Has your boss ever told you to wow your customers - leaving you wondering exactly what that means? It's a vague statement that people often misunderstand - so today, sales expert Colleen Francis shares what it really means to wow your customers.
Wowing your customer is surprisingly simple. Think of how you felt the last time you received an unexpected card from a friend or someone you work with. WOW!! Right? It means a lot when you know that someone has taken the time to think about you. It says that someone cares about you and wants you to be happy.
For example, a couple of years ago at a conference I interviewed a top 1 percent performer for a large chemical company. Bill was the number one sales rep for his company three years running. When asked to what he attributed his success, this is what he said:
The guys who hit quota know the client's birthday. The guys in the top 10 percent know the client's wife's birthday. I know the client's dog's birthday.
The lesson: Bill has achieved WOW! Bill is a Life Giver. Bill is a top performer.
Of course when it's just a kind gesture or two, WOW! doesn't take much effort at all. But making a habit of it means that a bit more thinking has to go into what you're doing. Getting good - really good - at WOW! means you have to keep an eye on the things you do on a regular basis. Here are three tips to keep in mind.
First, be consistent. If you want to be the person who always remembers everyone's birthday, it's not going to be enough to remember just once and then never again. By being consistent, you demonstrate to people that you're not being nice simply because you woke up one morning in a great mood. You're showing that this is something you do as a matter of practice...because you really care. Trust is built through consistent behavior over time.
Second, be prompt. Don't wait a month before sending out thank-you cards after hosting or attending that great event. Do something while the memory and the good feelings are still fresh in everyone's minds. You're sending a powerful message to people about what matters to you in your life.
Third, be thoughtful. This is where your creativity and attention to detail can help you really stand out. Remember that there are no limits to how much you can care for others.
Recently I interviewed a top salesperson and asked her what set her apart from everyone else in her business. "I genuinely love people and I like showing how much I appreciate them," she explained. "There are plenty who remember to send out a birthday card to a friend or client, but I'll bet I'm the only one who thinks to also send out an anniversary card to the couple!"
This week make a list of your best clients and create a WOW! Plan for the year. What can you celebrate with them? What can you send them? How can you show you truly care about them?
Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions. Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line. Start improving your results today with Engage's online newsletter "Engaging Ideas".
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Quote of the Week
"The future doesn't just happen - it's shaped by decisions." -- Paul Tagliabue, former NFL commissioner
How are you feeling after the Super Bowl - a little tired? Well wake up, because you've got decisions to make!
Your first decision? Put your all in to today's work. After you've done that, map out your goals for the month and what you're going to do to achieve them. Then, each day, make the decisions necessary to achieve those goals! If you have a lofty goal you won't get there by floating through each day - actively make the decisions to make it happen.
How are you feeling after the Super Bowl - a little tired? Well wake up, because you've got decisions to make!
Your first decision? Put your all in to today's work. After you've done that, map out your goals for the month and what you're going to do to achieve them. Then, each day, make the decisions necessary to achieve those goals! If you have a lofty goal you won't get there by floating through each day - actively make the decisions to make it happen.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Opening the Sale - Because You'll Never "Close" Without Opening Well
Making contact with a new client can be nerve-wracking - no wonder so many struggle with it! Richard Dickerson at The Brooks Group has noticed this as well, saying, "In working with and coaching salespeople, particularly new ones, or untrained ones, I have noticed many stumbling with how to initiate sales calls. Whether "cold" or scheduled appointments, many have difficulty deciding how to open the sales call. Why not simply be honest and express your intentions?" Read on for his advice.
Your prospect/customer knows you're a salesperson. They are not stupid or naive. Being honest about yourself and your reason for meeting will position you much more favorably. Issue a statement of intention. For example: "Hello. My name is Richard Dickerson with The Brooks Group and the purpose of our appointment is to meet you, get to know you better, share information about our (whatever you sell) and discuss anything you wish to discuss with me." Or, another way, "Hello, I am Richard Dickerson with The Brooks Group and what I would like to accomplish is to meet you, get to know you better, share information about our (whatever you sell) and discuss anything you wish to discuss with me."
You have clearly stated a reason for being there, and most importantly, invited dialogue. Remember, they know you are a salesperson. They are more comfortable if they feel no pressure from you. The phrase "and anything you'd like to discuss with me" takes the pressure off them and you. It discloses your wish to have dialogue - a conversation, not a data dump by you, the salesperson. Prospects feel threatened by monologue. It's inconsiderate and self focused. We have to focus on the prospect, and the prospect has to feel that focus to help develop trust in us.
Also, this is not a script; it is a language or methodology for gaining attention and building trust. Use your own words that exemplify the principle. And remember to keep it simple - least amount of words spoken with conviction and confidence that convey clearly and sincerely your interest in your prospect's or customer's biggest, most pressing concern.
The Brooks Group is a Sales and Sales Management Screening, Development, and Retention company that has helped more than 2,000 organizations in 500 industries transform their businesses by focusing on building and sustaining top-performing sales, sales management and business development programs. Click here to sign up for The Brooks Group's Free Sales Training Newsletter.
Your prospect/customer knows you're a salesperson. They are not stupid or naive. Being honest about yourself and your reason for meeting will position you much more favorably. Issue a statement of intention. For example: "Hello. My name is Richard Dickerson with The Brooks Group and the purpose of our appointment is to meet you, get to know you better, share information about our (whatever you sell) and discuss anything you wish to discuss with me." Or, another way, "Hello, I am Richard Dickerson with The Brooks Group and what I would like to accomplish is to meet you, get to know you better, share information about our (whatever you sell) and discuss anything you wish to discuss with me."
You have clearly stated a reason for being there, and most importantly, invited dialogue. Remember, they know you are a salesperson. They are more comfortable if they feel no pressure from you. The phrase "and anything you'd like to discuss with me" takes the pressure off them and you. It discloses your wish to have dialogue - a conversation, not a data dump by you, the salesperson. Prospects feel threatened by monologue. It's inconsiderate and self focused. We have to focus on the prospect, and the prospect has to feel that focus to help develop trust in us.
Also, this is not a script; it is a language or methodology for gaining attention and building trust. Use your own words that exemplify the principle. And remember to keep it simple - least amount of words spoken with conviction and confidence that convey clearly and sincerely your interest in your prospect's or customer's biggest, most pressing concern.
The Brooks Group is a Sales and Sales Management Screening, Development, and Retention company that has helped more than 2,000 organizations in 500 industries transform their businesses by focusing on building and sustaining top-performing sales, sales management and business development programs. Click here to sign up for The Brooks Group's Free Sales Training Newsletter.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Creating the Confidence Necessary to Win Over C-Level Executives
Confidence is what C-level decision-makers want to see in their selling partners. Yet, it's uncomfortable selling to influential leaders. Big egos come with big titles and these people can be intimidating. Therefore a salesperson's biggest asset is confidence. So how do you build that confidence? Today sales trainer Sam Manfer walks you through the process.
If you're confident you exude credibility. Confidence leads to believability and trust, and credibility, believability and trust, respect and results are key ingredients necessary for selling to powerful and C-level executives. However, do not confuse confidence with arrogance or boasting. Confidence is stealth and very pervasive.
The best way to become confident is to prepare. Here's how. Learn about the situation or the executives before the engagement. Ask anyone you can about the situation and executive for information. If you open your mind, you'll think of a lot of people who can help you. Ask yourself what you want to know. Then prepare questions to get this info. Prepare questions for your contacts and for the executive. Have questions to confirm information and to gather new information. Before meetings call the executive and other participates to learn their expectations of the upcoming meeting. These and other preparations will get you ready and instill a feeling of confidence.
Visualize a positive outcome. Most people are intimidated and feel uncomfortable visiting powerful people. This is called fear in one sense or another. Fear is just the visualization or projection of a negative outcome. Why do you lock your doors? You worry someone will steal your belongings or hurt you. Why do you slow-up when you see a police car? You fear getting a ticket. You're visualizing the worst.
The same is true when thinking about officers of a company involved in the decision making for your sale. This nervousness goes to rationalizations (I really don't need to meet with the top people) and/or uneasiness once you decide it is necessary. It is all negative projection - they don't want to meet with you, or others will block you or feel badly if you go to their bosses, or you worry the meeting will go badly and you'll lose the deal. This is all negative speculation.
You don't know how it will go. You don't know that you'll get robbed if you leave your car unlocked. You don't know if your meeting will go well or badly. However, when you think negatively, you lose confidence and come across as weak and ineffective.
Confident people feel comfortable asking pointed, penetrating questions - ones to learn the executive's real issues, threats and opportunities, and they get the information without interrogating. They feel comfortable following-up with more questions to clear ambiguities and to understand the deeper meaning of words and phrases - often buried issues. Most importantly, they posture themselves to listen intently. These actions make leaders feel confident about the individual so that they can project positively about the upcoming deal.
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
If you're confident you exude credibility. Confidence leads to believability and trust, and credibility, believability and trust, respect and results are key ingredients necessary for selling to powerful and C-level executives. However, do not confuse confidence with arrogance or boasting. Confidence is stealth and very pervasive.
The best way to become confident is to prepare. Here's how. Learn about the situation or the executives before the engagement. Ask anyone you can about the situation and executive for information. If you open your mind, you'll think of a lot of people who can help you. Ask yourself what you want to know. Then prepare questions to get this info. Prepare questions for your contacts and for the executive. Have questions to confirm information and to gather new information. Before meetings call the executive and other participates to learn their expectations of the upcoming meeting. These and other preparations will get you ready and instill a feeling of confidence.
Visualize a positive outcome. Most people are intimidated and feel uncomfortable visiting powerful people. This is called fear in one sense or another. Fear is just the visualization or projection of a negative outcome. Why do you lock your doors? You worry someone will steal your belongings or hurt you. Why do you slow-up when you see a police car? You fear getting a ticket. You're visualizing the worst.
The same is true when thinking about officers of a company involved in the decision making for your sale. This nervousness goes to rationalizations (I really don't need to meet with the top people) and/or uneasiness once you decide it is necessary. It is all negative projection - they don't want to meet with you, or others will block you or feel badly if you go to their bosses, or you worry the meeting will go badly and you'll lose the deal. This is all negative speculation.
You don't know how it will go. You don't know that you'll get robbed if you leave your car unlocked. You don't know if your meeting will go well or badly. However, when you think negatively, you lose confidence and come across as weak and ineffective.
Confident people feel comfortable asking pointed, penetrating questions - ones to learn the executive's real issues, threats and opportunities, and they get the information without interrogating. They feel comfortable following-up with more questions to clear ambiguities and to understand the deeper meaning of words and phrases - often buried issues. Most importantly, they posture themselves to listen intently. These actions make leaders feel confident about the individual so that they can project positively about the upcoming deal.
Since 1995 Sam Manfer has been speaking, consulting, writing and leading seminars in sales and personal development. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader Sam has addressed thousands of new and experienced sales people and managers all over the world in all types of businesses and industries. Learn more at www.sammanfer.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I Can Get a Better Deal Elsewhere
Let's face it -- today's business world is competitive. Besides the normal objections you get (no money, price too high, need to talk to, etc.) a common objection that blows out 80% of your competition is, "I can get a better deal elsewhere." This frustrates a lot of sales reps and takes thousands of dollars of commission out of their pockets. Today sales trainer Mike Brooks shows you how to deal with this objection.
The top 20% also get this objection but are prepared for it and know how to overcome it. Here's what they do:
First, they recognize that if someone says that they can get a better deal elsewhere, it means one of three things:
1 -- They're wrong (in other words, they think they are getting the same thing you're offering, but they're not).
2 -- They're just putting you off and using this objection as a smokescreen.
3 -- They really can get a better deal.
In order to find out what your prospect means, offer to help them determine if they really are getting a better deal by questioning and comparing every component of it. Use this script:
"Bob, my customers tell me this all the time, and sometimes they genuinely can get a better deal, but a lot of times they can't. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go over each item you've been quoted by this other company, in other words we will compare apples to apples, and if everything is equal I'll see if I can do even better on that. If I can, you'll get an even better deal and if I can't, I'll tell you so. Either way, you'll win. Now, do you have that other quote in front of you?"
Then simply go over each item to make sure everything is equal. Often times it's not and you can point this out. And if it is, you still have a chance to win the deal. If they do have a better deal, then build the value of having you as their sales rep and try to close the sale anyway. Either way, you'll win.
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: www.MrInsideSales.com.
The top 20% also get this objection but are prepared for it and know how to overcome it. Here's what they do:
First, they recognize that if someone says that they can get a better deal elsewhere, it means one of three things:
1 -- They're wrong (in other words, they think they are getting the same thing you're offering, but they're not).
2 -- They're just putting you off and using this objection as a smokescreen.
3 -- They really can get a better deal.
In order to find out what your prospect means, offer to help them determine if they really are getting a better deal by questioning and comparing every component of it. Use this script:
"Bob, my customers tell me this all the time, and sometimes they genuinely can get a better deal, but a lot of times they can't. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go over each item you've been quoted by this other company, in other words we will compare apples to apples, and if everything is equal I'll see if I can do even better on that. If I can, you'll get an even better deal and if I can't, I'll tell you so. Either way, you'll win. Now, do you have that other quote in front of you?"
Then simply go over each item to make sure everything is equal. Often times it's not and you can point this out. And if it is, you still have a chance to win the deal. If they do have a better deal, then build the value of having you as their sales rep and try to close the sale anyway. Either way, you'll win.
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: www.MrInsideSales.com.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Give the Buyer a Fair Price
With customers asking for discounts left and right, it can be difficult to feel comfortable and confident with your pricing. If you're too high you might feel uncomfortable selling, and if they're too low, you don't make enough on each sale. Today sales trainer Tom Reilly shares how to make sure your price is right.
The easiest way to avoid price resistance is to give the buyer a fair price. The tough part is determining a fair price. Perceptions of fairness are based largely on emotion, which means buyers' reactions may not always be rational.
Buyers want to maximize the return on their investment. They want a good deal. Sellers, on the other hand, want to optimize their pricing. They want to apply prices effectively to gain a desirable return on sales. At first glance, this sounds like a zero-sum game-one winner and one loser. In practice, it can be win-win.
The search for the Grail of fair pricing reaches back through history, from contemporary economists to Adam Smith to Aristotle's study of ethics. Aristotle wrote, "equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally." Some may reach further to the beginning of time and ask, "Did Adam really understand the price he would pay for that apple?"
The central construct of win-win outcomes is equity: Is the product or service a fair exchange for what I give up to acquire it? Or, am I getting as good as I am giving? Both buyer and seller should be able to answer this question favorably. Satisfaction with the outcome of the transaction is tied to one's expectations of gain. This means sellers must understand the buyer's expectations of the return on investment that the buyer wants. Also, if the seller's expectations are not met, seller remorse sets in.
The way to begin your discussion of price is to determine in advance an equitable outcome for buyer and seller. If it is a good deal for the customer and a good deal for you, that sounds like a fair price to me.
Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.
The easiest way to avoid price resistance is to give the buyer a fair price. The tough part is determining a fair price. Perceptions of fairness are based largely on emotion, which means buyers' reactions may not always be rational.
Buyers want to maximize the return on their investment. They want a good deal. Sellers, on the other hand, want to optimize their pricing. They want to apply prices effectively to gain a desirable return on sales. At first glance, this sounds like a zero-sum game-one winner and one loser. In practice, it can be win-win.
The search for the Grail of fair pricing reaches back through history, from contemporary economists to Adam Smith to Aristotle's study of ethics. Aristotle wrote, "equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally." Some may reach further to the beginning of time and ask, "Did Adam really understand the price he would pay for that apple?"
The central construct of win-win outcomes is equity: Is the product or service a fair exchange for what I give up to acquire it? Or, am I getting as good as I am giving? Both buyer and seller should be able to answer this question favorably. Satisfaction with the outcome of the transaction is tied to one's expectations of gain. This means sellers must understand the buyer's expectations of the return on investment that the buyer wants. Also, if the seller's expectations are not met, seller remorse sets in.
The way to begin your discussion of price is to determine in advance an equitable outcome for buyer and seller. If it is a good deal for the customer and a good deal for you, that sounds like a fair price to me.
Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Quote of the Week
"I'm a great believer in life in saying yes and not saying no...and hopefully making people smile." -- Richard Branson
One of the best ways to keep your current clients is to make them smile. And one way to make them smile is to say yes - to what you can! If they need an order earlier than expected and you can make it happen, just say yes. If you can squeeze in an emergency meeting or take someone out to coffee, just say yes. Do what you can to make life easier for others, and you may just find the more you say yes, the more sales come your way.
One of the best ways to keep your current clients is to make them smile. And one way to make them smile is to say yes - to what you can! If they need an order earlier than expected and you can make it happen, just say yes. If you can squeeze in an emergency meeting or take someone out to coffee, just say yes. Do what you can to make life easier for others, and you may just find the more you say yes, the more sales come your way.
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