Kurt and Eric Scherzinger
Eric: The age-old debate about sales vs. service is interesting. Everyone knows you wouldn’t put the cart before the horse or count the chickens before they hatch.
Kurt: Without the cart, you wouldn’t be able to carry the load the horse was asked to (service carrying the sales department), and without the chicken, you wouldn’t have anything to count.
Eric: Similarly, you can’t perform a service you haven’t sold.
Kurt: While it’s true you can’t service something you haven’t sold, you need the service department to generate revenue to let the sales department spin their wheels.
Eric: That’s why the sales-and-marketing side of the business is more important.
Kurt: Without the service department, you’d be selling something that would never be performed. You’d have to go out on your own to service the account, which would be comical.
Eric: I often ask my brother if his department would like us to service the job we just sold, when something doesn’t go exactly right.
Kurt: Spoken like a true salesperson: Sell a job that requires multiple steps to success, but don’t communicate clearly to the service department that supports your paycheck.
Eric: Nothing happens until someone sells something.
Kurt: While you need the sale to perform the service, you can’t sell something that you can’t service without highly trained and skilled technicians.
Eric: The service department would be sitting around doing nothing, and the business wouldn’t grow without the sales and marketing department.
Kurt: Without the service department, there wouldn’t be any funds generated for the sales department to exist and the marketing department to spend.
Eric: How would anyone know about the company if it weren’t for us?
Kurt: Why would anyone call if not for the service department’s exceptional service, and what examples of success would the salespeople have?
Eric: Word of mouth? What’s that? Just because you guys did a good job doesn’t mean a customer is going to tell everyone. Advertising creates more opportunities for our salespeople, and that leads to more business.
Kurt: Again, without the service department, you wouldn’t have any success stories to tell. Who’s going to believe a salesperson without a concrete story of success to reference? As we all know, neighbors talk.
Eric: The sales department has to teach every employee the value of reselling the service every time we interact with a customer.
Kurt: The sales department likes to think it knows the value of reselling service, but we all know it’s resold through the outstanding relationships the service department creates with each customer.
Eric: Everyone loves salespeople. We’re more sociable, good looking and altogether fun to be around. No one wants to be around a boring technical person, right? I mean, who brings in new business and helps the company grow?
Kurt: Everyone knows the stigma of a salesperson. Who wouldn’t trust a state-licensed technician to solve their problem vs. selling
it, and then telling the customer someone else will be out to solve
their problem. We’re the professionals in the organization that get things done!
Well, PMP readers, who won this debate? Lock in your vote at here, and we’ll announce the results in the April issue.
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