to at least 4 different places for this person.


Phil Graham said:
Jack,

Do you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system? If you had a CRM system, and were diligent about using it, you can indeed appear like a superhero to these infrequent clients by retaining this kind of information, their previous orders, their idiosyncrasies, your last touch point with them, etc. all a few clicks away and quickly recallable with a few seconds of chit chat on a phone call.

Have a look at Sugar CRM or Salesforce. For less than $50/month you can have way more customer touchpoint capability than you'll ever need for pro audio:
http://www.sugarcrm.com/pricing
http://www.salesforce.com/crm/editions-pricing.jsp?d=70130000000rynQ&internal=true

Cheers,
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