Many customers are asking for your BEE score. The only profitable response is to give them the right answer – “Yes, I do have a BEE scorecard – here it is”. Further your customer is no longer interested in knowing whether you have a BEE certificate – they want a high BEE score – the higher the better.

Many sales people tend to ignore or deflect the question, and in previous years have still landed the sale. The environment of 2009 will show that this is less and less possible. Your customer is going to seriously consider moving his business to another company that can provide the required good BEE score.

Put another way, a high BEE score will provide a marketing advantage over the opposition – it will help open doors, get those appointments, and help sign the contracts.

All sales people owe it to themselves to find out what their company’s BEE score is, and if they do not have a score to convince management that a BEE scorecard will provide that competitive advantage.

We have said it many times, but it bears repeating – a good BEE score is based on the 7 elements of BEE, and does not rely on only the narrow based element – i.e. black ownership as many people tend to think.
A completely black owned business could have a low BEE score, while a completely white owned business could achieve a high BEE score.

To put it quite simply:

High BEE Score = More business

Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, “What’s going on?”

“Terrorists have kidnapped Jacob Zuma, Winnie Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jackie Selebi and Manto Tshabalala Msimang. They’re asking for a R310 million ransom. Otherwise they’re going to douse them with petrol and set them on fire. We’re going from car to car, taking up a collection.”

The driver asks, “How much is everyone giving, on average?”

“About a litre.”