I’ve had three different experiences as a customer who had a problem with an order. I accept mistakes happen. As a perfectionist, I’ve made mistakes anyway and have learned to let go. If we keep reviewing our work, we’d miss deadlines and have unhappy clients. I think what’s important is how you handle the mistakes.

Personalization

I ordered a personalized Rubik’s Cube for Paul’s 40th birthday as a representative of the ’80s. This wasn’t an ordinary cube, but one that had pictures of the family on all the sides. Notice the picture shows hardly any black? Now look at what I got. Atrocious. The pictures should’ve taken up the full space like in the wedding photo that appears on the right square.

(click images to see larger image in a pop up window)

The site says, “1/4″ of the image will be trimmed on all sides – allow for that when uploading your image.” It didn’t say anything about what size the images should be to ensure they take up the full amount of available space. So I assumed the pictures would be cropped and fitted. Nope.

I emailed them twice in two to three weeks. No response. Finally, we called and got a response. The company is making and sending another one. If I don’t like it, I can send both back for a refund.

Ironically, Paul also ordered my birthday gift from the same company and it arrived with my name spelled “Merryill.” The order form had my name spelled correctly. The person doing the personalization must’ve been having a bad day. As a result, the gift that would’ve been on time had it been done right the first time… was late (no biggie — but for some people it’s a biggie).

Furthermore, there was a second part to the gift: a career sign. It’s a wooden wall hanging that looks weathered. As you can see, the form says to “specify any career.” There is no list of careers. The company called Paul (after they had already screwed up my name, which was ordered at the same time as the career sign) and said they can’t do “writer” or “journalist.” Specify any career, eh?

Book review of Seth Godin‘s newest book, Free Prize Inside, is posted. Man, he is good. The book has not even reached shelves and look how well it ranks in Amazon from pre-orders.

The Pitchers: Sales

Let’s say you have a new baseball team in town and it’s almost time for the first game of the season. Your sales force is ready to sell a variety of package deals for the season. However, there’s a major stumbling block as they prepare to approach potential buyers. No one knows about the package deals or even the date of the first game.

No one tipped the local sports writer or the local TV news of the upcoming grand opening game. What happened to the marketing department? There’s no marketing research, no publicity, and no idea where to begin targeting sales. Sales will flop and will make the sales department look bad, but it’s marketing’s fault since they didn’t do their job.

The Batters: Marketing

Let’s switch and see things from the marketing team’s view. They do a grand job of posting banners of the first game in town. Marketing has pulled together piles of reports with data on the audience, their baseball attending habits, and game spending habits. Many people arrive for the game opener, buy a ticket for the game, and it’s successful.

Or is it really? The sales team is invisible. There is no one to build a relationship with the fans. No one has sold them packages for attending more than just the opener. Sales could go far beyond than one game. They could even help build relationships that go beyond the season. Marketing did a great job, but with poor sales the team may not make it and everyone loses. Where was sales when marketing promoted the event?

Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame? In the war for profitable bottom line, turf issues should be put aside.

Who’s on First?

Marketing and sales play for the same team in different positions. Marketing leads to sales by creating programs focused on direct marketing principles that are tied to the sales team’s success. Marketing puts together a multi-step game plan to ensure each interaction with prospective fans lead to more and deeper interactions. Using shared business goals as a driver, the two work to meet those goals.

Marketing and sales should constantly communicate with each other to ensure effective timing, clear understanding of the company’s message, and smoother handoffs. Sales can determine the target market by evaluating current and past sales. The results help marketing professionals sharpen their pitch so they can hook the right people.