In Sales What’s Your Brand

By Dee Haskel

Nike. Kleenex. QTips. While these are all household names, we first recognize the Brands because we know the quality behind them. When we shop for these products, we already know that by purchasing them, we will be getting a top quality product, that will last a long time. In most cases, these name brands are actually more expensive than their store labeled counterparts. Most people won’t care about paying a little more. They know that the quality is worth it.

Now…think for a moment about what “brand” your Customers think of when they think of doing business with you and your company. Do you make it easy and comfortable to do business? Do you throw obstacle after obstacle up in front of your customer so that he has to jump through hoops to get his work done? Do you add stress to your customer’s day and fill his email inbox with unnecessary clutter? Or….do you make it easy, simple, safe and comfortable to work with your company? Through every step of the sales process, we never want our customer stepping back and questioning their buying decision. We want them thinking ahead, to future business, because we made it so easy to work us on their last experience.

So….what IS your Brand? Are you knowledgeable about your product? Do you understand the inner workings of your company as well as your customers company? Can you anticipate your customer’s needs and ensure that they have an easy and comfortable time working with you? Do you understand how to make your customer more successful in the eyes of his company? Are you an asset or a liability to your Customer? Do you treat your Customers with respect and dignity in all of their interactions with you and your company? I have a client that refers to me as the most polite person he’s ever worked with. Before I call him, I can often catch him on instant message to inquire if it’s a convenient time to talk about a particular topic. I do this so that the Customer will know that I need to talk to him and what the topic is so that he too can be prepared for the conversation. Another tool that I frequently use is to follow up voice mails with emails…asking the questions via email, thus giving my Customer the opportunity to reply to me that way, which is often easier for him rather than calling me back. Sadly, many people today prefer to communicate electronically. In the Sales Profession, I believe that whatever method gets you a response, and closer to making the sale, is the best method to use! It’s part of my Brand. I have a reputation for exceptional follow up and execution. I always look to uphold that reputation in every interaction with the Customer.

Take a few minutes and think about how you want to be branded to your Customer. If you’re not already helping him to be the best that he can be then it’s time to step back and adjust your approach, technique and execution to ensure that you are the most reliable, trustworthy and responsible business associate that your customer thinks of when he thinks of buying what you sell.

About the Author: Dee Haskelwith a passion for excellence, Dee Haskel is a career workaholic, fitness freak and sales coach. She has grown and prospered in the sales profession since the early 80’s. She’s trained thousands of sales professionals in person, over the web and through teleconference at the high tech sales organization she’s worked at for a decade.

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=419634&ca=Marketing

3 Things That Will Increase Your Sales

By Tim Kubiak

There isn’t any magic bullet in what you’re about to read, but there are always things that you can do that without a doubt will increase your sales. There are three things that will increase your business if you do them and work at it. No matter if you pick one or all of them, doing them only once in a while won’t have a huge impact. Consistency is the key. Not doing these simple things is the equivalent of waiting until the end of the month before realizing that you haven’t made any sales.

1) Increase New Business Generation Activities. This one is easy to ignore, since even good sales people often consider this part of the job unpleasant. To begin you have to dedicate more time to Prospecting. Prospecting for every person varies. It doesn’t matter if you are cold calling, dropping in to see new prospects or working referrals. Pick your method, make your plan and then go after them. Prospecting and lead generation does not have to take a huge amount of time, but the time you spend focused on it needs to be effective and productive. When it comes to finding new business leads, remember that no one you call is going to say yes the first time. Have a planned series of messages and offer for your prospects until you get a dialogue going. The fatal mistake most sales people make is saying, “I called that guy once or twice and it never went anywhere.”

2) Increase your offers to existing customers. How many things do you sell? Great! Now that you know the number, how many of them are complimentary to what your customers are already buying? Things that go nicely with your core offers. In many industries these are the most profitable parts of the sale. If you’re not getting that piece of the business, then not only is there money being left on the table but you’re also letting the competition in the door. If you do this right, then there’s no downside to this. If they buy mops from you but don’t buy buckets, cleaning supplies and whatever else would go with it, then it’s your own fault if you are not asking. Along those lines, don’t assume they know or remember everything you do sell. Tell your customers, them remind them regularly and see the next point.

3) Actually follow up. Ok, now that you’re done calling me an assumptive jerk, let’s get down to business. Most sales people take down information during a sales call and then focus on the major points. What if you resolved the hot issues first because that is what any smart sales person is going to do and then kept coming back with all the little things that weren’t on fire. Things like “remember when you asked about _____”, then give them the answer of what it can and can’t do. No need to lie or embellish anything. Stick to the facts. If it’s a fit…great! If not, I’m certain you’ve thought of something that can help them or a work around concept.

Nothing listed above is brain surgery. Chances are nothing you’ve read here today is all that new to you. Which means, if you have all the business you can or want to handle then odds are you’re doing these things in only one way, shape, or form. If you don’t then either you’re not doing them often enough or without the right message, intent and purpose. If that‘s the case then it’s time for you to start religiously committing yourself to new business development and lead generation. Increasing your customer wallet share by telling customers about your products and services over and over again in a way that rings a bell, but isn’t repetitive. And you must follow up. Following up alone is a gold mine, since so few people really take the time to do it.

About the Author: Tim Kubiakis a self proclaimed Sales Geek and Social Media addict. By day he continues to be lucky enough to work in sales and sales management just as he has for the past 20 years. At night Tim is the co founder and a regular contributor at the The UnNatural Salesman. He is currently doing data collection for the upcoming Sales Career Resource Guide that is designed to assist both novice and season sales professionals in evaluating sales career opportunities.

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=416738&ca=Business+Management

A Few Barbershop Thoughts on Customer Service

A Few Barbershop Thoughts on Customer Service
By Tim Kubiak

One of my favorite places in the world is the barber shop. While that wasn’t always the case during my long haired mid teen years, as a little kid I loved my barber. Bill was a great guy. He had enough sense around the time I turned 10 to listen to what I asked for in the way of a haircut, and what my mother told him to do. And for the most part both of us were happy with the results, although my mother had some abnormal obsession in me not having any bangs, but that is beside the point. It also didn’t hurt that he had one of those old fashioned coke machines and I got a dime to get a bottle of soda after my hair cut was done. Of course this was in the days when the family-run gas station still ruled the countryside. And quickie marts and corporate monolith gas and grocery marts hadn’t moved too far from the cities.

Over time, my childhood barber cut back his hours. He had had a long and successful career and it was a one chair kind of shop in a small South Western Pennsylvania town. Eventually, I went away to school and by the time I came back he had retired completely. I had to go to find someone else to cut my hair.

Since I had a few extra bucks in my pocket, I tried some of the fancy salons. Sure they had these wonderful couches, candles, and all these other luxurious services. All of which were nice, all of which were adding income and margin to their businesses but it wasn’t why I showed up there in the first place. Not unlike a lot of customers in the world, I knew what I wanted. I’d listen to new ideas but at the end of the day I had a darn good idea of what my problem was. In this case my hair was getting long and shaggy and I have about three wicked cowlicks on the front of my head alone. Because of that, I’m the type of guy who knows how he wants his hair cut. I’m not looking for a new style and color. I don’t care if I’m trendy or cool. I knew what I wanted, tried to communicate it clearly and it never once translated in to a repeatable output. They’d be too worried about the art of their profession. It wasn’t like I got a bad haircut; I just didn’t get what I wanted. After a few years at places like this I went the chain haircut strip mall route.

There are chain hair cutting places all over. They cost a lot less than the fancy salons. Instead of overstuffed couches, there are plastic chairs in the waiting area. The list of additional services was limited, but then again all I wanted was a good haircut done my way. Sadly, despite being easy to find, plentiful and well priced, the quality of their work was hit or miss. As a customer, not knowing what outcome to expect is simply frustrating and it doesn’t make for good customer service. I could never get the same person twice in a row. There was no consistency. The poor kids cutting hair there were new. New isn’t exactly bad. But while they had a license to hang on the wall, most had just finished school in the past few years. There’s nothing wrong with being new, we all have been at one point or another. Like a lot of people who have just finished school, they had the basic idea of what to do but they were missing the experience of how to refine things. There was not a mentor there to help them along the way. No one truly skilled, that could offer insight and an experienced perspective.

Eventually, I ended up in a little old barbershop with 3 guys cutting hair in it. Two old guys and the “new guy”. In this case, the new guy was one of the other guy’s sons and he had been cutting hair for 22 years. Sure I wasn’t out in the country anymore. And by the standards of my childhood barber shop it was huge. After all, there were three barber’s chairs. Even the new guy had experience and had over time come into his own. Not that his original mentors didn’t still tell him what he was doing wrong. In time he had developed his own perspective and was the one I waited for over and over.
So what does any of this have to do with business and selling? Everything, if you look at it right. Was the $60.00 hair cut six times better than the $10.00 one? No! Price alone didn’t make it better, because it wasn’t what I wanted. Had any of the people along the way given me what I wanted and not what they thought I needed, I’d still be paying a premium for their service. I also probably would have bought into the other high margin things from time to time along the way. Were the strip mall $10.00 haircuts equal to the $10.00 barber shop cuts? No! Even though the price was the same, the customer experience and the quality varied greatly.

Instead, I found someone who listened and did what I asked. Even if you ask what your customers want are you really hearing what they are saying? Or are you hearing it from your perspective and failing to meet their needs? Odds are there are a lot of corporate buyers and business owners saying what they want and if you’d only listen to them and truly work to meet their needs and solve their problems then there is more business to be had than you would have ever imagined. This isn’t about fancy questions or dazzling sales moves. It’s about asking a few questions, understanding the person you’re talking to and their real needs. Only after taking all that in can you apply your knowledge, expertise and perspective to create a good outcome for them.

So when I moved 5 states over a few years back and had to give up my barber yet again, I went about things differently. I drove past the half a dozen newly sprouted chain places, past the ornate and glamorous ode’s to beauty that were all the rage and found a simple little old shop in the middle of town with three old chairs and three barbers. In the past, it fit my needs and this one did too. Your customers are no different. Sure along the way there will always be the temptation to try something different, but most people won’t do that unless what they have isn’t really what they want and need.

Back in the barber shop I was the only guy under 50 in the place the first few times, but that didn’t matter because they cut my hair right and delivered that same predictable result time after time. Ultimately as more new people moved to my town the average customer age came down, so now they have guys like me who will hopefully still be needing haircuts long after the youngest barber retires. Recently they raised the price from $11.00 to $13.00, but as far I’m concerned it could have gone to $20 and I wouldn’t have flinched. They are giving the same great service and the same predictable quality every time I’m there. As a matter of fact, I’ve sent at least six guys there who are now regulars. Even if you’re not obviously in sales there is nothing quite like referrals.

And if you’re not listening you’d better start before they find someone else who does.

Tim Kubiak is a self proclaimed Sales Geek and Social Media addict. By day he continues to be lucky enough to work in sales and sales management just as he has for the past 20 years. At night Tim is the co founder and a regular contributor at the The UnNatural Salesman. He is currently doing data collection for the upcoming Sales Career Resource Guide that is designed to assist both novice and season sales professionals in evaluating sales career opportunities.

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Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide

Business and Social Media – When Worlds Collide
By John Cousins

About 2 years ago there I am listening to one of those casually dressed internet guru types tell me how social media is going to change my world. “Nothing will be the same. It will change business forever!” I thought to myself (insert sarcastic tone) Oh great because I just love the fact that when my blackberry goes off at 10 at night people think I should gleefully answer it. In the mean time my company’s Chief Marketing Officer is going on and on about the impending revolution, about communities, and open communication. Blithering on about what it means to our business.

Me I’m not a high ranking kind of guy. My role in life is more akin to that of the chief cook and bottle washer type. But I live in the tech world so new technology isn’t all that scary to me. At that point admittedly I’d been on Linked In for several years and My Space for a bit. One kept me in touch with a world filled with my professional contacts which made perfect sense. In sales and business it’s not always what you know, but who you know. On the other site let’s just admit I was an online loser. I had my dad, my sister, wife, one daughter, and host of bands, film makers and comedians who wanted to be my friend but no one real. The horrible flash backs to life as an unpopular nerdy boy in grade school aside I continued on. Had my first experience with social media been a singles bar not only would I be going home alone but my buddies would have ditched me, leaving me in a questionable neighborhood with no money and no ride. Fortunately for me it was just the internet.

So, like a good soldier I listened. I ran out to sign up for Facebook, bought a copy of the Clue Train Manifesto (which I am sure buying anything with the word manifesto in it puts you on some type of government watch list)and Wikinomics and waited for my professional life to start a Groundswell and take on a highly profitable cyber fueled virtual life of its own.

This time around I added a few people I knew from work and my friends list grew modestly, then I joined a few networks, and it grew a little more. Over time a few vendors found me, then a few customers. It looked like anything else you get out what you put into it unless you had a really hot picture of yourself. Amazingly enough even on the internet a guy in blue polo isn’t considered excessively hot even if he leaves his pocket protector at home.

Being reclusive I did my best to ignore the application invites. Things like join my mob, send me a drink and other nonsense seemed like a frivolous waste of time at this point in life. Then it happened a few college friends added me. Then a few more. Sometimes it felt great to hear from them yet other times it was a why in the world do I care what they are doing now moments. Bus still I accepted their requests no reason to be rude. A few Ex girlfriends came by to say hi. I’m older, wiser, more worldly so why would I care. It’s harmless right?

Besides time has been kind to me, I have a pretty great life. And that’s when it hit me do I really want the girl I liked in kindergarten to know what my customers are saying and more importantly do I want my business associates, customers, and co workers to know anything about my past based on comments from people who knew me when I was young, dumb, and awkward.

There’s not much that I hide from but the thought of me in a hideous suit my mother made me wear for school pictures as 12 year old might be one of them, there was the one wild weekend at college when I looked like John Belushi on a bender that was not indicative of my studious book worm nature, or worse yet me and my assortment of other dweeb friends playing Dungeons and Dragons on a perfectly lovely Friday night in 1985. Yes I played D&D and I looked exactly like the stereo typical guy who played D&D did. So my worlds collided but just a little at a time. Is Facebook the root of all evil? Time will tell. Will our culture become ubiquitous, open and tolerant of the teenage geek turned married professional? The ugly duckling turned into the proverbial swan, maybe but it’s unlikely. Most of all do I want to prove to the guy who beat me up in the 5th grade that his inclinations about me were indisputably correct three decades later and that I am in fact a geek.

NO! People still tell me every day that social media is going to change the world. That business and life are bound to become inexplicably linked. To which I say thanks but no thanks. The business hasn’t come rolling in. Social Media might be a great way to go if you’re hawking get rich quick schemes or connecting with already established customers but at the moment I’m not finding wild and new exotic markets and customers to sell to and in turn they are not finding me either. With all the great things the internet has brought into my life social media just isn’t one of them. So call me old fashioned but I’m just happy I can order books on Amazon at a discount, get free shipping, and not pay sales tax…for now.

Now If you’ll excuse me I’m off to upload more pictures of my flower gardens so more people can poke fun at me. On the upside it’ll make my mother happy. Then I’m off to call write on my favorite DM’s wall.

John Cousins has over 20 years of corporate business to business sales experience. He a begrudging technology junkie, an over seasoned traveler, and regular contributor sales technology contributor to the The UnNatural Salesman and is currently doing data collection for the upcoming Sales Career Resource Guide Sales Career Resource Guide.

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