Posts Tagged ‘Sales’
If you are a leader or a sales professional, consider that validation is an extremely powerful tool for getting your point of view accepted.
I have learned in working with CEO’s that they value validation of current strategies as much as suggestions of what they could do better.
You want to position yourself as a trusted advisor, one that is confident enough to tell customers what they are doing well and what they can improve on. In my own work, I have found that CEO’s greatly value when I validate their strategies not because they are looking for a pat on a back. They value it because it is coming from an outsider, someone who has no vested interested in the process like his employees who are constantly looking to protect themselves and defend their decisions.
If you are constantly always focusing on selling something today, you will never be in a position to validate the good things a customer is doing.
Regardless if it limits your sales potential for the current visit, understand that validation when appropriate goes a long way to establishing yourself as a trusted advisor. It builds trust and in the long run it leads to a greater share of the customers business than when you are constantly telling the customer all the things she is doing wrong and how you can do them better.
This strategy is one that proved to be powerful in helping one of my clients reposition themselves with a key account and resulted in an industry changing ten year deal valued at over $200m. You an read more about in this CEO Bestselling Book.
The issue is not your competition. It is your relationship with the customer and whether or not they feel you have their best interests at heart. Can they trust you? Do they believe in you? Or do they think you will say anything to get the business?
Tags: Customer Growth, Leadership, leadership speaker, Motivational Speaker, Sales, Sales Excellence, sales growth, Sales Speakers
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When I wrote the book The Complete Idiots Guide to Great Customer Service in 1998, we interviewed the Vice President of Hertz Reservations who shared this story with me.
Hertz did a survey of their top customers and found out that they were highly dissatisfied with how long it took to return their cars and get to the terminal. So Hertz increased the frequency of their buses from the return lot to the terminals.
Six months later they repeated the survey and again this complaint came up. When they investigated why it took so long to return the car, they realized it had not so much to do with bus frequency, but rather with how long it took to wait on line for the receipt.
Hence, Hertz developed the hand held computers you now see when you return your cars.
When Hertz heard of the original problem, it operated from its own assumption that the problem had to do with bus frequency. They never asked the customers to clarify. If they did, they would have solved the problem much earlier than six months later.
Hertz has a strong brand and it was able to survive not having solved this problem for so long. Today, no one has the luxury of time to figure out if they are exceeding the expectations of their customers.
Clarify your customer’s feedback. Don’t let your assumptions get in the way. It can kill your business! In this case, Hertz did a great job in turning a problem into a differentiating value.
Tags: Customer Growth, customer service, Customer Service Speaker, Leadership, leadership speaker, Pricing, Retaining Customers, Sales, Sales Success
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The Life Science Leader writes about how Leaders Don’t Puke. Rather, they lead by vision and find out what’s important to people before they start trying to influence them. Life Science Leader talks about how the best organizations teach all of their employees to lead, from the CEO on down. To read more, click here
Tags: Customer Growth, Declining Sales Revenues, Leadership, leadership motivational, leadership speaker, Pricing, Sales, Sales Motivational Speaker, sales training
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Eli Manning said one of the key messages coach Tom Coughlin preached this season was the need to “finish the game”. The football game is 60 minutes long and you need to come prepared to play all 60 minutes and finish the job.
For sales people, finishing means closing the sale.
Often CEO’s call me in asking me to help their sales people close more sales. My answer is their problem is not closing, but rather opening. The reason they are not finishing the job with an order is because they are not positioning themselves properly from the beginning and doing the things necessary to differentiate themselves from the competition. (more…)
Tags: Customer Growth, Declining Revenue, Leadership, leadership speaker, Sales, Sales Motivational Speaker, sales training
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1. Not every sale is a good sale. Make sure it is profitable and that you have cross-sold as many products and services as possible. It costs less to sell more to an existing client than to get a new client.
2. Stop creating unqualified proposals. Too much time is spent on creating proposals when deals are unqualified. Prospects like to ask for proposals to get people off the phone. Your time is too valuable. Only create proposals when the deal and prospect are properly qualified.
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Tags: Customer Growth, Declining Revenue, Leadership, Leadership Motivational Speaker, leadership speaker, Sales, Sales Excellence, Sales Leadership. Sales Speaker, Sales Motivational Speaker, sales trainer, sales training
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Sears announced it is closing 79 stores (Sears and Kmart stores) due to poor financials of the company. The closing of these stores was not due to poor financials. It is due to bad management. Senior management spent money on every strategy except improving its customer service and sales process. Instead of creating great customer events and turning the stores into places people would want to drive to, it simply cut expenses to the bone-the point where no one in their right mind would take the time nor expense to visit those stores.
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Tags: customer service, Customer Service Speaker, Leadership, leadership speaker, Motivational Speaker, Sales, sales motivation speaker
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