The One Thing Everyone Wants to Buy (Rewind)

This entry was originally posted in December 2010, but I thought it was worth reviewing once more as the content is still relevant today and can help you sell into 2013.

On Friday, November 5th, I arrived at the Atlanta airport by 6:35AM. I checked my bags by 6:40. At 6:45, I walked into the Brooks Brother Store near Delta’s check-in area. Before the clocked hit 7:00AM on the dial, I spent $198 for a gray suit jacket to expand my working wardrobe.

As I handed over my credit card, I didn’t worry about price or wonder if there was a better gray jacket to be found at another store. I was happy to spend the money because buying clothing at the airport at the crack of dawn saved me time.

We’re all short on time and we all want more of it. Even when buyers claim they need a low-priced option, most of them really mean they want the lowest acceptable price taking the least amount of time to find.

What does this mean for sales professionals?

It means all of us need a time-saving component in our selling scripts. “Customer, we save you time because . . ."
• We’re easy to deal with.
• We’re watching your back.
• We are experts at this.
• We eliminate problems.
• Customers get what they expected to get.
• Customers like the end-product.

More time is the one thing everyone wants to buy. Selling your time saving advantage helps you sell more.

Fill the Funnel - Your Market

If you’re looking to increase sales, take a new look at the sales funnel. The funnel concept survives because it’s simple and brilliant. Potential customers flow in at the top of the funnel and the process of qualifying prospects begins. Some leads progress down the funnel and turn into opportunities. Other leads decide they’re not interested and evaporate. The speed of progress depends on the urgency of the buyer’s needs and your team’s selling skills. Some opportunities turn into orders and cause dollars to drip out at the bottom of the funnel.

Do You Serve a Big Enough Market?

Customer needs, geographical reach, and your ability to create awareness all place practical limitations on the size of the market you serve. If you can’t reach customers, they won’t buy from you. Your ability to create awareness combines with the buyer’s willingness to consider you as a supplier. Those two factors set boundaries and limit your reach.

Awareness is critical when selling. Many people may need your offering, but unless they know you exist, they won’t consider buying it from you.

If there aren’t enough potential buyers in the area you reach and serve, you must expand your territory to pour more into the funnel. If there are plenty of local buyers, but too few know you exist, your problem is creating awareness.

Some companies have a tougher problem to solve. There are plenty of potential buyers and loads of them know you exist, but they still aren’t interested in purchasing. Then, the problem could be your value proposition. Simply put, your value proposition states the benefits the customer gets when they pay your price.

Customers believe a price is “fair” when they think rewards justify costs. When too few customers are willing to buy at your price point, you have two options. You can increase the number of benefits offered so they get more for their money. Or, you can reduce the price to fit expectations.

Account Retention - Part 3

Satisfied vs. Loyal

Most customers fall in the satisfied category. One study estimated 80% of all customers are in this range. Satisfied customers like you, but not enough to pay a higher price for your work. Usually, they don't have  strong sense of what sets you apart from the competition, and often they're buying out of habit.

The best customers are loyal customers and the best advertising for your company is their word-of-mouth. Loyal customers fit this profile.

• They make regular repeat purchases and pay a premium for your services
• They purchase all offerings that apply to them
• They refer others
• They are immune to the pull of competition
• They tolerate an occasional lapse in quality or service without defecting

Account Retention - Part 2

Dissatisfied vs. Unhappy
There's a big pay off to salvaging shaky partnerships. First of all, rebuilding often turns out to be more profitable and easier than starting from scratch with prospects. Second, rebuilding offers valuable insights into how to create a better company for all customers. And third, a customer who feels they were heard and their complaints addressed often turns out to be an advocate for your services in the marketplace.
For customers deemed dissatisfied, when you get out ask, "What can we do better?" This will help head off dissatisfaction before it turns into unhappiness.

On Monday, I'll share the difference betweem a satisfied customer and a loyal customer.

Account Retention - Part 1

Assessing account potential naturally leads to assessing account retention. Account retention is based on customer happiness and happiness falls on a spectrum:

Unhappy --- Dissatisfied --- Satisfied --- Loyal

Unhappy customers actively shop for other options, so watch out for these warning signs.

• Fewer quotes come in and total volume decreases
• Access to the customer base decreases
• The flow of information about future projects dries up, and the salesperson is unaware of the customer's long-term plans
• The customer stops buying certain services altogether

More on account retention on Friday.

Have You Determined Account Potential?

If you have yet to determine the account potential for your customers, read Friday's post and do so today!

Check back Wednesday for information on assessing account retention!

Account Potential

Take the time to assess the potential of your accounts by doing a gap analysis.

1. What is the customer's total spending for all the services that you offer?
2. How much do they buy from you?
3. How can you get more of the total?

Some customers know their total spend and will share that number with you. Others won't know or won't share, and you'll have to make an educated guess. After you come up with a number, do a quick calculation:

Total Customer Spend - Total Spend at Your Company = Opportunity Gap

Armed with this information, start conversations. Talk to the customer. Ask how you can get more of the total and then decide on a course of action.

Organic Growth

Your account list is an asset, so utilize it! You should be working to maximize its value as account lists offer tremendous insight into customer-fit criteria, profitability issues and sales skills. The data nudges you to ask questions such as: Why is one customer loyal while another buys strictly on price? Who buys all the services you offer and who only buys one aspect? Why are sales declining with a customer who is experiencing growth in their market?

Additionally, account lists also tell you the average value of a current customer, how many new accounts were opened last year and how many customers were lost. You know who buys a large amount from your company and who buys little.

Check back Friday for more information on account lists and organic growth.

How to Increase Your Sales: Tip 3

Tip 3
Take ten minutes. Write down the profile of your ideal customer because it increases the odds of spotting the perfect target.

A Summer Check List for Savvy Sales Professionals

Summer is upon us and with clients on vacation and sales slowing down, savvy sales professionals like you know it's important to take advantage of any down time and use it to build your sales skills.

Here are the Top 5 Things You Should Aim to Accomplish This Summer:

1. Engage with prospects using LinkedIn, and get at least one meeting with someone you met through the social media site.

2. Focus on one area where more expertise would get you more sales. For example, become an expert on one cross-media solution. Read all the articles, whitepapers and case studies you can, talk to colleagues and attend in-town workshops and seminars.

3. Update your elevator speech so it's relevant and will help you sell today.

4. Resurrect at least one customer you thought was dead.

5. Attempt to cross-sell/up-sell to at least three customers.

Great information like this can be found in our free monthly newsletter Self-Taught Sales. To sign up, email melissa@thoughttransformation.com.

Business Development Strategies: Looking for Immediate Revenue

You have ten minutes to make phone calls, and you’re looking for immediate revenue. Who should you call?

The pyramid is your guide. Start at the top and work your way down.

First, call customers who could buy more from you right now. Get a meeting to talk about immediate needs. Let them know other ways you could serve them. Find out what is coming up so you don't miss an opportunity.

What if you’re already the preferred vendor at an account and getting the majority of the work? If you’re wondering if calling them is the right way to spend time, consider three factors.

·         Are there threats to your position in the account?

·         When was the last time you had a face-to-face meeting? If more than a month has passed, make a call and schedule a meeting.

·         Is there something new you want to sell them? If the answer is yes, go talk about it.

Second, call prospects you have met with 3 or more times. Meet with them to find a way to get an opportunity and convert them into customers.

Third, call prospects you have met with once or twice. Continue the process of developing a relationship and identifying a need. Focus on building trust, demonstrating competence and identifying a problem you can solve to move them forward in the sales cycle.

Fourth, call suspects. These are leads who you haven’t met. Call to get an initial introductory meeting.

In ten minutes, you can call three people. If you’re looking for immediate opportunities, be smart and selective about who you dial and you will sell more. 

What Would Get Your Customer a Raise?

Your customers were hired to do jobs. When they perform well, they get raises. If you can help them look good to their boss by helping them solve a problem or accomplish a goal, they are happy to talk to you.
Plan your "Let me help you get a raise" selling conversation by filling in the blanks below.

· My customer's job is _____________________________.
· They look good to their boss when they_________________.
· My product/service helps them accomplish this because______.
· This is important because   ________________________.

If you're not completely sure what your customer is responsible for within their organization, ask. We all like to talk about ourselves, especially when we are talking to an interested listener.   

KeFactors Friday (Rewind): Customer Labels

Customer. Client. Constituent. Donor. Stakeholder. Patient.

As much as labels tell us what is, they also tell us what isn’t—and therein lies the rub, especially in customer relations.

Plenty of organizations make this mistake: they’ll allocate best resources to serve important customers, at the same time forgetting the value of each and every customer.Taking it a step further, for many organizations, their suppliers and employees are also customers. (How often have I seen on consumer complaint web sites, “I may have to work for these bozos, but I’ll never spend my money on their products or services!”)

Here’s another fact of life: organizations who habitually deceive and mistreat their employees suffer the worst customer relations—because degraded, unhappy employees will, consciously or not, spread the misery around.

So what do you do?

First, get in the habit of treating everyone as a customer. Don’t differentiate: close the gap between customer and co-worker (or supplier). Hopefully this will mean a reduction in phony cordialities, and an increase in spreading a habit of trust and respect.

Second, expect to be surprised. Unfailingly, human beings manage to do better in life, so that delivery man coming through your service door may be working his way through school and could one day become a client.

It’s a matter of trust and treatment. Nobody does business with organizations for whom every transaction requires a leap of faith. Without trust, nothing can really get done. And we may forget the things ever said to us, but we never forget the way we were treated.

KeFactors Friday (Rewind): Do Your Employees Know What to Do?

It’s easy to tell which organizations put a premium on customer service and on their employees by how the latter responds to conflict—particularly conflict with customers.

Case in point: Last week I was somewhat irked by a drive-through bank teller who interrupted my transactions to have a lengthy chat with a customer in another lane. I understood her intentions were good (be friendly), but her chat took up my time, and later I realized she’d made a large mistake in logging a deposit amount (to my disadvantage!). When I returned the next day to have the error fixed, I pointed out this behavior to the bank manager.

Today I drove through again, and the usually friendly teller was noticeably more frosty—which I found interesting.

A well-trained employee would’ve known: (1) not to personalize the complaint; and (2) said something along the lines of, “Good morning, Ms. Ke! Listen, I talked with my manager about last week’s mistake and wanted to thank you for catching it. I’m sorry you had to come back again, but I promise it won’t happen again.” “Oh puh-lease,” you might say, “she’s human, she clearly has a right to be annoyed with you for complaining to her boss about her.”

Well, sure, but think about the messages being conveyed to the customer. By being curt, she comes off as petty, self-involved, and defensive. (Can such individuals be trusted with customer deposits?) If she’d tried option 2, she’d have radiated professionalism, warmth, and concern for the customer’s time.

I don’t like spending all my time in bank lines, so this individual had become a single point of contact for me where my bank is concerned—to me, she is the bank.

It could be a bank teller, a dry cleaning clerk, a receptionist, or a parking booth attendant. When conflict comes up, do your employees know how to react so you don’t wind up alienating customers?

KeFactors Friday (Rewind): Right, Wrong, or Customer Service

One of the first mistakes most people make when responding to customer complaints is to get overly mired in determining right or wrong.

“Of course,” you say, “that’s a no-brainer. The customer’s always right. Everybody knows that.”

Unfortunately, not everyone does, because a great many customer grievances are not so cut and dry. How do you address a customer’s ire over your late delivery of a project when he himself was late getting essential information to you? How do you explain to her that her abrasive behaviors have been upsetting your staff?

Here’s the key: Don’t think in terms of right or wrong. First, get inside the customer’s head to comprehend how they’re perceiving the problem. Usually you’ll find it has less to do with right or wrong, more to do with other issues that have cropped up to ruin their day—the customer may be feeling new stressors at work or need help doing some incidental face-saving.

But don’t get into the trap of determining right or wrong: you’ll only earn your customer’s resentment. After all, who died and made you judge and jury?

Take the time to fully understand how your customer’s experiencing the stated problem, and you’ll be more than halfway there to solving it. Along the way, you may also gain crucial insights on your customer’s work environment.

KeFactors Friday: The Customer Is Always Right?!

Top 3 Mistakes of Complaint Handling That Will Guarantee Your Customer’s Wrath

Yes, yes, yes, you’ve worked too hard and come too far in your career to deal with some whiny customer with nothing better to do than blister your ear with complaints about your products and/or services! You’re a busy [insert your job title], and that customer is probably some ill-tempered old coot filling a bleak and empty life by picking on busy people with real jobs. Nonetheless, here are three mistakes you ought to avoid:

You apologize—in fact, you cut off the customer’s words in your haste to do so—and you never get around to thanking the customer for making the complaint.
What the customer hears: “If I say sorry ASAP, this customer will go away.”
Since the customer’s the injured party, you don’t get to set the terms of the discussion. Your job is to listen fully, suspend reactions, and thank the customer for even bothering to complain directly to you at all. Why? Because thanking them for the complaint means you take it seriously. You regard the customer as a partner in your organization’s hopes for improvement and customer satisfaction. Customers who are frequently cut off and interrupted become increasingly “glued to the problem.”

One of your first reactions to the complaint is along the lines of, “That’s funny, no one’s ever complained about that before.” (If you really want to drive this customer away, smile or chuckle when you say that).
What the customer hears: “Your complaint is unprecedented and therefore ridiculous.”
Again, a grateful attitude helps here, because so what if this customer’s the first? How many other customers have walked away mad, without saying anything to you about it?

Explaining/justifying your company’s internal protocols doesn’t work if the result still means a problem for the customer.
What the customer hears: “This is the way we operate and we’re not going to change it just because you’ve complained.”
If someone’s voicing dissatisfaction over a negative experience, characterizing the customer as a freakish crank means you’re willfully blinding yourself to process flaws that may need to change anyway—sooner rather than later. Again, how many other customers have reacted the same way but simply chosen not to share their grievance with you? because if a customer’s unhappy with you, they’ll talk—maybe not to you, but they’ll talk.

A big thank you to Lucy Ke for providing us with wonderful content as part of KeFactor Fridays. Lucy will be taking a hiatus to work on her business, but we wish her all the best and hope she will return as our guest blogger in the future. Over the coming weeks, we will be posting "The Best of KeFactor Friday." For more information on Lucy, visit her website www.kefactors.com or follow her on Twitter @KeFactors.

KeFactors Friday: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Customer John, a business owner, is trying to lower his premiums by changing from Plan A to Plan B, but he’s opted to stay with the same insurance company. Here’s how a call center professional can either delight him or drown him in regret about his decision to stay faithful.

By refusing to “get” the real point of the customer’s call. John calls up, somewhat stressed that his change of policy application won’t get in on time.

Ugly: “Sir, I get it that your mail was held up by a snowstorm, but we can’t move the deadline on account of that. We can’t do anything about acts of God.”

Bad: [defensive] “Want to talk to my supervisor?”

Good: “I’m sorry you had some trouble with that, sir. Let me go over your account and get this done today so you won’t have to worry about it any more. We appreciate you’re keeping your policy with us.”

By focusing so much on policy readings, you actually demonstrate to the customer that you’re inflexible and somewhat shady.

Ugly: “Before we take your new application, sir, did anyone tell you that if you change your mind later, you can’t go back to Plan A? No, sir, it’s being eliminated. Gone.”

Bad: [loud eye rolling] “My supervisor can explain why it’s set up like that.”

Good: “Before we finalize this new plan, sir, I need to point out that as of April 1, we’ll be eliminating Plan A, the plan you just left. If you later find you’re unhappy with Plan B, just give us a call back and we’ll arrange other options for you to consider. Some of the new plans are pretty popular and inexpensive.”

Resolving the customer’s business is a big relief — and a chance to sell more of what the customer doesn’t want, need, or would even consider!

Ugly: [perfunctory] “Is there anything else we can do for you?”

Bad: [uninspired drone] “Have I told you about our Plan B Extra Plus?”

Good: “Before we wrap up, sir, have we taken care of everything you needed to get done today? Have we answered your questions? Well, if you think of any later, please call us back. We’ve got some wonderful enhancements like the Plan B Extra Plus which is pretty popular with printing companies like yours. You may not have time to consider it today but the details are on our Web site, which also lists other printing companies in your region who’ve endorsed the Extra Plus. And once again, thank you for keeping your policy with us. Have a great day.”

KeFactors Friday: Customer Service or Bust

Years before the Great Recession, I was alarmed to see a change in behaviors: as if a strange malaise had overtaken the working world, most organizations were becoming indifferent and even punitive toward their customers. Incivility marked the way work was handled between internal customers.

During economic lean times, it’s easy to take an “every man for himself” attitude but a couple generations of consumers were altered by the recession.

My prediction? Recession-weary consumers would become exacting and more demanding about how they’re treated by their suppliers. This has come to pass.

“Relationship” and customer loyalty will be more important than ever. Your granddaddy’s “the customer is always right” has evolved—thanks to the Internet, social media, and m-commerce options—into questions like: How consistent is our branding?Do we have the right interaction mix so customers can easily find and stay engaged with us? Will our call center folks respond knowledgeably when queried by a customer who’s just pulled info off our Web site?

Ask not how to make the customer more accountable to you; ask how you can be more accountable to your customer. How easily can your employees see a profile of each customer they’re talking with? An associate told me he stayed with his mobility provider because even after he’d called to explain why payment would be late, they were understanding and never failed to thank him for 15 years of patronage. How well have we been using analytics to understand our customers’ values and purchasing behaviors?

Do you have a strategy for becoming a preferred supplier? Just getting enough work to make revenue goals is not enough. Customers are shopping for relationship now more than ever, and it takes a whole different set of ideas and behaviors to garner preferred supplier status than to merely “make nice” with one’s customers. How good’s our ability to give our customers an intelligent, customized response?

KeFactors Friday: Rules, Policies & Disruption

Every industry needs rules for the greater good. Fond as I am of regulations prohibiting pilots and brain surgeons from drinking on the job, I often ask clients of other service industries:

“Are your policies in place to make life easier for you or your customers?”

Netflix customers may never speak to a service rep, but given Netflix’s customer-centric protocols, it’s easier to get a movie from them than dealing with a clerk at one of their competitors’ outlets, especially if you get one who relishes reciting homegrown policies about late returns or, as in the 1990s, rewind fees.

“When a customer makes an honest mistake and breaks one of your rules, do your employees know how to come up with solutions that will delight rather than punish the customer?”

I have an affection for market innovators, ones who shun the rules put forth as “conventional wisdom,” instead creating protocols that actually make life easier for their customers. Why?

Media futurist Gerd Leonhard advises against “meaningless disruptions” such as advertising a product/service simply to put out the hype but then see it fail to make life easier for consumers. It’s not that “consumers are getting smarter” but that they always were smart—and smart people know how to find alternatives.

Advertising must contain meaningful content. Disrupting consumers’ lives with multi-channel ads and promo offers must result in lasting customer engagement because, more and more, consumers are saying, “I can decide for myself, thank you!”

KeFactors Friday: Key Behaviors of Post-Recession Customers

You may already be dealing with customers who aren’t shy about complaining, but

… better get used to it. Word-of-mouth is going to be more powerful than ever. I’m also adding advisory from (refreshingly blunt) business author Geoff Burch about the various ways we can kill off customer loyalty (in italics).

1. Post-recession customers will be increasingly intolerant of customer service errors. (“To defend your position to the death is a serious mistake. It costs so little put things right with your customer.”)

2. Customers will be more vocal and “activist” in using social networking sites to state their objections and negative experiences. (“Your offer is crap. Live up to the expectations your marketing generates.”)

3. Customers will not be committed to a particular brand but seek “best value” regardless of who’s providing it. It’ll be harder for market researchers to detect a fixed pattern of behavior in understanding these customers, and deeper insights will be required. (“Trying to be everything to everyone is a mistake. Don’t alienate your core customer base by trying to broaden your appeal.”)

4. Ninety-seven percent (97%) of your customers will research products and future purchases online, so your marketing and product support will need to be more targeted to specific customer needs and expectations. (“Don’t be afraid to ask. Where do my customers’ aspirations lie?”)

5. Multi-channel customers want — and expect — to use a variety of ways to interact with you. (“Data should make selling more human.”)