Questions and answers

Going in to a customer meeting prepared is a very good thing.

Arriving to the meeting with the answer to the customers questions is excellent.

 

But how on earth would you know the answers beforehand?

 

It takes some doing and some thinking and a lot of training.

 

So your typical customer will ask you a number of questions that you are actually used to get and already have the answer to. So in fact by going through your customers most common questions and writing these down you can improve the way you answer them.

By adding value words like Increase (and such words) in your answer it will sound much better and your presentation will be more effective in persuading the customer.

By doing preparation work before going to your customer you will learn a lot about them and you can by this knowledge start a dialogue where you act customer and seller.

Ask yourself where this customers most likely have a problem that you with your product/service can solve. With this tactic you will be very much prepared for the questions that comes and will be able to respond with answers instead of putting these of to the future call-back/meeting. By training in this fashion you will also be much more coherent and professional and on the spot with your answers and this will in the end of the day give you better and more business.

 

Try the customers shoes and have the answers prepared to their questions.

 

Be successful in sales!

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Keep it short

English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers adjust offerings to meet customer needs. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Selling has a lot of do with presenting in pitch form right?

Sure…

Have you ever signed a deal with someone after a 30 second elevator pitch?

I’ve managed to sell in this short period of time a couple of times but that was directly to consumers.

It’s not that common in the business world and for a good reason.

 

Since selling is about the other party gaining trust in you it takes some time to achieve this so that would indicate that you have all the time in the world. Not so.

You still get a couple of seconds to do a first impression the rest of the time you are scrutinized to the core. Are you who I think you are? this is what the rest of the time is usually taken up by.

So what is a short meeting?

Well in my experience a sell meeting is usually around the 45-60 minutes mark and less than that means they are not interested.

Is that short?

 

Yes. Since in that time you present yourself and your product/service and your client to be, presents their company. After this time the decision to go ahead is usually taken but the dance towards a signed deal might take a bit longer probably 1 or 2 more meetings depending on how many questions that are still left to answer about the actual product/service.

Since you value your and your customers time make sure that your presentation is to the core of what you do and offer. Make it clear!

Use the words and material in your presentation that really need to be in it to get the message through. Then check it again and again and then let someone else check it.

If you have the money to pay someone in advertising now is the time to use them.

 

Keep it short since then everything you say is interesting (hopefully) for the customer giving you a greater impact and increases the value of you and your service.

If you sell paper make sure that you have different sorts of paper that you can show and let customer feel the paper to. Is it really important for the customer to know exactly everthing about this paper that they hold in their hand? Probably not. So cut the fluff out and concentrate on the things that they really need to know about the paper.

 

Keep it short!

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Charity work to boost your sales.

This might sting a bit to mix charity work and business, but really its a win win!

 

Do you wish to help others?

Do you wish to polish up your brand name /company name?

Do you wish to be the go to company within you market?

Do you wish to make more money / profits?

 

What better way than to do strategic donations to promote your company.

 

Lets do an example, low-budget first!

 

Take any sport that you particularly like. (im going to use soccer in this example.)

 

They always have problems with funding and since you got a marketing budget you are going to get a whole lot for your money by volunteering to pay for the socks,shorts and t-shirts.  In return for this nice gesture you would like to have your colors and logos /commercial text or whatever on said clothes for a season or two.

On a shoestring marketing budget i would suggest going for one little league team instead of the whole club. With a bigger budget (still small compared to a marketing campaign) you could option to do a series or a tournament with help from the club and get good press exposure.

What will this bring back to you?

These little athletes play a lot of matches away from home aswell as meeting teams on their home turf. There will also be plentiful of photos taken for family albums or Facebook and such meaning a great spread of your brand in a none aggressive way. This means that your sponsorship will be seen by all parents and as well as other teams parents and all of these have jobs and will sooner or later result in business coming your way and to start it all of you get a lot of brand recognition both by the adults as well as the children /youths.

 

Example 2.

 

Do you rent / own or have access to space ? This is useful since a lot of charity events need just that.

Pick an organisation that you like or can stand for and ask them if they would be interested in doing and event to raise funds.

If one says no (unlikely but..) ask another.

Invite the local press to attend be active in promoting the event. This will essentially only use up some time from your side (or your employees).  The upside is a real win win. The organisation that you have chosen will get free publicity as well as a boost of funds that it can use to benefit those in need. You will get a wide-spread free publicity and usually to potential customers that you wouldn’t have reached otherwise. The brand recognition factor will play in here aswell.

 

This will establish you as a good guy and everyone wants to be associated with you and that’s why you aswell as the team or charity will benefit greatly from doing this.

 

Contribute with what you can and you will be rewarded tenfold!

 

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The ride along or going on a field trip with your sellers.

The time comes in every company. You need to do the ride along.

Unfortunately this is usually high in the mental priority list but seems to fade away under a flood of a thousand other things you need to do first.

Who is a ride along important to?

Both you and your salesperson/representative.

Why?

You are face to face for at least a day and will have plenty of time to bond and discuss all issues and ideas that has surfaced since the last time you was there.

So for you its an excellent time to harvest small and big ideas that will enhance your product / service and get the grassroot perspective on things.

I always take notes that i can come back to and use, or you can use a mind map. But you need to put something down on paper or at least 75% will  just fly out the other ear.

Your official mission is of c to check out why the sales numbers are as they are.

This should always be checked off:

1. What is the purpose with the customer visit ( closing,curtsey, checkup, problem solving et cetera.)

2. How did the seller prepare for this meeting and do they have the right tools with them. ( Presentation material, Happy customer cases, The solution to the customer’s problem, et cetera.)

3. In what manner do they enter and represent you and your company. (happy, sad, indifferent, long-lost pals, nervous…..)

4. Where do they place themselves at the table and why.

5. Body language throughout the meeting

6. Opening

7. Presentation

8. Goal oriented or just rolling with the punches / action oriented.

9. Listening and comprehension skills ( do they really understand what their customer is asking and why).

10. Recovering from a negative remark or a negative response to a close attempt. (or do they close shop and calls it a day?)

11. How many attempts were made to close and how well-timed where they.

12. Closing the meeting with a signed contract or getting a new meeting for a new try. (who is ending the meeting the customer or your representative).

13. Walking out after the meeting, do they still have control and have they taken the initiative for taking the sales process forward.

Aftermath: Let the seller explain why they did things in this way and acted like they did and you tell them how you perceived the meeting.

If i want immediate changes in the sellers behavior i tell them what to change in a positive form since i firmly belive that a salesperson never should have negative critic in other words i only give them positive forms and tools to enhance their sales success i will however always write down the negatives so i have a record of it.

After 2-4 customer calls its evident what your sales persons benefits and drawbacks are and then you can take it from there.

If there are more than 1 person doing the same mistakes i use it in a written lesson as well as in a morning meeting since this will need addressing or it will happen again.

 

So hopefully you will leave the sales person with several new tools for getting more deals and with a sense of personal development.

This in turn will result in that evergreen company that you strive to achieve (or are already running).

 

Veni vidi vici

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Book review of “The ABC of sales lessons from a superstar”

“The ABC of sales lessons from a superstar” is written by Daniel Milstein.

It’s easy to read.

It’s a common approach in sales books to do a tell the background story to (usually) create a better feel for the writer and why they became the superstars in sales. Like daniel they all started in very young years to take advantage of a need and monetizes of it. ( I to started out very young).

So how does he succeed in the us as a fresh russian immigrant? Great because he works hard.

He then proceeds with telling how he eventually failed at a couple of jobs and decided to do better. With even harder work.

He gets an opportunity to open up a mortgage firm because the owners like how he works hard.

You start to get the pattern right .

So what does he do then? He spends very little on the office and works like possessed.

And that seems to be the way forward for him and he eventually buys out his office and sets of on his own with a solid customer base and expands from that to build it into a major league player in the mortgage industry.

He does this as far as i can tell by reading the book by working almost 24/7 and never ever misses an opportunity to get a contract be it on the bus,beach,party or in the middle of the night. He is there for his customers and manages to show what the meaning going the extra mile means in real life.

“lunch is for losers” and “always available” can pretty much sum up this guy. He rather works all the time he has than do anything else. It works of course since you then get in contact with more costumers than you otherwise would and hence you usually get more contracts.

The book continues with trying to educate the reader with Old lessons in sales that all know works. Hard work, Always Be Closing and so on.

Who is this book for?

Daniel Milstein.

He does the smart thing by packaging it as a book full of lessons for the entrepreneur setting out his/her first step towards success.

The only one benefiting from this book sales wise is daniel himself since he probably sold a massive amount of it.

For all others there are a lot of books that you should read about starting up your own business that will give you more real advise and is more to the point.

If you still feel the urge to read about daniel and his “the abc of sales lessons from a superstar” then do so its easy to read but its more like an easy to read book about a person starting out with to empty hands and ending up really rich vile he’s young.

How on earth universities can use this book in their education is beyond me. (But they do use it).

That’s my opinion.

Increased profits for all!

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3 key factors to succeed in business

Most will go into business with a mindset and a can do attitude and a very few will succeed to be the stars of their business.

Why?

Well for starters there is only one top spot.

Key factors to have your eye on when going to the number one spot is this:

 

1.Market shares.

They are called shares for a reason, you share the market with others.

So if you want to be number one in your business sector you will have to take their shares or expand the market you’re in, or both.

There are a number of ways, tips and tricks to get you there and only you can decide the way that is the right one for you. If one route fails then try another. This is a trait of the number one top spot holder, they are if nothing else persistent or stubborn. Most people give up in business after trying 1-3 different approaches to their problem. The number one (or rising star) tries until they make it work no matter how bloody their forehead is from hitting the famous concrete wall.

 

2. Profitability.

We all want to make a big pile of cash. Most don’t make the pile at all.

Here too there is tons of articles, books. tips, tricks and quick fixes to read and try out.

In essence the focus should always be to remain profitable otherwise why be in the business to start with.

Start with your staff, does every one of them bring in more to you than you pay them? if not take a discussion with the person and decide to part ways or step it up. Are the sales staff having an easy job shifting your product /services? If yes then hire all the sales staff you can find because you have something in demand and you need to take all the market shares you can as fast as you can (or someone else will).

This will make you profitable and bring you bigger market shares. If the sales staff have a hard time shifting your product/service then you will have to look in to why and deal with it straight away.

Always look on the ever popular Return on Investment. Measure it. Then you can see what you need to do to succeed. Otherwise you will be winging it and that’s good enough for most of the time, but it will not take you to the number one spot.

 

3. Employee training.

Focus hard on training your staff in every aspect possible.

Why?

It will show them that you are in it for the win and that they are key factors of your plan to get there.

It will make all of you work together as one towards a unifying goal (being number one).

Creates a positive atmosphere and a workplace that you want to spend your time in since you will be apart of the success (as an employee).

Training programs should be in-house as well as calling outside help. If you only work in-house the ideas will stagnate and the tempo slowed down. Bringing in someone from the outside will create new solutions on old problems, strengthen old truths and make your employees grow as persons.

 

So if your business is going for the number one spot you know what to do!

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10 things to avoid when talking to a customer

This is based on actual occurrences.

1  Educate. You are pompous and arrogant and your customer is so beneath you in standing that you take it up on yourself to tell them this in a  poorly cloaked way and sometimes in a direct way.

Dont belittle your customers they are the ones that actually put food on your table.

2. Blaming your customer. When taking a call that has an angry customer on the other end don’t blame the fault on them it will make the situation ugly.

3. Responsibility. When faults occurs with your product don’t shrug this off and ignore it. that would be the worst way to handle it. Dont let the customer hit the wall and get that bloody head. You are the one who sold it you will have to fix it not the customer.

4. Ignoring customers. Dont continue to talk to you college about the fun you had over the weekend when there are customers waiting for your help. If the customers call for attention and you acknowledge this with a “ill be with you shortly” and then continue the conversation with the said college you don’t have any customer to worry about anymore.

When standing behind a counter don’t read or fiddle with papers and avoid customers. Customers will then leave.

5. Knowing best. When a customer says something don’t tell them they are wrong. Sometimes they are but it’s not your job to point this out. if it’s about your product service then do so in a nice and smooth manner.

6.But but but. Interrupting customers when they have the word is just as bad in social conversations as in business presentations. If you have something to say then do so after the other has finished talking.

7. Deliver an inferior product / service. If you have been truthful about the condition of your product / service you have no problem, but if you told the customer ” I can deliver 20 booked meetings within 2 weeks” and you deliver 5 after 3 months you will have failed.

8. Lie your teeth out. For the most of the time the customer will actually belive you since they don’t have a referent point about you or what you say and so has no reason to doubt you. But when you are caught…… When in loss for a good answer change the subject after explaining that you will make sure to get the info wanted.

9. Talk down your opposition. This happens a lot im afraid. When in loss for good points to sell your own product service then don’t stand there and start talking trash about your competitor, rival or whatever. This will only deteriorate you and your product/ services value and makes the customer think hard about doing business with you at all since you will with 100% certainty talk the same BS about them when opportunity arise.

10 Flirt. Dont do it please. If the customer flirts with you (happens) that’s ok but you should never ever initiate it. period. Having your girlfriend looked over and then hit up on by the salesman in a store is not exactly good for your business. Sitting in a closed room with a person in front of you and you start flirting can be very intimidating or awkward for him/ her and if you fail with this how on earth will you rescue the deal?.

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Fraud alert

When dealing with salespeople, who can you really trust?

Can you tell when someone is lying?

 

About lying. As someone put it “we politely lie from the: and how has your day been” or “as soon as we start talking”

A polite lie are of c socially accepted but a total lie is not.

But most times in business you can not /will not / don’t have time to check the sellers statements but you go rather on gut feeling and it is usually right.

I find myself in a rather sad position. I trusted and was convinced by a seller and i have very good ears and actually are very aware of when a person are lying or not. This seller represented a booking company that was supposed to do the cold calling for me and they were very good on the phone so i hired them. The contract was sent and received it was clear by the contract that they were new on the market but not on the phone so after a few revisions i signed. just before i did that the owner of the firm contacted me and tried to up the price per booking but i flat-out refused since it was already negotiated he finally understood that he would lose me as a client if he didn’t stand by his price so that was a strong indicator that they had cash flow issues (why else try this just before signing the contract.)

Then they started to book and they called and mailed the results and it looked very promising once again problems arose due to them being new and not having a back office in working order these where only minor but annoying things but it adds up.

Then when the meetings actually started to kick off i got list after list with faults in them. It was double bookings and distance that was humanly impossible to do in the timeframe between meetings. once again they were very smooth but the surface started to crack when they could not rectify these wrongs. I was bound by contract to pay in advance for every five booked meetings even though they had not occurred yet. after paying for 10 i started to stall so i would not have to pay more since their front cracked more and more. excuse after excuse came and went and nothing was done to solve the problems.

Then i started to get out to the customers that was booked out of 24 booked meetings there where only 5 left eventually that was real.

So then we come to the money bit. They had then received forward payment on 10 meetings but only booked 5 so i had to demand money back naturally. They said no problem. Oh dear. Of course there was problem. Now they don’t want to payback since they wrongfully says that they had done their job but the booked customers wasnt there because of other reasons.

Then you go from lying and trying to do your best to being an outright fraud.

Actually if they were going to go down this route from start they should have just not booked any meetings and taken the money and run.

 

Can you trust anyone in business? Yes and no.

There are a lot of people you can trust but you will have to try your cooperation out first and then stick to it fortunately most are genuine and not borderline frauds like this company.

No you should try to always have your back covered since sometimes with elaborate scams they are played out over years.

Like the infamous shipping company in london that a few years back disappeared after conducting successful business for a couple of  years they simple took the money for one fully loaded ship and run and that had been their plan all along.

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Customer relations or going the extra mile

Do you go the extra mile to satisfy your customers?

And what does that entail?

Example.

One customer (of 35000) gets a burglar that breaks in to their house and destroys the alarm unit that we have sold. Not good. Customer gets a call from us where we say that this has happened.

We then get someone to search the house to see that its safe we contact someone to put in a new window, Replace all the door locks, put up another alarm system with a lot more sensors (especially in the area that failed).

All this is done free of charge to the customer and they are actually,despite a bad situation, very happy and confident that we did indeed handle their safety and possessions (they where not there more than a couple of minutes before our guard came to the house). So from a potentially disaster in the name of bad publicity to a happy customer. That is good business and its going the extra mile.

Another example would be when i had a seller that really did this the wrong way.

It started out with giving the customers little things like a scratch cards this seemed fine to me, a couple of weeks later it had escalated to subscriptions on magazines that the customers liked. This seemed a little odd but in a way inventive (she paid out of her own pocket). I talked to the seller about this and why she felt this was important. The seller had the best intentions and only wanted to please the customer and no harm done. After a 1-2 weeks the seller comes to have a talk a bit red on the cheeks. This time she had started to flirt with the customer who had flirted back and in a gesture the seller had promised the customer a private dinner for 2 if they signed the contract (probably not the first to promise this in but..) the customer naturally signed the contract since he really wanted that dinner (even more than the product). So the seller had gone from being a professional seller to being a dating service. We discussed the matter and she decided to call the whole thing off.

Going the extra mile was something i learned in an early age.

We had a couple of regular costumers in our store and i remember an old lady who came in every week to shop fresh flowers from us. If i was there i always helped her carry those flowers home (she walked with a stick) and she really appreciated this sometimes i even got a tip from it. The more important fact was that no other shop would do this for her and so she was a loyal customer until she passed away. that would literary be going the extra mile for a customer.

 

Going the extra mile must come from you doing something the customer don’t take for granted and it should be done in a positive manner so you don’t end up being a pushover /doormat.

I have on a few occasions been positively surprised when a seller has gone the extra mile for me as a customer and you have hopefully had this happening to you aswell. It has happened so few times that one wonders what customer relations teach their sellers.

Make sure you are one of those memorable sellers that can take business to new heights by going the extra mile for your customers!

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Hiring your salesforce

So you think you are good?

How about hiring some more of you then.

The more people selling your product the more money you would take in.

Only one way of making sure this is true is to only pay out commission for deals done and paid for, otherwise there will always be a cost for staff.

If you pay by the hour then there is really no incitements for the seller to sell anything at all only the risk of getting fired and that can be stalled for some time with excuses to get more free money. (unfortunately you will find that sometimes it’s virtually impossible to get any applicants if you only pay commission. then try a mix of hour/commission.)

So how to get someone to work for you?

Make very sure you know the rules in your country so you don’t end up getting on the wrong side of the rulebook. Usually there is networks of business people already up and running who will and can help you for a small fee to get you up and running.

Use them!

Once you hired someone put it on paper so both parties know what to be expected of the other, and if you have plans on using your new-found seller in other capacity aswell (like going out with the trash, cleaning up in the office e tc.)

Dont.

A seller shall sell and only that, this way you make sure there is no excuses what so ever for low results and if the results are good you will just hire someone who do all the small stuff around you. Your only focus should be in getting the seller to go out and sell as much as you can.

If you do this for the first time you will find out that there is a lot of things that you never thought about concerning your product / service make sure you write them down and address them and use this as a template for training coming sellers since they will usually have the same questions as the first had (unless the issue is a thing you can work on and get out-of-the-way).

For you the product /service is self-explanatory and maybe that’s the case. More often than not however its just that for you but for the seller there are a lot of background information missing leaving them clueless why you do and say somethings about the product /service. write this down to and explain it so they will be on par with you and your way of selling.

So should you hire yourself?

Most do.

Once you see this you can also see that hiring different people with different backgrounds will benefit your company way more since the mix of experiences will be much wider and therefore your sales staff can connect and create rapport on a wider base and close more deals.