Closing The Sale!

There are well-defined moments in the sales process when you absolutely must ask for the order. You can’t afford to have these precious moments slip through your fingers but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens to too many salespeople in our system.

I have some advice that will protect you from becoming one of those salespeople. The key is to make closing automatic and you do that by knowing exactly when you must ask for an order.

“Always Be Closing”

Unfortunately, too many salespeople were mislead into believing that “Always Be Closing” represents the “ABCs” of salesmanship. Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth. You can’t always be closing because asking for an order is only one of the steps in the sales process. At a minimum, before you ask for an order you need to establish some rapport with your prospect, uncover a need for your product and present your solution. “Always Be Closing” may sound great in a movie but it is meaningless when you’re in your sales territory, attempting to sell something to someone.

Often, salespeople that think they should always be closing are, in reality, never closing. These salespeople do not understand the sales process because if they did, they would know when and how to ask for an order. Well-trained professional salespeople don’t have these problems because they follow a well-defined sales process. These professionals know exactly when the only thing left to do is close the business.

Fear Of Closing

I also work with another group of salespeople that need help with their closing skills. These sales reps need to overcome their fear of closing. After all, you can’t be a sales rep and have a fear of closing, just as you can’t be an electrician and have a fear of electricity! Salespeople close and if you are not closing you’re not a salesperson… you are just a conversationalist. Salespeople that fear closing just keep talking and hopelessly praying that at some point, the prospect will say ‘yes’ to the order. Guess how often that happens?

In my work, I’ve uncovered many factors that cause some salespeople to fear closing. Some sales reps don’t want to face the moment of truth. Other salespeople fear they may appear “pushy”. There are also other salespeople that assume, without any data to support their assumption, that the prospect is not ready to sign an order. I help these salespeople by making closing an automatic reflex reaction to certain events in the sales process. When closing is automatic, you don’t even have to think about it. You automatically ask for the business. This process helps most salespeople overcome their fear of closing.

Initial Close

At some point in the sales process, you’ll ask your prospect a series of questions to uncover a need for your product or service. You’ll then present your product and explain how the product addresses the needs you’ve uncovered. Once you’ve presented all the benefits your prospect will gain by using your product, you must close. You must ask for the order at this point in the sales process. Don’t think about it … just close.

Since this is the first time you’ve asked your prospect for the order, this closing attempt is called the Initial Close. Your prospect has two possible reactions to your Initial Close. Your prospect will either give you the order or, give you an objection. Obviously, if you get the order, you’ve accomplished your goal. On the other hand, if you get an objection, you still have some work ahead of you.

Overcoming Sales Objections

It is not the end of the world if you get some objections after your first closing attempt. In fact, you probably will get some objections after your Initial Close. Most prospects feel it is their duty to have some objections. So relax and don’t panic. Now that the objection has surfaced, you just moved one step closer to the order. Keep in mind that an objection is not rejection. An objection is only a request for more information. Your prospect is confused and unclear about something you said or something you failed to mention. By addressing the sales objection, you give your prospect new and additional information. Armed with the new information, your prospect is able to develop a new and favorable opinion about the decision to purchase your product.

Objections should not be ignored and must be answered in a way that completely satisfies the prospect. The salesperson should not get defensive or start debating the prospect. The goal is not to win an argument. The goal is to get the order.

 

The No More Objections Close

Once all objections have been successfully addressed, you must close the prospect and ask for the order. As with the Initial Close, don’t even think about it and make this closing attempt an automatic part of your sales process. I refer to this closing attempt as the “No More Objections Close”. Once the prospect runs out of objections, the salesperson must ask for the order.

Salespeople should always be direct and confident when closing a sale. The salesperson’s confidence makes the prospect confident about the decision to purchase. All objections have been successfully addressed and the salesperson must confidently assume the prospect is ready to do business.

You must remain silent after you ask for an order. The prospect must be the next one to speak. There could be an uncomfortable pause while the prospect thinks about the final decision. If you interrupt that pause, you greatly diminish your probability of receiving the order.

When You Must Close The Sale

As you now see, there are two moments in the sales process that call for a closing attempt. The first attempt is after you’ve presented the benefits of your product. The second time is after all objections have been successfully addressed. Implement this process and make closing automatic.

Republished from my earlier blog series in July 2008

What is RIA?

his is a common question for the development industry in general. In its most basic sense, RIA is an acronym for "Rich Internet Application", but that doesn’t really shed much light upon what a RIA actually is. Let me shed some light onto what RIA means to me.

What is the defining characteristic of a RIA?

Rich User Experience:
I think the most defining characteristic of a "Rich Internet Application" is a rich user experience. This does not necessarily mean a slick interface, or asynchronous data transfer, a stateful client interface, or any specific technology. While these may be common characteristics of RIAs, they do not define them. It boils down to how the application is used, and what it is being used for. A Rich Internet Application provides a great experience for its users. It should be easy to use, engaging, and targeted to perform its task very well. To many this means a "desktop-application-like-experience" delivered through the web. This may include common features such as drag-and-drop data manipulation and imaging/drawing/charting capabilities, but it is not a requirement to include any of these.

What are common characteristics of a Rich Internet Application?

As I mentioned above, the only real requirement of a RIA is the rich user experience. However, the richness of experience can be achieved through many common techniques:

Stateful Client

Although not a requirement of RIA, it is very common that Rich Internet Applications employ stateful clients and asynchronous data transfer to achieve their tasks. A stateful client interface is exactly as the name describes; it maintains state of the application completely on the client side. It does not rely on the server to maintain information about what the current user is doing. For example: I want to watch a video on www.youtube.com. On choosing the video, it buffers and runs slowly. But once it has buffered completely, it runs smooth if I choose to see it again. It is almost like watching the video on my desktop.

Drag-and-Drop

Also not a requirement, but a common feature implemented within Rich Internet Applications is "drag-and-drop". Ask anyone, especially non-technical people, what is easier: typing into a bunch of forms to enter information, or dragging an item onto a "cart" and having the information automatically populate? The answer is clearly drag-and-drop. This technique varies based on the technology implementations and restrictions, but its benefits can been seen clearly. Dragging items onto online maps, dragging commercial goods into shopping carts, creating "drag-able" objects in online office productivity applications, and even "drag-able" elements in online image editing applications are all rich features that are capable because of the drag and drop feature. This type of capability didn’t exist in mainstream online applications until the "RIA Revolution". Now you see it everywhere.

Drawing and Analytical Tools

Not every application has these either, but they really add a lot when they are used properly. Many RIA technologies enable the capability to manipulate graphics onscreen at runtime. An image is worth a thousand words, and these types of capabilities enable your application to say a lot. For Example: A user can design a complete shoe (www.nike.com) as per his choice of colours and personalize it with logo, names etc. S/he does not need to know designing and drawing software to be able to do this.

What technologies are used to create Rich Internet Application?

Lots of them – there is no single technology that is best suited for RIA. There are lots of great technologies that enable various capabilities. The choice of technology should be determined based upon your needs, and your application users’ needs. Typically developers everywhere prefer Adobe Flex and AJAX as the most lethal combination to be used together:

· AdobeFlex

· AJAX (there are many AJAX frameworks available)

· Microsoft Silverlight

· Java FX etc…

I know I didn’t name every option, but the truth of the matter is that you have no option. There is no definitive "right choice" for all occasions. The desired capability and features of your application, in conjunction with your available development resources, technical requirements, and current infrastructure should determine which technology suits your needs most adequately.

Is Web 2.0 RIA?

No! Web 2.0 is a marketing buzzword. Web 2.0 is a “State of Mind” defining that what the user intends to do with a web page. From using web sites to send and receive e-mails to probably doing business transactions on www.icicibank.com, is first a thought and then a technology. Using www.Yatra.com to book flight tickets instead of going to a ticketing counter is first a thought.

However I truly believe that "Web 2.0" originally meant the same thing as RIA, It all boils down to the application, the user experience, and the ability to for the application to perform its task well.

Summary

When we think of an RIA and Web 2.0, we have to also give due credit to the fact that most client-server applications or enterprise applications today have taken the form, shape, size, look & feel of Web 2.0. Therefore maintaining a B2B or B2C is today mobile and convenient. One does not have to be in the office network with an office machine. Similarly a user today necessarily does not have to go to a showroom or a store to purchase a good or a service. Post sale transactions and entries are now therefore automated and enabled by the user the minute he makes an online purchase. Therefore users of www.icici.com are actually bankers and are performing the banker’s job of making transaction related entries themselves when they make an online payment or transfer money from one account to the other!!! Hence businesses are seeing more profitability and are becoming more and more mobile. The call of the hour therefore is Web Mobility and Web 2.0 is the true solution. Oh and did I mention that the cost of development in a web2.0 framework is lesser that traditional development!!!!

Republished from my earlier blog series in June 2008 

Information Explosion Creating Opportunities for Storage Professionals

According to a recent IDC study, “The total volume of digital information created in 2013 will surge six fold to an astonishing 988 exabytes — 988 billion gigabytes — compared with 2006. And although most of this information will be created by individuals, 85 percent of it will be managed by organizations. IT managers will see the span of their domains considerably enlarged, and information security and privacy protection will become a boardroom concern as organizations and their customers become increasingly tied together in real time. This will require the implementation of new security technologies in addition to new training, policies and procedures.”

Managing this unprecedented storage demand is the No. 1 challenge IT managers face today. Increasing information storage means increasing requirements to protect, manage, optimise  and leverage information.

The advancements in information storage technology present a variety of options in storage networking, protection, management, security and compliance.

Opportunities for Storage Professionals
Mission-critical information and exploding requirements and advancements in technologies require a very knowledgeable workforce. As compared with operating systems, networking, databases and applications, storage technology generally is understood the least, except by those who are involved in information storage and management.

This knowledge gap creates a large opportunity for new IT professionals, as well as for those who want to move into a new, rewarding career as a storage professional. In most organizations, the storage management function is still evolving. Large corporations usually have well-defined storage management groups with specialized skill sets. Small and sometimes midsize corporations have this function spread across other groups.

A recent EMC Corp. study of more than 1,200 storage professionals showed that, on average, one storage professional is deployed for every 20 to 40 terabytes of usable storage, depending on the overall size of storage infrastructure.

Standards in defining the storage teams, individual job definitions and job titles are still evolving.

The following is an attempt to describe some of the key functions that are carried out in IT organizations either within a formalized storage management group or across IT groups by forming a storage management virtual team. These functions can be combined to create an individual job definition.

Storage Manager
The storage manager is a strategic function that carries overall responsibility of defining strategic direction and capacity planning, as well as designing, deploying, integrating, monitoring and managing the storage infrastructure. The function covers all aspects of storage infrastructure, including storage networking, information protection and day-to-day management.

Storage managers are responsible for the overall performance of their department or organization. This role requires a broad range of expertise, spanning both technical and managerial skills.

Storage Administrator
Storage administration is another critical function that ensures superior performance and high availability of the storage infrastructure. Storage administrators’ responsibilities might include performance monitoring and troubleshooting, provisioning, configuration management and monitoring the overall health of the infrastructure and all its components.

In addition to understanding the varied storage technologies, storage administrators are required to have a strong technical and usability knowledge of all components (whether hardware or software) of the implemented storage infrastructure. Storage administrators must master the features, functions, capabilities and limitations of each implemented component in the infrastructure.

Storage Architect
Based on the business, applications and systems requirements, storage architects are responsible for overall storage infrastructure design and architecture. Storage architects must have strong knowledge and understanding of both storage networking and information-protection/data-availability technologies.

They also are responsible for defining best practices, design standards and strategic, long-term planning of information storage infrastructure.

In addition to strong design skills and being current on all segments of storage technology, storage architects are required to have strong knowledge and skills in operating systems, databases and applications as implemented in their organization.

Backup and Recovery Administrator
Backup and recovery administration is a critical part of the overall IT function, as it ensures recovery of data from any corruptions and failures. Individuals in this area are responsible for implementing and managing the backup and archiving policies and processes, management of tape/online backup libraries and periodic testing of the backup/recovery processes.

Backup and recovery administrators are required to have strong knowledge of various backup- and archiving-related hardware and software components. They have to drive the best practices and processes to meet well-defined service level agreements with the user business units.

In many cases, this function is combined with the responsibilities of the storage administrator or IT operations manager.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Administrator
With increasing reliance on IT to provide nonstop availability of mission-critical information, the business continuity function has become one of the most critical in IT. Using sophisticated replication technologies, the business continuity administrator is required to implement and manage procedures and policies that ensure nonstop data availability in case of any unplanned and planned outages.

Disaster recovery administration deals with an organization’s preparedness to ensure continuity of the business in case of any disastrous event, which (in extreme cases) might require an immediate switching of entire IT operations to an always-ready secondary site. Based on the organizational layout and distribution of responsibilities, the business continuity and disaster recovery functions may be combined or added to the storage administration function. They might be part of the backup-recovery function if an organization primarily relies on off-site, tape-based disaster recovery (vaulting).

Business continuity and disaster recovery administrators are expected to have a thorough understanding of the organization’s mission-critical applications and associated data. They must be capable of deploying and managing business continuity- and disaster recovery-related processes and storage technologies.

What Do IT Managers Need?
Many managers who participated in EMC’s managing storage study said they plan to increase their storage management teams by two to three times in the next 12 months. When asked about their hiring preferences, more than 75 percent of the managers said they want to hire experienced storage professionals.

Unfortunately, experienced IT people are becoming increasingly scarce — Forrester Research reports that by 2017, 76 million baby boomers in the United States will retire, with only 46 million younger employees in line to replace them. During the next several years, storage experience, literally, might walk away.

As the next-best alternative, more than 67 percent of managers want to hire candidates who are trained and certified in storage technology. Certification is an easy way for a hiring manager to validate job candidates’ knowledge and ensure they can contribute quickly.

Acquiring Storage Technology Knowledge
Exacerbating the growing knowledge gap is the lack of options available to acquire storage technology knowledge and skills — you rarely find a university or college that offers comprehensive education on information storage and management, and until recently, few IT training providers offered public classes on this fastest-growing segment of IT.

Academia, vendors and IT users must play a role in addressing this challenge. For example, EMC has introduced an open curriculum that covers a variety of modern storage infrastructure components.

This curriculum focuses on underlying concepts and principles of storage technology rather than on specific products, and it supports an open certification track: the Storage Technologist (EMCST).

The unprecedented growth of information and management of storage, combined with the alarming knowledge gap in the industry, creates a very attractive opportunity for the next generation of IT professionals. Creating awareness and providing learning and certification options are paramount in addressing these challenges.

Republished from my earlier blog series in June 2008

What Are the Best Sales Questions?

What happens when we make assumptions? The movie Return of the Pink Panther provides a great lesson. Peter Sellers, playing the immortal character of Inspector Clouseau, sees a hotel clerk holding a dog on a leash and asks "Does your dog bite?" The clerk responds "no," and Clouseau reaches to pet the dog, which immediately bites his hand. "I thought you said your dog did not bite!" he exclaims. To which the clerk replies "That is not my dog."
In sales, how do we know if our prospective customers are answering the questions we think we’re asking? How do we know if we’re asking the best questions, or even the right questions? The Pink Panther story illustrates both humorously and poignantly what can happen if we take actions when there are gaps between questions and perceived answers. I can relate to Clouseau’s not-entirely-self-induced folly, and I wondered whether sales questions I’ve used could be similarly entertaining – or, at the very least, instructive. So, I reflected on my inventory of sales calls over 12 years and came up with two examples – one showing failure, the other success – that illustrate what can happen when asking questions in selling. My conclusion: getting to the right answers requires careful thought and constant practice. There aren’t any shortcuts, but there are some best practices.

A Failure: Stuff for a Buck Chain Stores
There was a sales person who worked for several weeks to secure an appointment with the VP of Operations for a large national chain of retail stores. His company’s product was a suite of bar code scanning hardware, software, label printers, and services. To prepare, he studied the retails chain’s distribution, logistics, and competitive challenges. He was ready for The Meeting at.
After asking mostly ordinary empirical questions such as: "How many trucks? How many warehouses? How many shipments per day? and How many stores by region?", he moved to the pain part (he was told early in his career that a big part of selling is to "find out what keeps the customer up at night."). "What goes wrong in your daily operations?" he asked. The VP responded, "It’s quite common to put the wrong load on the trailer. For example, the truck going to Bangalore might actually be carrying the inventory that’s supposed to go to Chennai. It happens quite often throughout our distribution network. We haven’t found a way to prevent it."
Bingo! He hit what-keeps-me-up-at-night pain point! His supposedly keen industry insight caused him to extend his answer into the downstream logistics migraines that the company must experience: heavy trailer loads of goods shipped in error all over the country.  Goods in transit out of control and arriving in unintended locations. Stock outages. Customer service issues.  After collecting some more data from the VP and offering him the hope that his proposal would eliminate his problems, they exchanged pleasantries about kids and golf, and he departed his office.
Using what he’d told the salesperson, he developed a proposal for a real-time, multi-warehouse inventory control system, including 200 hand held and mobile terminals, and dozens of radio frequency access points. Inventory movement would be efficiently and accurately recorded with the simple pull of a scanner trigger. No more manual data entry, no more paper, no more mistakes. All this for Rs300,000 – an excellent value considering the multi million-rupees scale of the company’s inventory and transportation costs. Of course, he forecasted his sales opportunity to close in the current fiscal year, and received kudos from his district and region managers for having uncovered such a valuable lead. High fives were given all around, and he believed he couldn’t lose. He sent the sales proposal to the prospect and awaited the affirmative response, which never arrived.
Why? The major reason was because he hadn’t explored or understood the problem’s impact on the enterprise. As the VP later explained, "We sell everything for a 100 rupees. Our customers don’t expect to see specific items in stock, so it’s not a headache if the wrong truckload backs up to the store’s receiving dock. They’ll unload it and put it out for sale. We don’t like it, but it doesn’t really matter to us in terms of our financial performance."End of story. His opportunity was lost. His prospect eventually became someone’s customer, but not his.

What did he learn? First, that the VP had answered his question as he heard it. He had asked, "What goes wrong?" when he thought he was asking, "What goes wrong – that matters to you?". He had misconstrued the gravity of the problem because it was the first one the VP mentioned. Second, his industry knowledge had mutated into myopia, which prevented him from asking the right follow-on questions. Had the salesperson been a little more curious, he would have asked questions that would have helped me gain more insight, such as: "What is the consequence when the wrong goods show up in Chennai? What does this problem cost per occurrence and annually? What impact do those costs have on overall financial objectives? How will this problem affect strategic goals if unabated? Third, by tackling the first problem the VP described, the salesperson failed to complete the picture. He didn’t ask, "What else?" followed by questions that would have not only exposed problems far more consequential to the organization, but also provided him with a broader perspective on its operational issues.
Finally, his discovery process should not have been limited to talking with just one individual. he should have taken the time to ask networking questions, by which he could expand his contacts and gain a breadth of opinions and information – like a Wiki model in which the value of the answer increases with multiple viewpoints.

A Success: XYZ Healthcare Products, Inc.
At a different company the same sales person sold Oracle integration services to firms in the mid-Atlantic area. His short-term objective was to sell services for installing the next version of Oracle’s operating system, but his company’s California-based staff and lack of local references made that challenging. Yet their consulting practice leaders were resolute on promoting such high-dollar, long-term projects. Consequently, his initial prospect-qualification questions centered on whether the prospect planned to upgrade to Oracle 11i in the next 12 months. Most didn’t. After a few weeks of cold calling, he finally obtained an appointment with the IT Manager of a distributor XYZ.
When he arrived at XYZ, he learned that the IT Manager had invited eight colleagues from other departments to join the meeting. They began the discussion about whether there was a business case to upgrade to 11i. The more questions the salesperson asked about upgrading, the clearer it became that it wasn’t necessary. The conversation began to trail off as people looked at their cell phones and watches. Was it time to end the meeting and check the Blackberry for the Next Opportunity on the way to his car?
He didn’t, because something piqued his curiosity: why were there eight people assembled to discuss something that appeared all but decided? Although the salesperson didn’t ask that question, he decided to ask a different one: "Assuming that technology and finances posed no constraints, what would you change right now about your business processes and operations?" The IT Manager shared that a significant unsolved problem was that the company needed to produce a customer-ready invoice that could be placed in the shipment box during final packing, and Oracle’s "vanilla" software couldn’t provide that capability, causing XYZ to delay invoicing. His response surprised the salesperson because superficially the problem seemed minor, but his comment elicited nods from his colleagues.
That answer meant that the massive consulting deal the salesperson needed to close had just devolved into a few billable hours to provide this seemingly simple modification. Considering how insistent Oracles practice managers were about selling upgrade work, he could have lost his sales resolve. Instead, he wanted to know more. What was it about this issue that created such visceral pain among these managers? As his mind filled with questions, he asked "What does this limitation mean for your operations?" Their answers exposed issues ranging from customer service to logistics to receivables administration. Probing the receivables challenges yielded insight into perhaps the greatest strategic challenge XYZ faced. The invoicing delay caused significant cash flow problems. "Why haven’t you fixed this already?" he asked. "We thought it couldn’t be done, and, up to now, no one has taken the time to come here to meet with us." The salesperson explained that providing the change they requested was not complicated. XYZ’s President was then called to join the meeting, and he excitedly corroborated what his managers had told him. The company signed a contract for the modification and became a client.
What did the salesperson learn? First, his central qualification question, "Do you plan to upgrade to 11i in the next 12 months?", was based only on what he wanted to sell; it risked missing opportunities because it ignored uncovering the outcomes his prospects required. By asking the right questions, he was able to learn that the immediate burning issue could be located in an unexpected place, and by providing a solution to address that issue, he could create a new sales path toward his higher-money work – the 11i upgrade service package. Second, by removing constraints from the possible answers, he was able to eliminate boundaries that prospective customers often impose on themselves. Similar to vendors, prospective clients develop myopia based on perceived technical, financial, or resource limits. Gathering requirements information that is unbound by those limits is important early in the sales process because discovering what the prospective customer wants is more valuable than discovering what he thinks he can get. Both questions must be asked, however, because the answers are often different.

How can salespeople improve discovery skills?
The president of a large local real estate company recently told me that he views asking questions as the single most important selling skill – and that few agents do it. Extrapolate that problem to other industries, and it’s no wonder that many companies suffer from low sales productivity.

What are the key habits for success?

• Bring an insatiable curiosity to your appointments
• Don’t assume you know the answers to your most important questions
• Endeavor to see the world through your client’s eyes. This empathetic view requires one to ask questions
• Listen for unexpected answers, probe further, and have the agility to capitalize on the resulting opportunities

Last month, I performed a nationwide survey of my company’s sales professionals about how they use questions to discover customer needs. The answers revealed a wide range of patterns, techniques, and favorite questions, suggesting that there are many pathways to successful discovery. The best idea I received was this one: "If I’m unclear about who, what, when, where, and why, I keep asking questions."

Is it Time to Reengineer Your Sales System?


Republished from my earlier blog series in June 2008

Customer Service During Weakened Economy

“Every company’s greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company,” 

During our recent weakened economy, many businesses have seen declining revenues. Declining revenues lead to reduced staff levels and diminished services. To me, this does not make sense. I believe that it is during the down times, when service should be at the forefront and retention of loyal customers even more of a focus.
When price wars fail to drive revenues, businesses often look to service to give them a competitive advantage. Many big business marketers are returning to a “service sells” mentality, however, many sell great customer service and few deliver. The problem is that few marketers have ever truly served a customer.
Throughout my years in business, I have had the opportunity to interact and develop a customer service philosophy. It is inherent that when you are in a service-based business, there will be times when your customer is compelled to offer you their feedback. It is what you do with this feedback that will shape the future and their impression of your business.
Upon reflection, most all of my interactions with displeased customers were not the result of a poor product, but rather a disappointing customer experience. Why is that?
Because, product is not personal, customer service is. Briefly, I would like to share with you eight critical steps to establish a customer service culture.
1. Customers are the reason for work, not an interruption of workThis sounds really obvious doesn’t it? How many times have you gone into a business only to wait while someone is on the telephone or busy doing some “non-service” task? Employees often lose sight of the importance of the customer and get consumed in lesser day to day tasks. Sure, there are tasks that need to be accomplished, but you cannot afford to sacrifice service to get them done. Good customer service must be a priority for you and your team. Without your customers, you have no company!
2. Train, train, and continue to train.Cross train your entire staff to be able to assist a customer regardless of their department. When a customer becomes upset they want their problem solved not to be shuffled between employees that are not empowered or enable to assist them.  Offer continuous customer service training for your staff and once they are providing good service, continue to train them. Utilize role play situations to assist your staff in recognizing and experiencing both easy and difficult service opportunities. If an employee has a level of comfort with a difficult situation, they will be able to better handle it.

3. Empower your staff to serveEstablish a system of resources for your staff to serve the customer. Allow them space to take the necessary action to provide exceptional service and resolve any issues should a customer become disgruntled. Create a structured system to allow your staff to serve customers.

Establish a discretionary budget that an employee may access to recover a customer before you lose them. I recently learned that a major hotel chain has a monetary fund available per year and per employee enabling them to go above and beyond to ensure exceptional service. This empowers the employee the right to create a “memorable” customer experience. I am not advocating large sums of money, but with regards to customer service, a small gesture can go a long way.

Ask your staff what tools would enable them to provide better service. You would not send a fireman into a burning building without the proper equipment. Failing to empower and enable your staff with the necessary tools to serve you customer leaves you with few options other than poor service.

4. Make service personalGreet repeat customers by name, if possible. Offer a handshake and introduce yourself. Creating service that is personal will not only retain customers, but help diffuse difficult situations should they arise.
Thank your customers for their patronage. It really does make a difference.

5. It is ok to say “Yes”, even when you should say “No”Support your staff when they make customer service decisions. In my business, it is my company’s policy that an employee can act without concern for repercussion, as long as they are meeting a customer’s need. I have found this creates a greater willingness to serve the customer.  Often times you could say “no” to a customer, however, “no” can have huge implications on your business. Ask yourself, “Am I willing to potentially lose 10 customers as result of this interaction?”

6. Offer a solutionShift from the problem to the process for resolution. Offer a choice between several options. Put yourself in their place. Involve the customer in determining the solution. Clearly explain any limitations that exist.

7. Recognize your staff members for outstanding serviceImplement a customer service awards program that recognizes employees for exceptional customer service. Take the time to acknowledge employees at staff meetings. People want to leave their mark and feel that they matter. Taking the time to recognize them in front of their peers can make a real difference.

8. Ask your customers what they think of your serviceThe best way to find out if you are satisfying customers is to ask them. Formal efforts could include customer surveys, questionnaires, interviews or comment/suggestion cards. Informally, get out and talk with your customers and your staff. Ask them how they feel about service you are providing. Ideally, use a combination of both methods.

You may be thinking, “Why should I go ask for trouble? Who knows what I might hear if I ask?” That is the point. As you will see in the statistics below, most customers will not voice their disappointment with your service levels. They will simply leave and never return. If you do not ask about the quality of your service, you might make the wrong assumptions and feel that you can reduce service levels because you get few complaints and lead your organization into areas that turn off your customers or cause problems that you never intended.
On the other hand, asking your customers about their satisfaction sends a message to them that you care about your business and about them. While you might hear some criticisms, you might also learn what you are doing right and see what you should modify. In addition to the information, you will benefit from the interaction. Every interaction is a customer service opportunity. Make the most of each and every one.
Most of us continue doing business with people and businesses who give good service. We might not say anything, but we reward good service providers by continuing to do business with them. If the service is outstanding, we will probably tell our friends and colleagues about it. Likewise, when we receive poor service most of us vote, not with our voice, but with our feet—we just leave.

Get shocked to read the following facts about un-happy customers:
96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain directly.
90% will not return.
One unhappy customer will tell nine others.
13% will tell at least 20 other people

It’s all up to us.

Republished from my earlier blog series in July 2008

Diagnosing Your Client’s Needs

When people think about making a purchase, they aren’t likely to compare talking with you to going to the doctor, but you should make that comparison when preparing to talk with clients. People trust doctors. They usually accept the diagnosis and prescription for wellness with few questions asked. That’s because they recognize doctors as experts in their fields.

Your goal is to have your clients see you the same way. When they have an ache or pain related to your type of product, they should immediately think of calling you. That’s because they’ll be confident you have the right prescription for their ills.

To earn this level of respect and trust, you need to start every relationship with the right skills. These skills include a caring manner, a confident air, and your diagnostic tools.

The tools you use in diagnosing the needs of your clients may be as simple as a pad of paper, measuring tape or calculator. They may include your past client experiences, personal experiences or memories. Diagnosing clients’ needs can require a computer, specialized software or even involve engineering or customized schematics.

The most powerful diagnostic tools used by all people in sales are questions. Like a doctor, your use of questions begins with general areas of need. Then, based on the answers you are given, you narrow your questions down to where you can readily determine the right cure or solution for the clients’ needs.

Average salespeople have this fantasy in which they think they should be able to simply present the wonderful features of their product and the customer, seeing the value, pulls out their checkbook or credit card and says, “I’ll take it.” If customers made buying decisions based on features alone that might work, but it’s a rare occasion when it does.

The reality of it is that most buying decisions are based on past experiences, the experiences of others the client trusts, advertising, gut feelings and hundreds of other factors that you can’t do much about.

So, you have to start with questions to get them talking about their needs, wants and perceptions of your product or service. These answers will help you put yourself in their shoes. Once you’re there, you’ll see what steps you need to help them take to make a good buying decision.

Be sure to ask “what past experience do you have with our type of service?” It could be that they’re very well-versed on the service, even used it in the past, and are seeking a new supplier. If they know little or nothing about your service, you’ll have to invest a bit more time in educating them as to what your offer entails and what they can expect.

Ask very specifically what they hope to accomplish with an investment in your services. It could be that one of your key benefits is sought after by most clients. However, that feature does nothing for this client. You won’t want to turn them off by talking about something that doesn’t matter to them.

I like to use the analogy of a torpedo when talking about this subject. A torpedo leaves a ship in the general direction of its intended target. It bounces a signal off in the target direction. If the signal doesn’t come back, it corrects its direction to get back on course.
That’s what questioning does for you. You take off in a certain direction with your questions. The answers you receive either tell you that you’re on target or that you need to take another tack. Rarely will you take a direct course from initial contact to the sale. More often than not, you’ll find yourself zig-zagging but all the while heading in the general direction of the sale until you find just the right answer for each and every client.

Take a moment to think about all the tools you use with clients and evaluate how fluent you are with them. If you are weak with any of them, commit time improve by rehearsals and practice!!


Republished from my earlier blog series in July 2008

Handling Price Objections

You are talking to a customer and after you present your product, service or solution, s/he asks, "What discount can I get?" or "What can you do about the price?"

Think before you speak otherwise this innocent-sounding question will cost you money right off your bottom line. While it’s tempting to offer a discount or better price resist the desire to do so. Here’s why.

First, just because someone asks you for a better price, does not mean they expect to get it. Some people ask for a discount because they have been told to. They are often uncomfortable doing this and will seldom press the issue. However, professional buyers and key decision-makers know that many sellers will drop their price at the first sign of resistance so they ask everyone for a discount-and they can be aggressive in their approach. Plus, experienced negotiators lose respect for people who drop their price too quickly. Standing your ground and refusing to cave in right away is also a show of strength and executives respect this type of behaviour.

Second, when you drop your price too quickly, you teach your customer to repeat that behaviour in future transactions. Remember, everything you do now affects your customer’s behaviour toward you in the future. When I first started my sales career, I gave a client a discount on a package of services. The next time he contacted, he demanded that same discount which put me in a somewhat precarious position-did I give the same discount or risk losing the sale? A business executive once told me that she knew which of her suppliers she could browbeat into giving her a better price and she always took advantage of that perceived weakness.

 

So, what is the best way to respond to a request for a discount or better price?

Professional negotiators will tell you to flinch. A flinch is a visible reaction to a request or demand and goes something like this, "You want a discount!?! Even though you know our services are exclusive and will help you get better results you still want a discount?" When coupled with the right facial expressions and body language, this technique is extremely effective. However, I have found that most people are extremely uncomfortable using this approach and even I find it difficult to apply on a consistent basis.

An effective way to respond to a request for a better price is to ask, "What did you have in mind?" or "What were you looking for?" When you ask one of these questions, you get the other person to tell you how much of a discount they want. In many cases, their expectation will be less than you are prepared to give which means you will increase the size of the sale and save money at the same time-a double win. One word of caution here-an experienced negotiator will say, "Well, I want a better price than this" which means you need to be prepared to ask the question a couple of times.

This also applies to email correspondence. Many people will ask their sales person for a discount via email or telephone which makes it next to impossible to use some of the standard negotiating techniques. Before you respond by offering a better price, take the time to properly craft your email or telephonic script. Here is what you can say, "We might be able to do something for you. What did you have in mind?" The key is to give the indication that you have flexibility without committing to something you might regret later.

This sounds like an easy technique to use but it’s not. You have to train yourself to listen for your customer’s question and be prepared to respond with your own. I hate to admit it but I have fallen for this question because I wasn’t expecting it. In one situation, an existing client asked me for a package price on some bundled services. Instead of responding by asking what price he was looking for, I automatically offered a small discount. I kicked myself afterwards because I felt that I should know better.

It is essential to listen carefully to what your prospect says and to think before you speak. It is also critical to practice asking your question until it becomes second- nature so you can respond quickly when a prospect asks for a discount or better price.


Republished from my earlier blog series in May 2008