A Tale of Three Woes
Using an email address other than your domain name, or one that promotes your brand, makes completing the sales cycle tricky.
In this day and age of independent contractors and sales agents, it can be bothersome trying to figure out who is who selling what on behalf of who. Poor branding efforts dilute a clear sales channel, and that’s not good for the consumer. If it’s not good for the consumer, it’s not good for your company, plain and simple.
Let me explain why:
Parent Company X owns subsidiary, Company Y.
Company Y produces items to sell, but for the time being doesn’t have their own in-house sales staff.
Company Y decides to outsource sales to Company Z.
The employee at Company Z doesn’t use a branded company email address such as j.smith@CompanyZ.com so all of the ‘official’ correspondence conducted on behalf of Company Y is sent to potential and existing customers using a personal email like john.s@hotmail.com.
Unless a customer is keenly aware of who this individual is, it’s unlikely they’ll be recognized as a viable business contact. It’s so important that your branding rings clearly in one’s mind so customers know what company is making contact and what product is being presented. Can you see a trust issue here?
Company X wanted Company Y to be the brand behind the products, but they failed to capitalize on that investment by not providing guidance and the necessary resources to Company Z. Company Z is at a serious disadvantage, but it impacts each company. These types of things actually impact commerce in general. It’s a big food chain.
When a potential customer is confused from the start, chances are they won’t go beyond the first contact. That is unless they have prior knowledge of the situation and know who’s contacting them. But not everyone being contacted by this representative from Company Z will have such knowledge, nor care to find out the details. They just discard the email, a sales opportunity lost.
Are you making sure your brand is being given the proper amount of respect and representation while working through third party contractors that are marketing your products? If you aren’t, you need to be. Providing the necessary training and branded email tools isn’t difficult. Doing so will only boost your ROI!