Posts Tagged Customer Relationship Management
Five Ways To Build Lasting Client Relationships
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on December 23, 2015
Client relationships, like any relationship, take time to build. One of the greatest ways a company can differentiate themselves from their competitors is by the level of service they provide. And to provide a great level of service, you must have great client relationships.
Firms will often miss the mark on developing client relationships when their primary focus is more on “closing the deal” or increasing revenue. Building client relationships begins with establishing a foundation of trust, open communication, and commitment to your client. Below are five ways to build your interactions with your clients in order to better distinguish yourself from your competitors and boost your firm’s bottom line.
- Investing Your Time – Building relationships takes time. Taking the time to get to know your clients makes them feel important and is one of the best investments you can make in growing your firm. Get to know your client’s industry, if you don’t know it already, and what key issues they may be facing on a regular basis. You want them to know that you value the work that they do and are truly interested in the success of their business. In doing this you may even uncover issues that they may not be aware of. Such information is valuable to them and confirms your expertise in your field.
Your status as an outside expert gives you a distinct advantage over an insider. Where the real value lies is when your firm can establish a deep enough understanding of your client’s challenges that you are able to apply the entire gamut of your skills to their problems.
- Communication Is Key – Respond quickly and communicate regularly. Always aim for exceptional communication between you and your client. It’s very hard to over communicate. When questions arise, make sure you are responding to their inquiries within a timely fashion. You may not be able to answer their question at the moment but a quick response is better than no response. You may even set up an automated response when necessary. Being available makes it clear to your client that they are important to you.
- Follow-up and follow-through –In addition to timely and thorough communication with your clients, it’s important to always follow-up after conversations that you have with them. Recapping your conversation with a quick email communicates that you listen to them. Always follow-through with what you said you were going to do. Keeping your commitment helps builds trust.
More importantly, do not make promises you can’t keep. If you are unable to make a deadline, then it’s important you communicate that to your client in advance. Your clients measure your actions and your ability to follow-through. Failing to keep your commitments could result in losing future opportunities and damaging your client relationship permanently.
- Exceed Expectations – Going the extra mile is something your client will always remember. If you have adhered to any of the “ways to build better communication” above then most likely you have already exceeded their expectations. Offering value, nurturing good relationships, producing great results, strong communication and keeping your commitment is all part of “going the extra mile.” But don’t stop there!
A client with an extraordinarily great experience will not only return in the future, but they are also more likely to share their experience with others and make a referral. Exceeding their expectations not only gains their trust, but it gains their loyalty to you and adds value to your bottom line.
So what are some other examples of what it looks like to go the extra mile? Show gratitude by sending them a personal thank you note for their business. Check-in once in awhile to see how they are doing. Invite your top clients to breakfast or lunch. These are just a few of the many things you can do to go the extra mile and build your client relationships.
- Remember The Great Commandment – Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. I know it sounds cliché, but imagine you on the receiving end and ask yourself “what kind of service would I like to receive from a firm like mine?” That means treat your clients with respect, be patient with them, be honest, keep them engaged, and always show gratitude. Make it your priority to maintain client confidentiality and be a person of your word. I’m sure you would prefer exceptional service over mediocre any day, so treat your clients exceptionally.
All clients are unique in their very own way. Some may require more fostering than others and sometimes others may require a different approach then what you are accustomed to. In order to maintain and build your client relationships, you must raise the expectations that you have of yourself and of others in your firm. Nonetheless, every client you have is vital to your firm’s success; therefore you must continuously remember how valuable each and every client is to you.
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community Blog by Cynthia Findlater on December 7, 2015.
Two Simple Steps to Making CRM Implementation a Breeze
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on August 17, 2015
CRM implementation can be difficult on managers and executives. In fact, if you’ve ever brought in any kind of new software, system, or process for your team to use on a daily basis, you know all about those difficulties. It’s likely you received some pushback.
Perhaps you heard things like:
- “But we’re used to this process, and it works well.”
- “Ugh… it’s just going to be one more system to manage.”
- “How is yet another software program going to make us more efficient?”
Once you start implementing a CRM, you may experience this same kind of pushback. And it’s understandable, we’re all creatures of habit. Once we get accustomed to things happening a certain way, we like them to stay that way! And the way your team does their daily work is no exception.
And let’s not forget about you! Transitioning from one way of doing things to an entirely new way can be difficult for the boss, too. Not knowing exactly how things will go, how people will react, or what to expect from a new system can make implementing a new CRM a little nerve-wracking.
Lucky for you, your CRM implementation process doesn’t have to be one that frustrates you or your team. Follow these two steps, and your team will be smooth-sailing in no time.
First: choose the right CRM.
This may seem obvious, but the system you choose will ultimately dictate how your company and team benefit from using a CRM. If you choose the right system for your company’s needs, you will certainly reap great benefits—a reduced workload for you and your team members, the need for only one system to access any information you need, simplification of the entire sales process, and a great way to begin optimizing your revenue cycle.
However, if you happen to choose a CRM that is not the best fit for you, unfortunately, there will be consequences. You may find that the system actually makes work more difficult for you, or that it lacks capabilities and features you need. If that happens, you can count on your sales team trying to work around the system. (And who could blame them?)
Team members trying to work around the system can result in:
- Your “investment” actually wasting money.
- Data you want recorded in the system being recorded elsewhere, creating multiple versions of records.
- Your sales team working inefficiently because of the time wasted figuring out how to work around the new CRM.
- Some of your leads and deals falling through the cracks because of a poorly managed sales pipeline.
Here are a couple tips to help you choose the CRM that will best fit your company. These will help you avoid the mess and the headaches that come with choosing the wrong CRM.
Specifically identify what you want to use a CRM for. Think about where your business is currently, and where you want to be. Then, identify what it’s going to take to get there. Do you need to better manage your contacts and their interactions with you? Does your sales team need more time for phone calls and closing deals? Maybe you need to have a better way to manage your pipeline. Or, perhaps you need to hone in on things your sales team needs to improve on, so sales can become a more efficient and productive department. Whatever the reasons are, you need to have them clearly identified so you’ll know what to look for in a CRM.
Now, compare each CRM system to those needs. When looking at a CRM system, compare its capabilities to the list of reasons you need a CRM. In order to be a useful CRM for your company, the core functions must align with your needs.
The core functions or focus of any given CRM can be broken into three categories: contact management, sales force automation (SFA), and sales performance management (SPM).
A CRM built for contact management is designed to focus on tracking and storing your contacts’ information (not a shocker!). CRMs made for SFA focus on automating redundant tasks and pipeline management. And CRMs for SPM give you reporting capabilities that let you track and manage your sales team’s activities so you can further better your sales department.
Knowing the core functions of a CRM will help you choose one that will align with your goals and set your company up for success. A system that isn’t designed to meet your needs will just drag your business down.
Second: train to use the CRM.
Once you have chosen the perfect CRM for your company, you absolutely need to be trained to use it. Even if the CRM boasts about an easy-to-use interface and seems user-friendly enough, it’s worth the time to train your team. If you don’t, your sales team will end up frustrated, and it will interfere with the sales process. Here’s why.
Without training, your team has to fumble around a CRM, trying to figure out how to perform basic functions in the software—never mind the more complex things. If your team is spending their time teaching themselves how to use the system, they’re spending less time with your leads, potentially causing you to lose out on sales and deals. Inevitably, your sales people will come across something they can’t teach themselves how to do, and they may even find it takes longer to do their work because they don’t know how to use the CRM properly. And once your team reaches that point, they’ll figure out a way to work around the CRM, which wastes time and money.
If you want your team to use your new CRM confidently and work more efficiently, you have to train them. Here are three ways to do it.
Attend training sessions. Some CRM companies offer live online training sessions you can register for, in order to teach you how to use the CRM. At one of these sessions, a CRM expert will walk your team through anything and everything the software can do.
Watch video demonstrations. Many companies have videos on their websites that give step-by-step instructions on how to use certain features within their CRM. And because videos allow the user to pause and rewind, your team members can learn at their own pace.
Have a reseller teach you in-person. Many CRM companies partner with resellers to provide their customers with specific services. Resellers work outside the CRM company, but have gone through extensive training for a particular CRM. If you’re looking for personalized training (and have the budget for it), bringing a reseller into your organization gives you and your team access to one-on-one coaching.
Prepare yourself for success. CRM implementation takes work. But, if you take the time to find the right CRM for your company and make sure you train your team, you’ll not only set your team up for success, but you’ll foster an environment of efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community blog by David Mackey on July 2, 2015.
Making Customer Service Everyone’s Job
Posted by Rick Pranitis in CUSTOMER SERVICE on January 30, 2015
Culled from the ‘has-this-ever-happened-to-you?’ files: You dial an 800 number for product or service support and find yourself getting lost in the IVR tree. If you press zero, either the prompt doesn’t work or you’re informed that the wait time to speak with a live agent is seemingly longer than a trans-Atlantic flight. Undeterred, you decide to punch in a random number in the hope of connecting with someone – anyone – until you suddenly find yourself speaking with somebody who works in a back-office function. If you’re lucky, this person will either help you or transfer you to the right contact. But in most cases, if you’re connected with someone outside of customer service – regardless of how you arrived there – he or she will inform you that customer support is outside their jurisdiction.
But it shouldn’t be. Customers have every right to expect to have their issues resolved by an employee when they reach out to a company. In fairness, it might be too much to expect a staffer in the accounts payable department for an electronics retailer to know how to troubleshoot a laptop problem. But there should be a culture of customer-centricity in place that induces an accounts payable worker or any other employee in a non customer-facing role to ensure that a customer has his or her problem resolved quickly and satisfactorily.
This doesn’t mean that back-office workers need to receive the same level of training as contact center agents. Still, all employees should be provided enough instruction and empowerment to help resolve a customer’s issue when the situation arises.
As Donald E. Brown, M.D., founder and CEO of Interactive Intelligence points out, customers often don’t differentiate between different parts of a company for support.
Brown recently shared an anecdote with me about a customer service experience he had with a financial services company. It was taking Brown a while to connect with someone at the company regarding an account issue and he was tight on time. When he did finally connect with someone, he was informed that they’d have to transfer the call because he’d been identified as a “preferred customer.”
“I was ready to pull my hair out,” says Brown. “We were close to finishing out the transaction and I just wanted to be a regular customer to get the transaction completed right then and there.”
Customer care shouldn’t simply be the purview of the contact center. Great companies take care of their customers across all corners of the enterprise.
This article was originally posted to the 1to1 Media blog by Tom Hoffman on January 20, 2015.
Design Your Customer Experience to be Frictionless
Posted by Rick Pranitis in CUSTOMER SERVICE on October 16, 2014
Most definitions of “customer experience” boil down to how customers perceive all their various interactions with a product. And of course this only really makes sense when we try to view it from the customer’s own point of view. The quality of a customer’s experience with your product or service is whatever the customer says it is.
In the vast majority of situations, customers aren’t buying a product or service for the sake of the “experience” of buying or using it. They are just trying to solve some problem or meet some need, and if they could solve that problem or meet that need without having to deal with a company at all, don’t you think they would?
What this means is the ideal customer experience should be designed to be frictionless. The ideal experience would require no extra effort on the customer’s part, it wouldn’t require the customer to repeat anything they’ve already said, and wouldn’t pose any obstacles to meeting the customer’s need.
Probably, in fact, the ideal customer experience would be no experience at all, to the customer. That is, the only thing the customer would “experience” would be the elimination of whatever need or problem drove them in the first place. So when you design your own company’s customer experience, you should aspire to that goal – the goal of receding from the customer’s awareness altogether, fading into the background of the customer’s life, never to cause a worry or require a task of any kind.
Marketing research supports this design concept, because studies have consistently shown customer loyalty is not very highly correlated with customer satisfaction scores, although customer disloyalty does have a high correlation with customer dissatisfaction. In other words, customers don’t necessarily stay because they’re satisfied, but they often leave because they’re not.
In one survey of nearly 100,000 US consumers, each of whom had recently participated in some online or over-the-phone interaction with a business, researchers Matt Dixon, Nick Toman and Rick DeLisi found “there is virtually no difference at all between the loyalty of those customers whose expectations are exceeded and those whose expectations are simply met…[and] virtually no statistical relationship between how a customer rates a company on a satisfaction survey and their future customer loyalty.” In fact, the survey found an R-squared (coefficient of determination) of just 0.13 between satisfaction and loyalty, which is very close to saying no correlation at all. (R-squared values range from 0 to 1.0, and to put this particular score into perspective, an R-squared of 0.71 quantifies the correlation between “getting good grades in school” and “achieving career success later in life.”)
Instead, the key driver of customer disloyalty appears to be dissatisfaction, driven by unresolved problems or service issues – from the customer’s perspective, friction. According to the study, a customer service interaction is roughly four times more likely to drive disloyalty than loyalty.
So when you design your own company’s customer experience, it’s important to deconstruct every different type of customer journey, realizing that different customers need to be treated differently. Then take some time and try to figure out how to suck as much friction out of each customer’s experience as possible.
If you want some guidance in breaking down the elements of a truly frictionless experience, think of these elements in terms of reliability, relevance, value, and trust.
- Reliability. Your product or service should perform as advertised, without failing or breaking down. You should answer your phone, your web site should work, service should be performed on time, and so forth. Your systems and processes should be capable of rendering a product or service on schedule, seamlessly across multiple channels and consistently through time, in such a way that it doesn’t need a lot of maintenance, repair, correction, or undue attention from the customer just to meet whatever customer need or solve whatever customer problem it’s designed to handle.
- Relevance. You should remember your customer from transaction to transaction, never requiring a customer to re-enter information, or to look things up that the company ought to know about them already. Every time a customer has to tell a call center agent their account number again, having just punched it in on their phone, they are coming face to face with friction. The most efficient way to overcome it is to remember each customer’s specifications, once you learn them.
- Value. The value-for-money relationship can’t be out of kilter. As a customer, when you go to Costco you don’t expect a Bergdorf experience. But when you buy a Lexus, you expect more than a Ford experience. Whatever product or service your customers are buying from you must be good value-for-money. It will be economical for customers who are interested in price, and it will provide “fair value” for customers more interested in quality, status, or other attributes.
- Trust. In today’s hyper-interactive world, mere trustworthiness – that is, doing what you say you’re going to do and not violating the law – is no longer sufficient to render a frictionless customer experience. Increasingly, customers expect you to be proactively trustworthy, or “trustable.” Trustable customer experience is one in which the customer knows the company provides complete, accurate and objective information, and will help the customer avoid mistakes or oversights. In the customer service arena, think about reducing friction by trying to improve “next issue avoidance.” Think about a call center rep, for instance, proactively advising a customer how to deal with whatever problems might now occur, once they hang up the phone on this particular call. That would be trustable
This article was originally posted to the Think Customers Blog by Don Peppers on October 7, 2014.
How To Get Higher CRM Adoption Rates
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES LEADERSHIP on September 16, 2014
We’ve all heard the staggering statistics behind this-and-that CRM product. “Will cut lead gen time in half in 90 days!” or better yet, “Gain 85% more customers per year!” Right.
The unfortunate thing is many really terrific CRM products actually can have a monumental impact on your sales process. That is, if anyone would use them.
The trick to finding a CRM product that actually benefits your business is figuring out how to get people to actually adopt and use the process, and not just some people. Everyone. Over 66% of companies say they have a hard time raising adoption rates over about 50%. That’s a discouraging number.
Here are a few ways to get higher CRM adoption rates without losing your whole sales team to Groupon or Apple or whatever the foosball-in-the-breakroom-company of the month is.
Make Your CRM Software Unavoidable
Doesn’t that sound…annoying? At first, yes. There’s really no getting around the inevitable discomfort that comes with implementing a new CRM, akin to getting a new phone with a whole bunch of foreign-seeming buttons to learn. Before you launch companywide, it’s crucial to put safeguards in place that consistently remind your team to use the CRM, trust the CRM, love the CRM. Also, make it difficult (and awkward) to avoid the CRM-driven data at meetings and in status reports and you’ll see adoption rates rise.
Put Your CRM in the “Cloud”
Cloud computing doesn’t just make things more convenient for everyone, it’s going to make your employees more mobile. That’s a great value-add! If you can find a way to reward employees who are consistent with their CRM use with flexibility (say, work from home Fridays or longer lunches) you’re going to see more people taking advantage. In general, your staff is going to care most about the things that make their life easier too, not just yours.
Choose a CRM that can be Customized
There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of CRM products out there, some great and some best left to go the route of Pets.com. Of course, juggernauts like Salesforce have a lot to offer businesses but it may make more sense to find a product that’s specifically designed for your industry and for the type of sales team you employ. The more simple customization your CRM product offers at a user-level, the higher your usage rates are going to be.
Analyze the Data Often and Openly
Think fast: what’s the point of CRM software? If you said, “to keep my lazy employees on track,” then you are a terrible, terrible boss. The real reason CRM is valuable is cold, hard data. Whoever “owns” CRM in your office should regularly offer insights based on the data it provides and also make that data available to the sales team. Not only will this give everyone a little more ownership, it will prove the point that your fancy new CRM setup isn’t going anywhere.
You can’t force employees to use your CRM, but you can give them a lot of incentives. The more attractive you make a CRM-driven workplace the higher your adoption rates are going to be. Every. Single. Time.
This article was originally posted to the Mindmulch blog by Ryan Currie (guest blogger) on November 18, 2013.
Ryan Currie is a product manager at BizShark.com, with 5 years experience in online marketing and product development. In addition to web related businesses, he also enjoys the latest news and information on emerging technologies and open source projects.
Seven Sales Habits Ruining Your Reputation
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 22, 2013
Some would say the sales profession doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation. And it’s true, the industry is fraught with sales people who will say or do anything to close a deal and this includes companies who condone such behavior. Unfortunately, you might also be guilty of some bad sales habits — habits which could be affecting how your sales actions are perceived.
Here are seven sales habits that might be giving you a bad reputation.
1. Pitching too soon – The vast majority of sales people pitch their product or service too soon. As a result, they end up pitching the wrong solution or they fail to effectively position their solution because they haven’t taken the time to conduct a thorough discovery to determine if the prospect actually has a need for their solution.
2. Opening your pitch by talking about your company – I’m flabbergasted by the number of sales people (and company executives) who still believe this is the best way to open a sales presentation. They use valuable time talking about their company and its achievements instead of focusing on what is important to their prospect…a solution to a problem.
3. Failing to listen – Too many salespeople don’t listen to their customers or prospects and that means they fail to address the key issues that their customer has stated as being important. It sounds simple but it is a common occurrence in the business world. One of the easiest ways to connect with a decision maker is to carefully listen to what they tell you.
4. Not understanding key business issues – In today’s highly competitive business world, sales people are expected to have a strong grasp of issues that are affecting their prospect’s business and/or industry. Bringing new insights to the table can help you stand out from your competition and improve your reputation as a sales professional.
5. Not asking enough high-value questions – It still amazes me how many salespeople think that telling is selling but your prospect or customer should be doing most of the talking in a sales conversation. The key is to ask high-value, thought-provoking questions that get your prospect thinking.
6. Delivering a generic presentation – The objective of a sales presentation is to demonstrate why your prospect should buy your product, service, solution or offering. Unfortunately, very few sales people craft a presentation that is tailored to each prospect. Instead, they use the same slides, the same information and the same approach with every prospect.
7. Failing to follow through – A prospect asks for a particular piece of information and the sales person promises to deliver it by a certain date. The deadline passes and the prospect has to call and remind the salesperson. Because the sale has not been finalized, warning signals sound in the customer’s mind. After all, if the sales person is this slow to respond BEFORE the sale is made (the courting stage), how long will it take him to respond AFTER the sale?
Selling is an honorable profession. Improve your reputation and gain your prospect’s trust and respect by avoiding these bad sales habits.
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This article originally appeared in the Fearless Selling Blog on November 18, 2013.
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Dealing with Upset Customers
Posted by Rick Pranitis in CUSTOMER SERVICE on June 20, 2013
No one enjoys dealing with upset customers, and people don’t buy a product or use a service with hopes they can call customer service to complain. You need to keep in mind the customer is not simply calling you to ruin your day. How you handle the customer’s complaint will either escalate or diffuse the situation, which will make your life much harder or much easier. And, most importantly, determine whether or not you have lost a customer or retained his or her business. So how should you deal with upset customers to ensure the best possible outcome? Here are some tips to help you out.
The moment you encounter an upset customer, your very first step is to listen carefully and be patient. Allow the customer to vent and explain the problem. It’s natural for your “hackles” to go up when a customer is yelling or starts with personal attacks. But remember, behind the emotion is a genuine problem. So carefully listen and be patient while the customer lets off their steam. If you start off defensive, it will only escalate the customer’s anger, and it will be harder to sort through the issue and get a sense for what the real problem is. Remember not to take the attacks personally, even if the customer is making personal accusations toward you – the customer is looking for acknowledgement he or she is angry, so recognize there is a problem and he or she has a right to be upset. Chances are a patient approach will help diffuse the anger. Once the customer is calmer, you can start working on addressing the problem constructively.
Once the customer has started to calm down, it’s now time to start figuring out how to address the problem and start putting your soft skills to work. Avoid phrases such as “that’s our policy,” or “you’ll have to go to our website”. The customer didn’t call to be shut down or re-directed. The customer called to speak to a live person who will help solve the problem. By reiterating the issue, you’re communicating to the customer how you clearly understand what is going on and affirming to the customer you’re listening – and HEARING!
You risk being perceived as distancing yourself from the customer’s problem by telling the customer another department will help them, or you’ll need to have a supervisor assist with the problem. Instead let the customer know upfront you, personally, will take responsibility to ensure the issue is solved, and you’ll work with them to make sure he or she ends up satisfied. By stating your responsibility, instead of simply passing the customer off (even if you will need to coordinate with another department or a supervisor to solve the problem), you’re communicating you’re on the customer’s side – you’re an ally. This personal approach will reinforce to the customer he or she is being listened to and the problem is being addressed. In a customer service world where customers are used to navigating through automated phone systems and dealing with scripted call center reps, this personal acknowledgement will stand out.
Instead of dictating to the customer your company’s policy or telling the customer what will happen, re-phrase the process by saying something such as: “What would you consider a fair solution?” When you do this, you’re helping the customer be part of the solution and help set the starting point for a negotiation, as well as setting a level of expectation for the outcome. Even if the customer suggests something that is beyond what your company can offer, it gives you a starting point to work down from so the customer is compensated for time lost on a service or a broken product.
Once you have ended the call, your job is not over. After you’ve dealt with an upset customer, it’s vital you follow-up, after a few weeks, to make sure the problem was sufficiently resolved and the customer is pleased with the result. By checking back in, you’re demonstrating your company really does care and is focused on customer satisfaction. And you’re letting the customer know his or her business really matters and you’ll go the extra mile to keep them as a customer.
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Seven Ways to Become a Better Salesperson
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on May 31, 2013
Being in sales is a constant battle for improvement. Whether it’s getting better at overcoming objections, improving your appointment setting success ratios, or increasing the number and size of deals you close, every salesperson is trying to get better every day.
By making incremental improvements in the way we operate, salespeople have a unique opportunity to see big results. Here are seven things, which if you focus your attention upon, will assure you success.
Become a problem solver – the best sales people do more than just dial the phone and meet with customers – they are creative, innovative, energized professional problem solvers and relationship builders. Your job is not just to sell a company your particular service offering, but rather to solve their problems. Once you change your mind set to think of your role as a problem solver, you will learn to be more tuned in to your prospects pain issues and what motivates them. Start looking at your position as a problem solver and will see a difference in your client interaction.
Offer information – sales people need to constantly work to build trust with customers as part of the process of nurturing sales leads over time. One of the best ways to build trust with customers is to share the latest news, industry trends and business intelligence. If you find an article about their industry that you think would benefit the customer, share it with them – even if you didn’t write it.
Overcome your fear of rejection – sales is a tough job because prospects are constantly rejecting you, hanging up, saying “no,” sometimes even acting abrupt or rude. The best sales people know how to rise above the daily rejections and keep pressing forward. Remind yourself that you are a talented professional with a great solution to offer the right customers. Remember that there are a lot of customers who need what you have to offer, and that you’re going to find them and connect with them. Face the rejection head-on. After all, who cares if someone rejects you? It’s not personal. They’re just busy and don’t have time to talk, or they’ve been discouraged by too many time-wasting phone calls from other less scrupulous sales people. Customer rejection is not about you, it’s about them. The best sales people have thick skin and maintain control of their emotional state even in the face of adversity – but this unflappable nature is usually not something people are born with; it’s a way of being that is earned over time. Let the rejections go, and keep moving forward to talk to the people who will be happy to hear from you – they are waiting for someone like you to help them.
Ask for contact information – sales people often find themselves on the phone with the wrong person – i.e. an administrative assistant in the wrong department, reporting up the wrong chain of command to get to your ultimate decision maker. But don’t give up just because your calling list had the wrong information. Instead, be direct and ask the person on the phone to help you out. Instead of hanging up, ask the person you’re speaking to, “Could you give me the phone number for (NAME OF DECISION MAKER)?”
Ask for the next appointment – every salesperson needs to constantly guide the prospect through the sales cycle. Every conversation needs to end with the sales person asking the prospect to commit to a future conversation – whether it’s on the phone, in person or via web conference. Before you can “make the ask” and close the deal, you need to make the “ask” for your next appointment.
Take great notes – many sales people make the mistake of taking sparse or incomplete notes about their sales calls. Taking better notes can give you a trove of useful information for your next conversation with the customer. Write down specific details about which objections, questions and issues came up during the conversation. Not only are these details important for closing a deal with the customer in the future, but they might also be helpful for conversations with other customers. Make a list of questions, objections and challenges that you weren’t able to answer – then compare notes with other colleagues on the sales team, do some research, and follow up with the customer on a future call. Showing that you’re committed to finding the right answers will help you build trust with the prospect.
Learn from your colleagues – the best sales people don’t feel threatened by the successes of their peers, they celebrate team success and find a way to learn from the successes of others on the sales team. If one of your peers recently landed a big account, find out how they did it. Take your successful peers out for lunch or coffee and ask for advice on which sales techniques have been working for them. Good sales people know that success is not a zero-sum game. They will want to help other people on the sales team improve their results so that the whole team can benefit.
Being a better salesperson is often not a matter of making drastic improvements, but instead is about making smaller improvements in multiple areas over time. No matter how successful you are as a salesperson, you can achieve better results by adjusting your performance in at least one of these areas. Successful selling is a combination of art and science. It’s about passion, motivation, drive, and interpersonal performance, but it’s also about managing details, monitoring a process, and striving with rigor for excellence.
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Never Say “Thank you for your business.”
Posted by Rick Pranitis in CUSTOMER SERVICE, GENERAL DISCUSSION on April 1, 2013
Every sales person appreciates winning a big order from a key customer; but it’s rarely appropriate for him or her to say so to the customer. Saying “Thank you for your business” is bush league, and can significantly weaken your position.
Top performing sales executives recognize that customers buy their solutions because to do so makes good business sense for the customer’s organization. That isn’t to say that personal relationships don’t play an important role in the process. Strong relationships throughout the complex network of buying influences can play a significant strategic role in the sales rep’s ability to understand and communicate the relevant value that their solutions offer their customers’ organizations, to the exclusion of the competitors.
World class sales organizations train, coach, and provide the tools necessary to enable their sales reps to systematically investigate, identify, quantify, and prioritize customers’ specific value drivers, and enable them to formulate and communicate high value solutions across the buyer’s organization in order to clearly differentiate their offering against the competition.
Receiving a big order is confirmation that the sales team has successfully established its solution as offering superior value versus the alternative competitive options. This is no time to weaken your value proposition with a bush league “thank you”. Receipt of the order means that it’s time to proactively manage your customer’s post purchase evaluation phase. A strong competitor is not going to go down without a fight, and purchase orders have been known to be withdrawn after their award for a variety of reasons. Receipt of the purchase order means it’s time to reconfirm to all of the important buying influencers that their decision was the correct one. Saying ‘thank you’ serves virtually no purpose towards this objective, and will more likely plant seeds of doubt about their decision.
Send your customer a message that successful execution of this project is a top priority to your organization, and that it will be planned and executed in a manner that exceeds the expectations of the customer. Be careful not to open any cans of worms that may potentially cause doubt, but be thorough in communicating that your organization has a solid plan to execute and deliver.
While it is certainly acceptable, and generally expected, to send an order confirmation, the confirmation should convey the message; “We look forward to working together with you to ensure the successful execution of this very important project,” versus “We would like to thank you for your business.” Below is a sample listing of some key activities you can initiate to solidify your position and competitor-proof your Purchase Order.
- Provide your customer with a Point/Counterpoint Table illustrating the customer’s key issues and how your offering will successfully address each;
- Initiate an internal project kickoff meeting to ensure that your organization is prepared to deliver 100% customer satisfaction;
- Submit a detailed production, service, installation schedule that illustrates how your solution will meet the customer’s key milestones;
- Initiate a joint production kickoff meeting with your customer and the key influencers in the decision;
- Develop a joint project communication protocol and milestone update schedule that highlights the collaborative teaming nature of the project;
Yes, receiving a six, seven, or even an eight figure purchase order is a milestone that deserves celebration. It may have taken you and your team months to secure such an order. But don’t put such a huge win at risk by letting down your guard. In today’s highly competitive business environment, receipt of the purchase order doesn’t signify the end of the race. It represents the beginning of a joint collaboration between your company and your customer’s team to successfully execute and deliver a complex high value solution that will solidify your long-range organizational relationship.
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This article was originally posted on the Sales Racehorses blog.
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Five Ways to Keep Your Biggest Customer
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on October 11, 2012
Before you slash prices, check out these strategies for keeping your best customers happy and loyal.
Contrary to popular belief, a big customer that buys a lot of product from you is not necessarily a good thing. Big companies have a habit of pigeonholing smaller firms into being suppliers of commodity products. That way, they can play you off against your competition in order to push prices down. They don’t care whether you make any money on the deal because they can just switch to another vendor should the price drop drive you out of the business.
Now here’s the good news. There are five ways to defend against this kind of pricing game.
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Strategy #1: Differentiate Yourself. If your firm offers a needed product or service that no other company can provide, then it’s impossible for the big company to play you off against your competitors. To create that differentiation, you position your offering so that whatever is unique about it becomes a “must have” for that customer. There’s the story of a lost a sale of a million-dollar publishing system because the competitor convinced the customer that they needed the ability to set type around the shape of a hand print, something that the customer had never done before and would never do in the future.
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Strategy #2: Provide Expertise. If you or your firm can offer expertise that the customer needs in order to fulfill their goals, you can be strategic to them, even if you’re a commodity supplier. For example, a company that sells glue for manufacturing consumer electronics might have world-class expertise in volume manufacturing that, if shared with their customer, would make them more profitable. That expertise is then periodically “lent” to the customer in order to reduce their manufacturing costs, thereby making an ongoing relationship valuable to the customer.
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Strategy #3: Create a High Replacement Cost. If it would cost the customer a prohibitive amount to replace your firm’s products and services, they’re far less likely to replace you with another competitor. What’s important here is that you create the high replacement cost AFTER you’ve made the sale, because prior to the sale, the big customer (if they’re at all self-aware) are likely to see the replacement cost as liability and thus be less likely to buy from you in the first place.
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Strategy #4: Really Know the Account. If you can get yourself involved in the inner workings of the customer account and become part of their strategic planning, they’ll begin to see you as a consultant rather than a mere supplier. For example, IBM sometimes assigns an employee as a general IT consultant inside Fortune 100 firms. In addition to being a sales representative, that employee is mandated to act as an independent IT resource acts as a clearing house for any problems that occur with IBM’s offerings.
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Strategy #5: Generate Reverse Credibility. This one is tricky, because credibility usually flows from the larger company to the smaller one. (e.g. “Our customer list includes GM and Oracle!”) However, if a smaller firm has a market reputation that helps the larger firm create credibility in a new market, the larger firm will may see the relationship as strategic. Example: the Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer used to publicly tout its’ relationship with boutique studio FrogDesign in order to seem more “cool” in the consumer PC space.
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