"A number of issues were mentioned," said Paul McCord, president of McCord and Associates and author of Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income (John Wiley & Sons, 2006). "The most prevalent complaints dealt with either unpleasant surprise during the sale or the salesperson simply not keeping the customer informed of what was happening."

Customers cited instances of salespeople not communicating problematic issues during the sale until it was too late to make changes. An example of the lack of communication McCord gives is, "One company was informed that the phone system they ordered would not be delivered and installed as scheduled. The installation was scheduled to happen over a weekend and the purchasing company had scheduled some of their personnel to be on-site during the installation. Several of the company's employees had arranged their schedules to accommodate the installation. One of the company's officers had even rescheduled his vacation so he'd be in town. On Thursday prior to the installation weekend, the salesperson called to inform the company the installation would be delayed by two weeks. Calls to the company revealed the salesperson had known for almost a month that the installation would be delayed. He failed to inform his customer because he feared they'd cancel the order." Several survey respondents had similar stories to tell.

Other communication issues cited by customers in the survey include not being fully informed of add-on charges; the salesperson not requesting all needed documentation or specifications up-front; products or product specifications being changed during the sale without the customer being informed; the salesperson and company not returning phone calls in a timely manner; and simply not hearing from the salesperson for extended periods of time.

Analysis of the survey showed that a small percentage of those responding felt that the salesperson was intentionally being dishonest; many felt that their salesperson was afraid to communicate negative news; and others simply believed the salesperson was less interested in keeping them informed than in finding a new customer.

"Salespeople are doing themselves and their companies a tremendous disservice," McCord cautioned, "by not taking their communications with their customers seriously. Obviously, the phone system salesperson who failed to communicate a new delivery and installation date will probably not be getting additional business from the company that had re-arranged people's schedules to be on-site during the installation and then found out two days prior to the scheduled date that it would be delayed. Communication has historically been the single biggest stumbling block for salespeople. More issues arise during a sale that could have been prevented because of a simple lack of communication---sometimes due to negligence or laziness on the part of the salesperson, but more often due to the fear on the salesperson's part of communicating negative news. In the vast majority of instances, negative news can be turned into good news with some creative thinking, or at least managed. If nothing else, by quickly communicating negative news, the salesperson gives the customer early warning so that they can make other arrangements, if necessary. The worst option a salesperson can choose is to say nothing. Not communicating the negative only compounds the problem."

The survey results indicate that companies, from Fortune 50 down to the smallest, must be taking a more pro-active part in training their sales force to communicate effectively with their customers. "Telling a salesperson to communicate with their customers won't solve the problem. Companies must teach their sales force to not only communicate both good news and bad news, but in order to actually get their salespeople to communicate negative news, the company must teach the salespeople how to deliver negative news and to, when possible, turn the negative into a positive. You can't brow beat a salesperson into doing something they believe to be against their best interest, but you can teach them how to overcome negative issues and turn them to their benefit."