A Telephone Is A Two-Edged Blade For Sales Negotiators
By Dr. Jim Anderson
What’s your mental picture of a typical sales negotiation? When you close your eyes do you see a lushly carpeted board room with a large oval table in the center and padded leather chairs all around it? If so, then in most cases you are sadly mistaken.
An amazing number of sales negotiations occur over the telephone. Everyone has one and in fact in this day and age of mobile phones we all seem to have more than one phone. Given that by using the phone you can reach someone directly at almost any time, phones have become an important tool in negotiating sales.
However, as with any tool, a phone can be a danger to any negotiator’s hope of success. Using a phone to negotiate can be quick and easy, but that’s actually part of the problem. I’m not telling you to not use the phone, I’m just saying that you need to watch out when you do. Here are some of the things that can go wrong when you use the phone to negotiate a sale:
1. Deal / No Deal: Because you can’t look the other side in the eye when you are negotiating with them on the phone, it’s entirely possible that you may conclude the call thinking that you have a deal when you really don’t.
2. Can You Hear Me Now?: What you think that you are saying is not necessarily what the other side is hearing. However, since you are on a phone, there is no way for you to realize that they have gotten the wrong message.
3. What Did You Say?: Often when we are negotiating on the phone, we are out and about. Although we may reach agreement, it won’t count until such time as we write it down. That may be hours later and what we write down may be different from what we agreed to.
Once again, the phone is a powerful sales negotiation tool; however, you have to be careful how you use it in order to make sure that you don’t get burned.
Have you ever used the phone as part of a sales negotiation? Did you have any communications problems? Were the problems on your side or on the other side? When did you first realize that there was a problem? How did you finally resolve this problem? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.
Dr. Jim Anderson has spent over 20 years negotiating everything from small sales with individual owners of companies to large scale military project contracts with teams of sales negotiators. He realizes that unless you are a lawyer or a Mergers & Acquisitions banker, you probably don’t think of yourself as an everyday negotiator.
In today’s work environment you can find yourself in negotiations with a vendor, another department, or even a state or local government official very quickly.
Unless you know what to do (and what not to do!), you can quickly feel overwhelmed.
In this blog, “The Accidental Negotiator“, Dr. Anderson offers his insights on how to develop your negotiating skills so that you can close more deals, make more money, and have more satisfaction.
Get more information on both Dr. Anderson and sales negotiating at: www.BlueElephantConsulting.com
Oh, and if you want to follow Dr. Anderson on Twitter, he can be found at: http://twitter.com/drjimanderson
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Cold Calling Tips
By Ron S. LaVine
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Don’t try to sell the Operator: be polite yet respectfully persistent while finding who the right person to speak with is.
Get an internal transfer: the number will come through as an internal transfer and the person will pick up.
Offer to call back: ask when is convenient for them.
Random names: type in a couple of letters, wait for the system to come back; the system will supply other names and their extensions.
Department directories: listen for all menu choices as other departments provide additional points of entry -- perhaps they might need a solution from your company.
Best times to call: before or after their ‘gatekeeper’ arrives/leaves - execs will pick up their own phone after hours. Or try them on the hour in between meetings.
Make note of the time you were able to reach the person: typically you can reach them again at the same time.
Change the digits: people in the same department have similar extensions; change 1 or 2 of the digits and ask to be referred or for the correct extension.
Get the main number: use the Internet to find other numbers of points of entry.
Make an error in the extension: ‘I was trying to reach x, maybe you can help me, is Tina within eyesight?’ People like to help each other.
Listen to complete message for additional choices, names and numbers.
Build rapport more quickly by teaching yourself to regulate your voice to gently match theirs.
Practice: call yourself and leave a message. How do you sound? Practice until your voice sounds smooth and melodic. Remember people cannot see you they can only hear your voice.
Use your headset: open your mouth wide and carefully pronounce every word. Do not hold the phone on your shoulder as this tenses your throat and makes you talk from one side of your mouth.
Tip: buy a digital ‘logger’ for example at http://www.astselling.com/store.htm (last item on the list). Record your conversation, replay for yourself and/or your manager. It can eliminate the need to take notes at the time of the call; you can focus on what is being said.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.astselling.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Don’t try to sell the Operator: be polite yet respectfully persistent while finding who the right person to speak with is.
Get an internal transfer: the number will come through as an internal transfer and the person will pick up.
Offer to call back: ask when is convenient for them.
Random names: type in a couple of letters, wait for the system to come back; the system will supply other names and their extensions.
Department directories: listen for all menu choices as other departments provide additional points of entry -- perhaps they might need a solution from your company.
Best times to call: before or after their ‘gatekeeper’ arrives/leaves - execs will pick up their own phone after hours. Or try them on the hour in between meetings.
Make note of the time you were able to reach the person: typically you can reach them again at the same time.
Change the digits: people in the same department have similar extensions; change 1 or 2 of the digits and ask to be referred or for the correct extension.
Get the main number: use the Internet to find other numbers of points of entry.
Make an error in the extension: ‘I was trying to reach x, maybe you can help me, is Tina within eyesight?’ People like to help each other.
Listen to complete message for additional choices, names and numbers.
Build rapport more quickly by teaching yourself to regulate your voice to gently match theirs.
Practice: call yourself and leave a message. How do you sound? Practice until your voice sounds smooth and melodic. Remember people cannot see you they can only hear your voice.
Use your headset: open your mouth wide and carefully pronounce every word. Do not hold the phone on your shoulder as this tenses your throat and makes you talk from one side of your mouth.
Tip: buy a digital ‘logger’ for example at http://www.astselling.com/store.htm (last item on the list). Record your conversation, replay for yourself and/or your manager. It can eliminate the need to take notes at the time of the call; you can focus on what is being said.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.astselling.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Monday, January 24, 2011
How to Pre-Call Plan Target Accounts
by Ron LaVine
Recently I was researching a prospect before I planned to call them. I had been given a referral however before calling them; I want to do my homework first. First, I realized that at least five or more of my current clients were direct or indirect competitors. This meant this prospect fit perfectly in my target market and therefore was worth the time spent doing an in depth analysis of their operations.
When conducting my pre-call planning, I always start out in the career section. This tells often me what types skills sets are required of people they are looking for and the type of sales training in use. In this case, they were looking for salespeople with cold calling and prospecting skills.
A good start so far. This description also told me what type of sales training they were currently using. Knowing this information, I planned an augmentation strategy rather than a replacement one. Often it is easier to augment a current solution than to try to replace it initially.
Next I went and read the annual report. Since they are publicly traded, I used the link http://finance.yahoo.com/ combined with their ticker symbol in the Yahoo Finance section which led to a detailed financial overview of the company, their industry and their competitors.
I learned when was the end of their fiscal year which would help me by knowing when they would start planning and budgeting for next year. In this case it was June 30 so beginning my process in March turned out to be good timing.
I read exactly what their strategy was for gaining new business. I learned that in addition to going after their existing customer base, they had set aggressive goals for penetrating Global 3000 enterprises. The report also told me that the quarterly revenue growth was in the low single digits differential in sales from last year to this year was in the single digits and the quarterly earnings were negative.
This meant there was plenty of room for improvement and that their current sales training might not be working as effectively as planned. I also looked at the amount they were spending on Selling, General and Administrative which is where typically the sales training budget comes from. I noticed that it was increasing which meant they were adding salespeople or at least spending more money in the area of sales.
Finally I looked at their competition and noticed that two out of the five major direct competitors were already clients of mine. This fact would make it much easier for me to establish credibility and interest since I was fairly sure they were interested in how their competition was being trained.
Next I went over to Edgar http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml to read their annual report or 10K. After studying the annual report's Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations which laid out:
* Business Overview,
* Industry Background,
* Business Imperatives,
* Strategy (plus the key elements of the strategy),
* Product Descriptions,
* Sales and Marketing (including the number of quota carrying salespeople),
* Description of the Competition
Since I teach live cold calling sales training which involves getting your foot in the door into new organizations, the strategy of increased focus and penetration of key markets was of particular interest to me.
After reading the Annual Report, I went over to their web site and began to read the About the Company section. Not only was a clear and concise two sentence description of what the company did, I also learned that their core differentiators or values were innovation and customer focus.
Although I target VP of Sales, it was in the Executive Management section of their site that I learned that the Chief Marketing Officer was actually responsible for direct response and telemarketing around the world. I also learned that this person worked for one of my clients.
This meant I could leverage one of my client relationships as a means to build credibility with the person who was responsible for sales training or who would know who the person was I needed to speak with.
Leaving no stone unturned, I also read the Senior VP of Worldwide Field Operations (which in this case also stood for VP of Sales). He was responsible for field marketing, direct sales, channel management, strategic alliances and consulting services. This meant he too, maybe a prospect for sales training. I also noticed he worked for a client of mine so I planned to leverage that relationship in the same way as with the CMO.
A search on "@companyname.com" led me to some people who were producing the Users Conference for the company. A quick phone call to one of them led to permission to send her an email which she would forward to the person who was in charge of field marketing and also in charge of sales training. She spelled out the person's name, provided the title, ext and email. When this was all done, I sent off my first email which was followed by a call to be sure it was received.
The whole point of this pre-call planning is to show how important it is to know your prospects BEFORE you begin your approach. I'd say this whole process took no more than 10 to 15 minutes and if this deals closes which I believe it will (although the sales cycle maybe a long one) that time invested may mean thousands and thousands of dollars in revenue.
Your assignment is to choose 10 key target accounts and conduct this type of research before you make your initial call. I think you'll find this approach will help you not only sound intelligent when speaking with your prospects; it will also help you sell more in less time than before.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.telesales-sales-training.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. ©2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Recently I was researching a prospect before I planned to call them. I had been given a referral however before calling them; I want to do my homework first. First, I realized that at least five or more of my current clients were direct or indirect competitors. This meant this prospect fit perfectly in my target market and therefore was worth the time spent doing an in depth analysis of their operations.
When conducting my pre-call planning, I always start out in the career section. This tells often me what types skills sets are required of people they are looking for and the type of sales training in use. In this case, they were looking for salespeople with cold calling and prospecting skills.
A good start so far. This description also told me what type of sales training they were currently using. Knowing this information, I planned an augmentation strategy rather than a replacement one. Often it is easier to augment a current solution than to try to replace it initially.
Next I went and read the annual report. Since they are publicly traded, I used the link http://finance.yahoo.com/ combined with their ticker symbol in the Yahoo Finance section which led to a detailed financial overview of the company, their industry and their competitors.
I learned when was the end of their fiscal year which would help me by knowing when they would start planning and budgeting for next year. In this case it was June 30 so beginning my process in March turned out to be good timing.
I read exactly what their strategy was for gaining new business. I learned that in addition to going after their existing customer base, they had set aggressive goals for penetrating Global 3000 enterprises. The report also told me that the quarterly revenue growth was in the low single digits differential in sales from last year to this year was in the single digits and the quarterly earnings were negative.
This meant there was plenty of room for improvement and that their current sales training might not be working as effectively as planned. I also looked at the amount they were spending on Selling, General and Administrative which is where typically the sales training budget comes from. I noticed that it was increasing which meant they were adding salespeople or at least spending more money in the area of sales.
Finally I looked at their competition and noticed that two out of the five major direct competitors were already clients of mine. This fact would make it much easier for me to establish credibility and interest since I was fairly sure they were interested in how their competition was being trained.
Next I went over to Edgar http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml to read their annual report or 10K. After studying the annual report's Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations which laid out:
* Business Overview,
* Industry Background,
* Business Imperatives,
* Strategy (plus the key elements of the strategy),
* Product Descriptions,
* Sales and Marketing (including the number of quota carrying salespeople),
* Description of the Competition
Since I teach live cold calling sales training which involves getting your foot in the door into new organizations, the strategy of increased focus and penetration of key markets was of particular interest to me.
After reading the Annual Report, I went over to their web site and began to read the About the Company section. Not only was a clear and concise two sentence description of what the company did, I also learned that their core differentiators or values were innovation and customer focus.
Although I target VP of Sales, it was in the Executive Management section of their site that I learned that the Chief Marketing Officer was actually responsible for direct response and telemarketing around the world. I also learned that this person worked for one of my clients.
This meant I could leverage one of my client relationships as a means to build credibility with the person who was responsible for sales training or who would know who the person was I needed to speak with.
Leaving no stone unturned, I also read the Senior VP of Worldwide Field Operations (which in this case also stood for VP of Sales). He was responsible for field marketing, direct sales, channel management, strategic alliances and consulting services. This meant he too, maybe a prospect for sales training. I also noticed he worked for a client of mine so I planned to leverage that relationship in the same way as with the CMO.
A search on "@companyname.com" led me to some people who were producing the Users Conference for the company. A quick phone call to one of them led to permission to send her an email which she would forward to the person who was in charge of field marketing and also in charge of sales training. She spelled out the person's name, provided the title, ext and email. When this was all done, I sent off my first email which was followed by a call to be sure it was received.
The whole point of this pre-call planning is to show how important it is to know your prospects BEFORE you begin your approach. I'd say this whole process took no more than 10 to 15 minutes and if this deals closes which I believe it will (although the sales cycle maybe a long one) that time invested may mean thousands and thousands of dollars in revenue.
Your assignment is to choose 10 key target accounts and conduct this type of research before you make your initial call. I think you'll find this approach will help you not only sound intelligent when speaking with your prospects; it will also help you sell more in less time than before.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.telesales-sales-training.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. ©2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Goal Setting Exercise
By Ron LaVine, President
Accelerated Sales Training, Inc. –
Cold Calling for Success Live Call Sales Training
Every early January it is good to take some time to reflect on what went right during the past year and what areas of your life you can improve during the upcoming year. Put aside 30 minutes to and hour of quiet time for this very important exercise. First, picture in your mind what you want. See yourself having it and imagine what you will feel like when you do.
Now you are ready to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time and date specific
Type out your S.M.A.R.T. goals onto a sheet or two of paper and post it where you can see it (the bathroom or bedroom mirror works great).
Next, get yourself in the habit of reading your goals at least once (if not three times) a day.
You will be amazed at how many of your goals are achieved once you commit them to writing. You may not make all your goals each year but you will still find a number of them are reached and often exceeded.
If you have achieved certain goals during the past year, increase those goals by at least 10% if not more.
Actions follow thoughts. Feel it, think it and then do it.
Put your thoughts on paper and watch the universe go into action to help make your goals a reality.
Start here:
I will accomplish the following goals during the year 2011.
I will earn over $___________ during the year 2011.
I will average earnings over $_________________ per quarter during the year 2011.
I will average earnings over $_________________ per month during the year 2011.
I will improve my industry knowledge by taking the following actions __________________ during the year 2011.
I will improve my product knowledge by taking the following actions __________________ during the year 2011.
For example, you can attend your own company's Webinars or study your company's annual report.
I will improve my selling knowledge by __________________ during the year 2011.
Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success is a great choice. You can buy it at Amazon buy clicking here http://tinyurl.com/bcbn4
I will take the following actions to increase the value I can add into my customer relationships during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will make ___________ number of cold calls per ____________ during the year 2011.
I will open ________________ number of new accounts during the year 2011 by taking the following actions.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following actions to maintain a positive mental attitude every day during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following actions to improve my physical health during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my personal life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my family life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my spiritual life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will use the following strategies to maximize my time during the year 2011.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I AGREE TO post this list on my mirror, read it at least once a day during the year 2011, and watch these goals come true in my life.
I highly recommend, if you have not yet taken the time to sit down and write out your specific plans and goals, try the above this exercise. You may or may not reach or exceed every goal however you will be a lot further along then if you made no plan at all. Always shoot for the stars and if you fall short, you will still have reached the sky. People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. Don’t wait. Write down your goals and plans now.
I wish everyone one of you peace, harmony and prosperity during this holiday season and throughout the upcoming year.
Make 2011 your best year ever!
Ron
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live call sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Cold Calling for Success Live Call Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487. © 2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
www.ast-incorp.com
Accelerated Sales Training, Inc. –
Cold Calling for Success Live Call Sales Training
Every early January it is good to take some time to reflect on what went right during the past year and what areas of your life you can improve during the upcoming year. Put aside 30 minutes to and hour of quiet time for this very important exercise. First, picture in your mind what you want. See yourself having it and imagine what you will feel like when you do.
Now you are ready to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. S.M.A.R.T. goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time and date specific
Type out your S.M.A.R.T. goals onto a sheet or two of paper and post it where you can see it (the bathroom or bedroom mirror works great).
Next, get yourself in the habit of reading your goals at least once (if not three times) a day.
You will be amazed at how many of your goals are achieved once you commit them to writing. You may not make all your goals each year but you will still find a number of them are reached and often exceeded.
If you have achieved certain goals during the past year, increase those goals by at least 10% if not more.
Actions follow thoughts. Feel it, think it and then do it.
Put your thoughts on paper and watch the universe go into action to help make your goals a reality.
Start here:
I will accomplish the following goals during the year 2011.
I will earn over $___________ during the year 2011.
I will average earnings over $_________________ per quarter during the year 2011.
I will average earnings over $_________________ per month during the year 2011.
I will improve my industry knowledge by taking the following actions __________________ during the year 2011.
I will improve my product knowledge by taking the following actions __________________ during the year 2011.
For example, you can attend your own company's Webinars or study your company's annual report.
I will improve my selling knowledge by __________________ during the year 2011.
Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success is a great choice. You can buy it at Amazon buy clicking here http://tinyurl.com/bcbn4
I will take the following actions to increase the value I can add into my customer relationships during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will make ___________ number of cold calls per ____________ during the year 2011.
I will open ________________ number of new accounts during the year 2011 by taking the following actions.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following actions to maintain a positive mental attitude every day during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following actions to improve my physical health during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my personal life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my family life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will take the following steps to better my spiritual life during the year 2011.
1.
2.
3.
I will use the following strategies to maximize my time during the year 2011.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I AGREE TO post this list on my mirror, read it at least once a day during the year 2011, and watch these goals come true in my life.
I highly recommend, if you have not yet taken the time to sit down and write out your specific plans and goals, try the above this exercise. You may or may not reach or exceed every goal however you will be a lot further along then if you made no plan at all. Always shoot for the stars and if you fall short, you will still have reached the sky. People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. Don’t wait. Write down your goals and plans now.
I wish everyone one of you peace, harmony and prosperity during this holiday season and throughout the upcoming year.
Make 2011 your best year ever!
Ron
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live call sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Cold Calling for Success Live Call Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487. © 2011 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
www.ast-incorp.com
Sunday, December 26, 2010
HOW TO DEVELOP A VOICE THAT SELLS
By Ron S. La Vine
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
When speaking with someone over the phone for the first time, we do not have the luxury of visual cues therefore it becomes even more important to make a good impression suing our voice.
Yes, your voice is a sales tool and how it is used over the phone can often make the difference between getting the sale or losing it to a competitor. In their book "Put Your Best Foot Forward, Make a Great Impression By Taking Control of How Others see You" Jo-Ellan Dimitirus, Ph.D. and Mark Mazzarella devote a whole chapter to voice alone.
The key point of the chapter is this. People dislike irritating, harsh, loud, quiet or boring voices and are attracted to deeper, more vibrant, energetic, clear and moderately paced speech. Similar to a car radio if the signal is static-filled or unclear, we change the station. If the signal's crisp and clear, we listen.
To build a voice that sells requires learning how to send out crisp and clear signals and that takes practice. Here's an exercise for you to do just that practice.
Pickup a digital recorder and then once a day for a week set aside 15 minutes to pick-up the daily newspaper and read aloud and record the stories on the front page in your normal voice. Next, read the same material only this time, read it with confidence, authority, and credibility just as an anchor on the evening news. How do you sound?
Remember you can control the emotion (up and down), volume (loud or soft), pace (fast or slow), tone and pitch (high or low) and accent of your voice. Your goal is a voice that shows controlled emotion, a lower pitch, has a moderate pace and has a standard accent for your country. It requires conscious effort however in the long run you will have developed a voice that sells.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
When speaking with someone over the phone for the first time, we do not have the luxury of visual cues therefore it becomes even more important to make a good impression suing our voice.
Yes, your voice is a sales tool and how it is used over the phone can often make the difference between getting the sale or losing it to a competitor. In their book "Put Your Best Foot Forward, Make a Great Impression By Taking Control of How Others see You" Jo-Ellan Dimitirus, Ph.D. and Mark Mazzarella devote a whole chapter to voice alone.
The key point of the chapter is this. People dislike irritating, harsh, loud, quiet or boring voices and are attracted to deeper, more vibrant, energetic, clear and moderately paced speech. Similar to a car radio if the signal is static-filled or unclear, we change the station. If the signal's crisp and clear, we listen.
To build a voice that sells requires learning how to send out crisp and clear signals and that takes practice. Here's an exercise for you to do just that practice.
Pickup a digital recorder and then once a day for a week set aside 15 minutes to pick-up the daily newspaper and read aloud and record the stories on the front page in your normal voice. Next, read the same material only this time, read it with confidence, authority, and credibility just as an anchor on the evening news. How do you sound?
Remember you can control the emotion (up and down), volume (loud or soft), pace (fast or slow), tone and pitch (high or low) and accent of your voice. Your goal is a voice that shows controlled emotion, a lower pitch, has a moderate pace and has a standard accent for your country. It requires conscious effort however in the long run you will have developed a voice that sells.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Monday, December 20, 2010
HOW MUCH PRE-CALL RESEARCH IS TOO MUCH
By Ron LaVine
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
There has been a great deal of questions in my workshops lately about how to use email in conjunction with leads coming off the Internet. How do you know if you have research before following up? How can you use email as an effective tool to create specific follow-up action steps? With that in mind, here is an example of an email I received from a company we'll call “WeKnowItAll Company".
Our story begins with WeKnowItAll sending me an email inviting me to access their online company research subscription service free for two days. One of the things I love to do, is to use the WWW for doing research on my competitors, my clients, my client's clients, their industry and competitors, my prospects, my prospect's clients and my prospect's industry and competitors.
The biggest danger of using the Web for research is you can find yourself in "analysis paralysis" and can often end up spending more time on the Internet then you do on the phone selling and generating revenue. My suggestion is to set up a specific set of questions to answer, which once answered should provide enough basic pre-call research. Ron, stop stalling, where's the list of questions? Hey, relax and don't worry, the list is towards the bottom.
Now I'm saying to myself, hmmm, free trial for two days. Oh boy, I'm going to have some fun and put this baby through its paces. Let's see what types of information I can find that is really useful for my specific needs. I set a specific goal for this test. My goal was to identify certain personnel within target prospect companies I'm looking to do business with. I was evaluating based upon two criteria at this point. One was what was the quality of the information provided? Secondly, how easy was it to access that information?
I start using WeKnowItAll online database by myself without any guidance and off the bat I've got a log-on problem. Rule number one; if you want someone to try something, without any assistance, providing clear and simple instructions is an excellent way to make a good impression. Finally I'm able to log-in, and the amounts of choices are mind boggling. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of simplicity and ease of use. This site, although very comprehensive it was also very cluttered and confusing.
I found myself going back and forth from one screen to another trying to find where the profiles of company personnel were located. Apparently, depending on the type of company (public or private), there may or may not be personnel information and it may or may not be always located on the same page. In other words you often had to spend a lot of time digging for it.
After about fifteen minutes I started to get frustrated with my free two-day trial and moved on to other tasks. Below is the email I received the day after my two-day trial (or in my case fifteen minute) was over.
In between the person's statements, you'll find my comments in [brackets]. Finally you'll read my email response back to this person with a list of 12 pre-call research questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the email I received after my trial ended…
Hi Ron:
[Do I know you? I've never met you. Wouldn't it be wiser to err on the side of good manners? Change the salutation to "Hello Mr. La Vine"]
I just left you a voice mail message also.
[About what?]
Please let me know when you would be interested in scheduling a demo of the site.
[Why would I want to take my valuable time and schedule a demo of your site since it is not clear to me what value you bring to the table?]
As you may know, WeKnowItAll provides unbiased editorial coverage on over 18,500 large and medium-sized companies. We also show accurate details on each company such as contact names, products, competitive landscapes and financials.
[How would I know this? What's a competitive landscape? Is it a cross-matrix comparing one company's products to another's? Is it a simple listing of competitors, which I can get off of Yahoo's company profiles? Come to think of it, what information does your service provide that I can't get either for free or from one of your competitors?]
We also offer Advanced Search functions that would allow you to search for specific companies or contacts by title, industry, location, private companies, Fiscal Year End, or other means.
[And this means I'll be able to do what? What are the benefits of knowing this information? What will knowing this information enable me to do?]
There are two levels of business subscriptions:
[What are the specific benefits of subscribing? How will it enable me to do my job faster, better, less expensively (cheaper) or easier? What types of increases or decreases, more or less results can I expect based upon testimonials from other of your clients?]
WeKnowItAll Power Plus (all access + unlimited free lead downloads into Excel) WeKnowItAll Total Power (all access)
[If for some reason I don't have Excel, can it be downloaded into Comma Delimited Text Fields (name, title, phone number, etc.) What I really need is a CD-Version. I wonder if they have one.]
Sample WeKnowItAll Profiles: http://www.WeKnowItAll.com
Please give me a call if you have any questions or would like a demo of the site.
[You already let me have a free two-day demo without any kind of commitment. I might give you call, however first I've got to figure out (in this case by myself) how to get the service to work, so don't expect a call. Besides, I don't know your office hours or if there are alternative means to reach you such a responding to this email or calling your cell phone.]
Kind regards,
Ann Smartster 1.888.123.4567 ext. 1234 asmartster@ WeKnowItAll.com http://www.WeKnowItAll.com
[Where is your tag line explaining what you do? For example: WeKnowItAll enables you to easily turn raw online data into real revenue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is my response to her prior email.
Hi Ann,
I have a few questions for you.
1. Did you stop by www.ast-incorp.com and see what my company does?
2. Do you know who my clients are?
3. Have you determined the industry in which I specialize?
4. What size is my company in terms of gross sales and number of employees?
5. Based upon the size of my company and the type of information I may need, how profitable of a prospect is my company for you? Should you be investing your limited sales time with me? On what types of companies in which industries do you make the most money?
6. Is my company hiring and if so, what types of people for which types of projects?
7. Have you signed up for my company's newsletter or requested my company's literature to learn more about what my company does and what is considered important?
8. Did you read in my bio? If you did you would see that I was a past member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and the Association of Independent Information Professionals. Does knowing that information, help you create some rapport questions to ask me?
9. Are you prepared to show me examples of data gathered from WeKnowItAll on two or three of my clients as examples of the type of data I would have access to on my prospects using different versions of WeKnowItAll?
10. Based upon what I do and the types of companies I target, can you deduce what type of information I'll be looking for?
11. What are two areas where I could possibly use WeKnowItAll?
12. Since my target market has a demand for your type of service, is there a possibility you can help me to help you sell more of your service to my target market?
I'll wait for your answers and then we'll discuss it. You can reach me in my office on Thursday morning when we can set up a time and date to see if there is a fit between our companies.
All the best to you,
Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Continued from above…
Set up a specific list of basic questions for pre-call research. Then think outside the box and look at all the possibilities including reseller and affiliate relationships. Maybe you do business with one of your prospect's clients. Maybe you are affiliated with one of your prospect's other suppliers.
After you do make contact, remember, at the end of every call or email, there needs to be specific a request that action be taken. For example, here is a request I use quite often in my emails. It works quite well since people enjoy giving advice:
Example:
"Please advise."
Thanks, Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another Example:
"I found an article on one of your competitors; I think maybe of value to you. Your assistant gave me permission to fax it to you.
"I'll call this afternoon to be sure you received it and to discuss if there maybe a good fit between our two companies. At that time, I'll also be able to provide you with some specific ideas where we maybe able to give you a competitive advantage"
All the best to you,
Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another Example:
Hi Mr. Smith,
As we discussed, you are looking to hire more reps in the Business Intelligence /Information Management space. We also agreed that our selling philosophies a rather identical.
Your main goal is to teach your reps how to hunt effectively and ferret out opportunities in short order. Your reps are dealing with customers and resellers. I have an article from Software Magazine that I will fax to you. You may it of value to you when you go to cost justify the sales training to your management.
Since you need to have another two people on board before we can finalize the training dates, I sent you a list of web sites where you can find sales reps, sent the job criterion you e-mailed to me out to my job seekers list. I also sent you two possible candidates.
You have people in both Reston and Denver and all will be in Denver the week of September 9th before two weeks of ABC University. We spoke of setting up a two-day class during the week of September 9th.
You mentioned you need to run this by Tim, Dan and then Andy for budget approval. Attached is a sample Agreement with a fee schedule for your review and signature.
I will follow this email with more specific details about the live sales call-training workshop, which you can read at your convenience. This will include comments from people who mentioned they wished they had this type of training prior to their product training.
I look forward to speaking with you on Wednesday, September 28 at 8am PST when I will call you at: 303-555-1234 to discuss the next steps needed to put a live sales call training workshop in place for ABC.
Please call me at 818-991-6487 if you have questions before then.
All the best to you,
Ron
The Lesson…
Don't send emails asking me to call you or to do something, unless you have provided information or topics of value specifically related to my company. This type of information may include insights you want to share about my clients, prospects, industry or competitors that would be worth me taking my time to discuss.
Separate yourself from the rest of the reps who do no homework and then expect that their products and services alone will generate sales.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
There has been a great deal of questions in my workshops lately about how to use email in conjunction with leads coming off the Internet. How do you know if you have research before following up? How can you use email as an effective tool to create specific follow-up action steps? With that in mind, here is an example of an email I received from a company we'll call “WeKnowItAll Company".
Our story begins with WeKnowItAll sending me an email inviting me to access their online company research subscription service free for two days. One of the things I love to do, is to use the WWW for doing research on my competitors, my clients, my client's clients, their industry and competitors, my prospects, my prospect's clients and my prospect's industry and competitors.
The biggest danger of using the Web for research is you can find yourself in "analysis paralysis" and can often end up spending more time on the Internet then you do on the phone selling and generating revenue. My suggestion is to set up a specific set of questions to answer, which once answered should provide enough basic pre-call research. Ron, stop stalling, where's the list of questions? Hey, relax and don't worry, the list is towards the bottom.
Now I'm saying to myself, hmmm, free trial for two days. Oh boy, I'm going to have some fun and put this baby through its paces. Let's see what types of information I can find that is really useful for my specific needs. I set a specific goal for this test. My goal was to identify certain personnel within target prospect companies I'm looking to do business with. I was evaluating based upon two criteria at this point. One was what was the quality of the information provided? Secondly, how easy was it to access that information?
I start using WeKnowItAll online database by myself without any guidance and off the bat I've got a log-on problem. Rule number one; if you want someone to try something, without any assistance, providing clear and simple instructions is an excellent way to make a good impression. Finally I'm able to log-in, and the amounts of choices are mind boggling. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of simplicity and ease of use. This site, although very comprehensive it was also very cluttered and confusing.
I found myself going back and forth from one screen to another trying to find where the profiles of company personnel were located. Apparently, depending on the type of company (public or private), there may or may not be personnel information and it may or may not be always located on the same page. In other words you often had to spend a lot of time digging for it.
After about fifteen minutes I started to get frustrated with my free two-day trial and moved on to other tasks. Below is the email I received the day after my two-day trial (or in my case fifteen minute) was over.
In between the person's statements, you'll find my comments in [brackets]. Finally you'll read my email response back to this person with a list of 12 pre-call research questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the email I received after my trial ended…
Hi Ron:
[Do I know you? I've never met you. Wouldn't it be wiser to err on the side of good manners? Change the salutation to "Hello Mr. La Vine"]
I just left you a voice mail message also.
[About what?]
Please let me know when you would be interested in scheduling a demo of the site.
[Why would I want to take my valuable time and schedule a demo of your site since it is not clear to me what value you bring to the table?]
As you may know, WeKnowItAll provides unbiased editorial coverage on over 18,500 large and medium-sized companies. We also show accurate details on each company such as contact names, products, competitive landscapes and financials.
[How would I know this? What's a competitive landscape? Is it a cross-matrix comparing one company's products to another's? Is it a simple listing of competitors, which I can get off of Yahoo's company profiles? Come to think of it, what information does your service provide that I can't get either for free or from one of your competitors?]
We also offer Advanced Search functions that would allow you to search for specific companies or contacts by title, industry, location, private companies, Fiscal Year End, or other means.
[And this means I'll be able to do what? What are the benefits of knowing this information? What will knowing this information enable me to do?]
There are two levels of business subscriptions:
[What are the specific benefits of subscribing? How will it enable me to do my job faster, better, less expensively (cheaper) or easier? What types of increases or decreases, more or less results can I expect based upon testimonials from other of your clients?]
WeKnowItAll Power Plus (all access + unlimited free lead downloads into Excel) WeKnowItAll Total Power (all access)
[If for some reason I don't have Excel, can it be downloaded into Comma Delimited Text Fields (name, title, phone number, etc.) What I really need is a CD-Version. I wonder if they have one.]
Sample WeKnowItAll Profiles: http://www.WeKnowItAll.com
Please give me a call if you have any questions or would like a demo of the site.
[You already let me have a free two-day demo without any kind of commitment. I might give you call, however first I've got to figure out (in this case by myself) how to get the service to work, so don't expect a call. Besides, I don't know your office hours or if there are alternative means to reach you such a responding to this email or calling your cell phone.]
Kind regards,
Ann Smartster 1.888.123.4567 ext. 1234 asmartster@ WeKnowItAll.com http://www.WeKnowItAll.com
[Where is your tag line explaining what you do? For example: WeKnowItAll enables you to easily turn raw online data into real revenue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is my response to her prior email.
Hi Ann,
I have a few questions for you.
1. Did you stop by www.ast-incorp.com and see what my company does?
2. Do you know who my clients are?
3. Have you determined the industry in which I specialize?
4. What size is my company in terms of gross sales and number of employees?
5. Based upon the size of my company and the type of information I may need, how profitable of a prospect is my company for you? Should you be investing your limited sales time with me? On what types of companies in which industries do you make the most money?
6. Is my company hiring and if so, what types of people for which types of projects?
7. Have you signed up for my company's newsletter or requested my company's literature to learn more about what my company does and what is considered important?
8. Did you read in my bio? If you did you would see that I was a past member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and the Association of Independent Information Professionals. Does knowing that information, help you create some rapport questions to ask me?
9. Are you prepared to show me examples of data gathered from WeKnowItAll on two or three of my clients as examples of the type of data I would have access to on my prospects using different versions of WeKnowItAll?
10. Based upon what I do and the types of companies I target, can you deduce what type of information I'll be looking for?
11. What are two areas where I could possibly use WeKnowItAll?
12. Since my target market has a demand for your type of service, is there a possibility you can help me to help you sell more of your service to my target market?
I'll wait for your answers and then we'll discuss it. You can reach me in my office on Thursday morning when we can set up a time and date to see if there is a fit between our companies.
All the best to you,
Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Continued from above…
Set up a specific list of basic questions for pre-call research. Then think outside the box and look at all the possibilities including reseller and affiliate relationships. Maybe you do business with one of your prospect's clients. Maybe you are affiliated with one of your prospect's other suppliers.
After you do make contact, remember, at the end of every call or email, there needs to be specific a request that action be taken. For example, here is a request I use quite often in my emails. It works quite well since people enjoy giving advice:
Example:
"Please advise."
Thanks, Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another Example:
"I found an article on one of your competitors; I think maybe of value to you. Your assistant gave me permission to fax it to you.
"I'll call this afternoon to be sure you received it and to discuss if there maybe a good fit between our two companies. At that time, I'll also be able to provide you with some specific ideas where we maybe able to give you a competitive advantage"
All the best to you,
Ron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another Example:
Hi Mr. Smith,
As we discussed, you are looking to hire more reps in the Business Intelligence /Information Management space. We also agreed that our selling philosophies a rather identical.
Your main goal is to teach your reps how to hunt effectively and ferret out opportunities in short order. Your reps are dealing with customers and resellers. I have an article from Software Magazine that I will fax to you. You may it of value to you when you go to cost justify the sales training to your management.
Since you need to have another two people on board before we can finalize the training dates, I sent you a list of web sites where you can find sales reps, sent the job criterion you e-mailed to me out to my job seekers list. I also sent you two possible candidates.
You have people in both Reston and Denver and all will be in Denver the week of September 9th before two weeks of ABC University. We spoke of setting up a two-day class during the week of September 9th.
You mentioned you need to run this by Tim, Dan and then Andy for budget approval. Attached is a sample Agreement with a fee schedule for your review and signature.
I will follow this email with more specific details about the live sales call-training workshop, which you can read at your convenience. This will include comments from people who mentioned they wished they had this type of training prior to their product training.
I look forward to speaking with you on Wednesday, September 28 at 8am PST when I will call you at: 303-555-1234 to discuss the next steps needed to put a live sales call training workshop in place for ABC.
Please call me at 818-991-6487 if you have questions before then.
All the best to you,
Ron
The Lesson…
Don't send emails asking me to call you or to do something, unless you have provided information or topics of value specifically related to my company. This type of information may include insights you want to share about my clients, prospects, industry or competitors that would be worth me taking my time to discuss.
Separate yourself from the rest of the reps who do no homework and then expect that their products and services alone will generate sales.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron LaVine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
HOW EASY IS IT TO DO BUSINESS WITH YOU?
By Ron S. La Vine
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
As Dennis Miller would say, "Now, I don't want to get off on a rant" but why have corporations and businesses made it so hard to do business with them? Are they trying to drive business away? In an age where customer loyalty is a prized plum, it never ceases to amaze me to what lengths corporations will go through to aggravate and alienate their customer base.
As I say in class over and over, it is not always the big things that make the difference. In fact, quite often, it is the little things you do or say or how your company operates that sets you apart from the competition and wins you the big deals. It maybe better service, friendlier people, attention to detail, greater accessibility or a better attitude.
Ease of use ranks high on my list when doing business with someone. When companies make it hard or un-enjoyable for me to do business with them, my first thought is "Where else can I take my business?”Where else will my hard-earned dollars will be appreciated and I won't have to go through a war zone to get simple things done?"
For example, the bank I currently use allows you to bank online. I enjoy using the electronic bill pay feature. I can pay my bills from anywhere in the world. Here's the catch. I have a business account and a personal account however they cannot access each other (this bank actually has a separate web site for each). This means for me to pay bills using each account, I would need to pay for two bill-paying services. Does this make sense? Of course not and yet it occurs.
Example number two. There is a next-day shipping company whose service I really enjoy. What happened? I closed one credit card account and opened another. The billing department automatically charged me $10 Declined Credit Card charge without notifying me rather than contacting me and asking why my credit card was not working; I called up customer service (at least three times) and explained the situation. I gave the person a new credit card number and requested that they make notes in their customer service system. They did and they told everything was fine and taken care of. Wait a minute, I just opened my mail and there's another REPRINT OF ORIGINAL statement showing the same charges and that the bill is now overdue. To cut to the chase, I ended up calling the headquarters and explaining that because the people in billing could not access the notes from the people in customer service, his company nearly lost my account over $10.
Ron you're saying, $10 is no big deal. You're right however if you calculate the lifetime value of a client and then multiply by the number of clients you maybe losing due to what I call disconnects within a company's product and service delivery system, the potential dollars lost rises dramatically. The person at corporate was smart (probably why he was working in the executive offices). He simply asked, "What do we need to do to fix the problem?"
I replied, "Reverse the charge, take down my new credit card number and say I'm sorry. That's it. That's all. Nothing fancy." I also mentioned that if this is happening to me, I wonder how many other clients are being affected by the same situation. He said he'd make a point to check on their notification and CRM systems.
Do you know why I went to all this trouble to bring my business back to a company whom by all rights and means did not deserve it? It is because of the guy who picks up and drops off my packages. He always has a friendly smile and a happy hello. I like people like that and enjoy doing business with companies who employ people like that. He doesn't know it but it is his behavior that saved his company at least one client and possibly many more.
In closing, as a sales rep or any member of a company large or small, ask yourself every once in while, "How easy is it to do business with your company?" "Are there disconnects in your company's product and service delivery system (this includes a review of all departments, not one or two)?" "How easy is it to return something?" "When's the last time Sales asked Marketing for some data and it fell through the cracks or vice versa?" "How well do your departments share information internally?"
Sharing internal information is a very important issue in corporations and maybe why Customer Relationship Management has become such a hot topic that is being looked at very seriously. Studies show over and over again, it can cost 7 to 8 times more to get a new client as it does to keep an existing one. So keep your existing clients happy by making their experiences or points of contact with your company as enjoyable as possible.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
As Dennis Miller would say, "Now, I don't want to get off on a rant" but why have corporations and businesses made it so hard to do business with them? Are they trying to drive business away? In an age where customer loyalty is a prized plum, it never ceases to amaze me to what lengths corporations will go through to aggravate and alienate their customer base.
As I say in class over and over, it is not always the big things that make the difference. In fact, quite often, it is the little things you do or say or how your company operates that sets you apart from the competition and wins you the big deals. It maybe better service, friendlier people, attention to detail, greater accessibility or a better attitude.
Ease of use ranks high on my list when doing business with someone. When companies make it hard or un-enjoyable for me to do business with them, my first thought is "Where else can I take my business?”Where else will my hard-earned dollars will be appreciated and I won't have to go through a war zone to get simple things done?"
For example, the bank I currently use allows you to bank online. I enjoy using the electronic bill pay feature. I can pay my bills from anywhere in the world. Here's the catch. I have a business account and a personal account however they cannot access each other (this bank actually has a separate web site for each). This means for me to pay bills using each account, I would need to pay for two bill-paying services. Does this make sense? Of course not and yet it occurs.
Example number two. There is a next-day shipping company whose service I really enjoy. What happened? I closed one credit card account and opened another. The billing department automatically charged me $10 Declined Credit Card charge without notifying me rather than contacting me and asking why my credit card was not working; I called up customer service (at least three times) and explained the situation. I gave the person a new credit card number and requested that they make notes in their customer service system. They did and they told everything was fine and taken care of. Wait a minute, I just opened my mail and there's another REPRINT OF ORIGINAL statement showing the same charges and that the bill is now overdue. To cut to the chase, I ended up calling the headquarters and explaining that because the people in billing could not access the notes from the people in customer service, his company nearly lost my account over $10.
Ron you're saying, $10 is no big deal. You're right however if you calculate the lifetime value of a client and then multiply by the number of clients you maybe losing due to what I call disconnects within a company's product and service delivery system, the potential dollars lost rises dramatically. The person at corporate was smart (probably why he was working in the executive offices). He simply asked, "What do we need to do to fix the problem?"
I replied, "Reverse the charge, take down my new credit card number and say I'm sorry. That's it. That's all. Nothing fancy." I also mentioned that if this is happening to me, I wonder how many other clients are being affected by the same situation. He said he'd make a point to check on their notification and CRM systems.
Do you know why I went to all this trouble to bring my business back to a company whom by all rights and means did not deserve it? It is because of the guy who picks up and drops off my packages. He always has a friendly smile and a happy hello. I like people like that and enjoy doing business with companies who employ people like that. He doesn't know it but it is his behavior that saved his company at least one client and possibly many more.
In closing, as a sales rep or any member of a company large or small, ask yourself every once in while, "How easy is it to do business with your company?" "Are there disconnects in your company's product and service delivery system (this includes a review of all departments, not one or two)?" "How easy is it to return something?" "When's the last time Sales asked Marketing for some data and it fell through the cracks or vice versa?" "How well do your departments share information internally?"
Sharing internal information is a very important issue in corporations and maybe why Customer Relationship Management has become such a hot topic that is being looked at very seriously. Studies show over and over again, it can cost 7 to 8 times more to get a new client as it does to keep an existing one. So keep your existing clients happy by making their experiences or points of contact with your company as enjoyable as possible.
REPRINT PERMISSION
Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc., a live cold call training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at http://www.ast-incorp.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2010 by Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.
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