Teaching Sales to Market the fact that we are ISO 9001 Registered

[JaneB]

I like Martin's idea of giving them a 'funky little thing' to use and to send along with the certificate to customers.

I've also noted success where sales/marketing people were given 'boilerplate' kind of stuff that they could just cut & paste into their proposals, etc, but it definitely should be catchy, marketing/sales-oriented boilerplate (ie, oriented towards the benefits for the customer of using your particular firm) rather than technically accurate but oh-so-dry-dull-as-ditchwater blurb

It has the dual advantages of helping them speed along their work (getting the sales) while providing them with accurate wording to use. Yes, of course they're going to 'do their own thing', so why not make it as easy and foolproof as possible for them to get it right?

 

[C Emmons]

Thanks to all for your advice - I ended up doing a power point presentation giving a very very basic overview of what is ISO - why are we doing it? Can we market it....Use of Logos - how customers can access a copy of our certificate and website addresses for additional informtion. This should get the ball rolling...

 

[Denis9001 - 2007]

Most companies use 9001 certification as amarketing tool almost as if to say "you should buy from us because we're ISO9001 certified". I prefer a different and in my opinion more accurate approach. Your customers want quality (presumably) and you have a system in place to guarantee they get quality. The certification is evidence that you've got a good/working/effective system. So the certification should give customers confidence in your quality system rather than being the be all and end all.

Quality Manuals are mostly written just for the purpose of certification. But it wouldn't take much to go through it and rewrite it to get rid of the stiff bureacratic type language and replace it with marketing language. You've now got the basis of a Quality Brochure. You think of all (or most) of the requirements and convert them into sales benefit messages. So human resources ends up that you have quality people who are well trained and motivated (awareness clause) to making the customer happy. You don't want a long document so you can bullet a lot of points. Just look at brochures for other things (eg software) and then follow the same format where iso9001 clause becomes "features" of your service eg customer testimonials = customer satisfaction. You could end up with a document/brochure which would support your sales efforts.

 

[C Emmons]

Most companies use 9001 certification as amarketing tool almost as if to say "you should buy from us because we're ISO9001 certified". I prefer a different and in my opinion more accurate approach. Your customers want quality (presumably) and you have a system in place to guarantee they get quality. The certification is evidence that you've got a good/working/effective system. So the certification should give customers confidence in your quality system rather than being the be all and end all.

Quality Manuals are mostly written just for the purpose of certification. But it wouldn't take much to go through it and rewrite it to get rid of the stiff bureacratic type language and replace it with marketing language. You've now got the basis of a Quality Brochure. You think of all (or most) of the requirements and convert them into sales benefit messages. So human resources ends up that you have quality people who are well trained and motivated (awareness clause) to making the customer happy. You don't want a long document so you can bullet a lot of points. Just look at brochures for other things (eg software) and then follow the same format where iso9001 clause becomes "features" of your service eg customer testimonials = customer satisfaction. You could end up with a document/brochure which would support your sales efforts.

I have seen lots of companies do this - I would love to but I am nervous about having it audited - afraid I will leave something out - think I am going to try it..

 

[Denis9001 - 2007]

C Emmons

It shouldn't be audited since it wouldn't be a (controlled) System document, you still have your Quality Manual. The purpose of this document is not to fully define and describe your system, it's just examples to show the customer how seriously you treat the matter of quality.

If you get a brochure for a pc or software will it leave something out? Of course it will. It's purpose is just to create awareness. If you want the full details you have a spec sheet or user manual. Same goes for your QMS. A brochure makes customer aware of what you do and if full details are required then you have the QM.