Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

Everyday, I get asked questions by business owners across this nation about their customers – e.g. who they are, how to get more of them or even how to get them to buy.

These questions are hard for me to answer as I am not a customer of all these companies and these questions usually relate directly to the company’s products or service or directly to its market or industry. But, while I cannot usually answer these questions with specific guidance, there is a very simple and common method in increasing your customer base and ultimately your business profits and that is to know your customers.

If you know your customer these questions would already be answered. Therefore, get to know your customers. If you are afraid to ask your current customers or potential customers questions regarding your business – then, how do you expect to sell to them – to let them know about your business and how your offerings can improve their lives? This is one of the simplest but hardest concepts that business owners face – talking to and getting information from their customers.

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“We found that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the two; that it was impossible to maintain a loyal customer base without a base of loyal employees; and that the best employees prefer to work for companies that deliver the kind of superior value that builds customer loyalty… building loyalty has in fact become the acid test of leadership.” – Frederick Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect and Loyalty Rules

For most organizations, the goal of improving customer service levels is an article of faith. And so it should be, because there’s an overwhelming body of research to show that building customer loyalty has a major impact on profitability. In fact, according to one study – based on 46,000 business-to-business surveys – a “totally satisfied” customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a “somewhat satisfied” customer.

Clearly, there are significant benefits to be realized from trying to improve an organization’s service/quality. And that’s why managers devote so much time and money to training programs that “instruct” employees on the specifics of dealing with customers. What these managers don’t understand, however, is that such attempts are largely cosmetic. Real improvements in customer service start with providing superior service and support to the employees themselves.

All too often, this misunderstanding results in sending staff through “smile training,” issuing edicts to be more courteous, or teaching them how to handle dissatisfied customers. In the meantime, processes and systems don’t support frontline servers. Irritants and issues that reduce morale are swept aside as excuses. An airline manager attempted to address the problem of declining customer satisfaction by issuing a directive urging staff to smile and be nicer to passengers. A flight attendant’s response showed how that manager just didn’t get it: “We’re smiling in spite of the fact that we’re doing our job one, two or three flight attendants short, with equipment that often doesn’t work properly and with a product that has deteriorated.”

Harvard professor and author Rosabeth Moss Kanter likens this type of change-effort to putting lipstick on a bulldog. Rather than deal with an ugly and nasty problem (my apologies to bulldog owners), the manager makes superficial changes and tries to pass them off as real improvements. The result of this cosmetic effort is, as Kanter observes, that “the bulldog’s appearance hasn’t improved, but now it’s really angry.”

Taking an organization from good to great customer service ultimately depends on the people who provide that service. It can only happen through the volunteerism – the willingness to go beyond what is merely required – of people who serve on the front lines. Going from ordinary to extraordinary performance happens through the discretionary efforts of frontline staff deciding to make the thousands of “moment(s) of truth” (any time a customer interacts with the company in person, by phone, or electronically), they manage every day as positively as they possibly can. This enthusiasm, loyalty, or devotion can’t be forced on people. It only happens through a “culture of commitment,” where frontline people reflect to the outside the intense pride and ownership they are experiencing on the inside.

Here are some examples of the research showing the connection between internal and external service:

• The best predictor of customer satisfaction among workplace attributes is what Vanderbilt professor Roland Rust calls service climate: “those attributes of overall workplace climate that characterize how well equipped employees are to deliver customer service, such as the adequacy of resources and equipment and job skills development.”

• For every one percent increase in internal service climate there is a two percent increase in revenue.

• In cardiac care units where nurses’ moods were depressed, patient death rates were four times higher than in comparable units.

• Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration found that employees’ emotional commitment and sense of identity with the company is a key factor in providing excellent service.

• A study of call centers conducted by The Radclyffe Group found that “satisfied contact center employees make for satisfied and loyal customers… customers decide whether or not to make future purchasing decisions with a company, or to recommend its services to others, as a direct result of their experiences with a contact center representative… key indicators of contact center representative satisfaction include relationships with co-workers and management, job challenges, and frequency of development or training opportunities… sense of pride with their job and within the overall company.”

A company’s external customer service is only as strong as the company’s internal leadership, and the culture of commitment that this leadership creates. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, our service or brand promise can’t fool all of our customers all of the time. If the service messages are out of step with what’s ultimately experienced by customers, marketing dollars are wasted. And customer dissatisfaction rises right along with staff turnover. Scott Cook, founder of Intuit (creators of Quicken software), puts it this way; “Great brands are earned, not bought. Customer experience is where brand is built, not in the marketing budget.”

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“Above all, we know that an entrepreneurial strategy has more chance of success the more it starts with the users – their utilities, their values, their realities … the test of an innovation is always what it does for the user…it is by no means hunch or gamble. But it is also not precisely science. Rather, it is judgment.” – Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Just because a company is spending money on research (such as markets, customers, or new technologies) and development doesn’t mean they will get innovation. Innovation, as with advertising, training, or many other organization investments, depends on the quality of the investment as much as the quantity of resources put in it. A high proportion of innovative new products, services, and companies flop. That’s often because managers build better mousetraps without first making sure there are any mice out there. Or that people still want to catch them.

Many innovations come from a deeper level of customer and market understanding. They go beyond what current customers say they need. They solve problems that customers either don’t realize they have or didn’t know could be solved. These innovations create needs and performance gaps only once customers start using them and get turned on to the possibilities.

Every product and service we now take for granted was once silly, interesting, or just an odd curiosity. What would we have said to a market researcher asking about a video machine for our TV when there were few movies to rent? How about CD players when there were no CDs to buy? What about a bankcard to withdraw cash from an ATM? How about a personal computer? In the fifties, how highly would we have rated the need for jet planes when our business was conducted within a few hundred-mile radius of our office?

These are a few examples of the thousands of innovations that customer or market research and competitive benchmarking would never have identified a need for. The companies who pioneered these sorts of innovative breakthroughs had years of spectacular revenue growth and market leadership.

Walking in Our Customer’s Shoes

“The need for innovation on an unprecedented scale is a given. The question is how. It seems that giving the market free rein, inside and outside the firm, is the best – perhaps the only – satisfactory answer.” – Tom Peters, Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties

Innovation is a hands-on issue. It calls for an intimate understanding of our current customers and markets, potential new customers or markets, team and organization competencies and improvement opportunities, vision, values, and mission. We can’t develop that intimacy from a distance. Studies, reports, surveys, graphs, and measurements wouldn’t do it.

Effective innovation depends on disciplined management systems and processes. But it starts with people. People searching for creative ways to do things better, different, or more effectively. People trying to understand how other people use, or could use, the products or services their organization could produce. That makes innovation a leadership issue.

Beyond the management tools of surveys, focus groups, and the like, innovation leaders find a multitude of ways to live in their customers’ world. They’re learning how to learn from the market, not just market research. Innovation leaders look for ways to align the organization’s product and service development competencies with latent or unexpressed market and customer needs. Since customers don’t know what’s possible, they often can’t identify innovations that break with familiar patterns.

At the other extreme, leaders recognize that their organizations are constantly in danger of developing products and services with little or no market appeal. So many new (or extended) products and services come from empathic innovation. These are innovations that flow from a deep empathy and understanding of the intended customers’ problems and aspirations.

Through living in and empathizing with their customers’ world, innovation leaders focus their organization’s development capabilities on solving problems or meeting needs that customers may not realize could be done.

As my first consulting company, The Achieve Group, was working with current and prospective Clients to move beyond the training field to organization improvement, we stumbled across the need for senior management education, strategy formulation, and implementation planning sessions. This came from working closely with Clients struggling to get people in their organization trained and using new approaches to customer service, quality improvement, and teams. It became clear that how the senior management group pulled everything together and led the effort was the key stumbling block or stepping stone to the whole effort. After experiments, pilots, and few failures, Achieve’s highly successful executive retreat process evolved and developed to meet a need no one had anticipated.

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Marcus Evans complaints conferences are extremely popular among corporate and industries because of the immense value they add to the customer service area of operations. They run a range of events that focuses on the best ways to deal with customer complaints and turn it into a positive experience for the company.

Handling customer complaints successfully and looking at them as an opportunity rather than as a setback is the hall mark of a progressive thinking management. Complaints must be viewed as a feedback. It must be used as a pad to further strengthen those areas of operations that probably need more improvement as is evident from customer experience. It must be seen as a great opportunity to grow your business and develop newer strategies to get ahead of your nearest competitors.

Marcus Evans complaints conference teaches you how to use the complaints from customers to develop innovative strategies, products and services to suit the requirements of your target audience and the demands of an ever-changing market. There are many companies that have used the input provided by Marcus Evans to generate new business and mitigate customer complaints to a considerable extent. They all find it to be an intensive and useful format which are practical and can be used to fulfill corporate goals.

Marcus Evans complaints conference are professionally organized events where the quality of delegates are high and the ideas shared are truly innovative yet downright practical. Companies find it a really effective investment of their resources and time. The conference opens up innumerable opportunities to help organizations shore up the quality of operations and of course the value of products and services offered.

Marcus Evans was founded in 1983 and is the first name when it comes to improving the operations of any organization in the areas of intelligence, learning and training. They have an impressive list of clients that includes the world’s top 1000 companies. They currently employ over 3000 employees and have operations spread across the globe. They are the preferred business consultants because they maintain the highest standards of quality and service in the areas of research, technology and product development. If your need help in improving business intelligence then Marcus Evans is the one who can deliver the right solution.

Hundreds of Marcus Evans complaints conferences are held across the world every year and each one is a ranging success in terms of deliverance. They are the most recognized brand name in the business solutions industry.

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Many businesses are missing a trick by failing to using contact centre data to improve customer service.

Research by the Customer Contact Association revealed that only a small fraction of businesses were currently using customer data to develop their existing range of products and services.

The majority of businesses surveyed realised that gathering information could help them analyse what their customers experience when interacting with their organisation but most were failing to do this.

Too many businesses are concerned with evaluating customer experience through analysing and measuring metrics which only look at negative instances of consumer interaction.

Organisations are focusing too much on reducing negative factors such as levels of call abandonments and waiting times as well as the overall volume of complaints instead of looking at where consumers gain the most value.

While it is definitely worthwhile to reduce call waiting times, many organisations see this as the be-all and end-all of their service provision and forget about actually dealing with the consumer complaint or query in the first place.

Businesses should look at what their customers are complaining about the most to examine whether there is a fault with one of their processes as this will help them improve performance.

Performance improvement consulting professionals can apply systems thinking business theory to an organisation to help an organisation view their processes from a customer’s perspective.

Applying systems thinking will enable an organisation to learn what customers value the most when interacting with their business and this will demonstrate what processes to improve or redesign.

Companies should also be aware of that more customers are opting to use the internet as a means of contacting a business and this must be integrated into their customer services department.

An increasing number of people are taking to social networking sites such as Twitter to ask questions and air their grievances and this platform can be utilised by organisations as another way to respond to consumers.

Interacting with consumers on social media websites like Facebook is growing in popularity because negative comments left on such sites can be incredibly damaging for an organisation’s online reputation.

Customers that have their question or problem resolved through social media are more likely to express their gratitude on the same sites that they used and this will improve the status of a company.

If you want to improve customer service, then get in touch with management consultants who have experience working within your industry.

Sell to the customer’s value expectations, not to your value propositions.

We’ve all heard the rule of listening to what the customer has to say, and there’s not a salesperson who thinks they don’t listen to the customer. Reality, however, is quite the opposite. I find time after time when I’m working with salespeople across any number of industries that the failure to listen is a huge issue.

Too many salespeople believe because they know the products they represent much better than the client, they know exactly what the customer will see as real value. Yes, you as the agent are going to have a general indication of what a typical customer wants. However, when it comes to interacting with a specific customer, you can’t rely on a “general indication” of value.

The only way you are going to know what a customer will place value in is by asking them and getting them to tell you what they’re looking for. Sounds simple enough, and yet so many salespeople don’t do it.

If you don’t believe what I am saying, then let me share about the situation my wife found herself in while buying a car. The car she was looking at was an SUV with all the amenities of what people expect when looking for an SUV (4-wheel drive, ability to handle rugged winter driving, etc). The salesperson continued to press my wife on the value of these features of the SUV. The problem was that my wife wasn’t particularly interested in those features. Yes, we wanted an SUV, but my wife — the primary driver of the vehicle — was looking for an amazing sound system and heated, comfortable seats.

I can’t tell you the number of salespeople who lost the sale because they failed to understand what my wife’s value expectations were with regard to the car. We could easily have been sold on an SUV other than the one we bought, had the salesperson listened and put aside their pre-conceived notions of what a “typical buyer” of an SUV might be most interested in.

I share this example so that you can see that it’s not just about “understanding” this dynamic; it’s about learning from it and changing how you interact with customers. The learning is simple: Listen to what the customer is saying. They will tell you what their needs are when you ask them the right questions. This means not only do you need to ask the right questions, but you also need to hear what the customer is telling you and then ask them a follow-up question on what they just told you. Asking the follow-up question is key, because the vast majority of time, the customer will share with you much better insights when you show interest and involvement in what they’re telling you.

Once a person feels the other person is truly listening, it’s only natural for the quality of the conversation to become more real and engaging. By asking the follow-up questions, the salesperson will learn what the customer’s value expectations are. The salesperson can then finally work to close the sale to the customer’s expectations. When that happens, they will do more than just close the sale. There is a significant likelihood the sale will be closed at a higher profit, because the customer sees more value in what they’re buying.

You’ve had what you think is a great sales call. You feel you’ve done everything correct, and you are certain the customer will soon say “yes” to your offer.

Just as quickly as you think the customer will buy, they say something along the lines of, “I like what you’re offering, but your price is way too much.” Without missing a beat, you begin to shudder at the thought of losing the sale.

Let’s look at why your customer doesn’t like your price.

It comes down to one reason. The one and only reason your customer doesn’t like your price is because they have failed to see enough value in what you are offering to warrant paying the price.

Don’t believe for a moment it’s because a competitor might be offering a lower price. Certainly don’t allow yourself to believe the customer would be better off waiting for a better deal. Finally, don’t even entertain the thought that your price might really be too high.

The correct answer is the customer simply has not seen enough value in what you’re offering.

The easiest way to correct this problem is to get the customer’s input. Don’t wait to do this after they’ve rejected your offer, but rather do it at the beginning. At the start of the sales call is when the customer’s input is the most valuable. The reason I say this is because the first half of the sales call is when the customer is going to be the most forthcoming with information.

It’s not unusual during a sales call for the customer to begin sensing the salesperson may try to ask for the order. If the customer begins to believe this and they are the least bit hesitant, they may very well start throwing out false information. The customer may start talking about objections that are really irrelevant to their real need. They will do this purely to disarm the salesperson.

This is the reason why it is so important to engage the customer early in the sales call and to get them to begin sharing with you their wants and needs. The earlier they share with you this type of information, the better job you can do later in the call in following up on this information. You can then drill down deeper to get even more specific information. Your objective is to get the customer to really see that the issues they’re facing are significant – and the only solution available is the one you are offering.

Some of you might think this is manipulative selling or arm-twisting, but it’s not that at all. If you, the salesperson, are merely asking questions and getting the customer to do the majority of the talking, then how could it be called arm-twisting?

Your objective as the salesperson is to get the customer to share with you at least three reasons they need what you’re offering. One of the three should be time sensitive. The customer’s time-sensitive need will allow you to close the sale now. It’s the other two that will allow the customer to see why they need to buy.

I use three benefits as the minimum, but the more the customer shares with you, the higher the probability you will be able to close the sale. I use the number three because more often than not, if you try to close before the customer has shared three of their wants or needs, you won’t be as successful. Of course, this excludes the overwhelming benefit or need they share with you that is so big and time-sensitive that it invites an immediate close.

When the customer shares with you a time-sensitive need, this is a perfect opportunity to first validate the time need. You validate it by asking them a question to get them to share more about why time is an issue. By getting the customer to explain this further, you will discover that the customer usually becomes even more conscientious about why they need to buy from you right now.

When you feel as if a customer doesn’t like your price, you simply need to remember they only fail to see the value of what you are offering. As long as you remember it is your job to help them see the value, you will increase your odds of success dramatically. I’m not going to say you’ll be 100% successful with this approach, but I know the more you use it, the less often you will hear the “price” excuse when a customer doesn’t buy.

In today’s competitive environment, organizations cannot compete on product and price alone; they also must deliver an ideal service experience. With so much of competition in the product category and easy access to information about brands, products, and easy access to information about the vendor has made customer service experience a critical element of your company’s success or failure.

Organizations are including pre-sales and post sales interactions that allows your business to deliver a customer-focused and ideal service experience that successfully balances customer interests with business goals. SEM is the closed loop process of controlling and adjusting customer interactions while improving company performance. With SEM,

* Your company can control every step within each customer interaction to provide the ideal customer experience.

* You have the ability to provide this ideal service experience in accordance with a balanced set of key performance indicator

Today customer service processes have to be flexible and cannot be one size-fits all. Customers are looking at enterprises to resolve their issues and look for individual treatment. In enterprise customer service, four key performance indicators (KPIs) govern service operations – the customer satisfaction with each interaction; the revenue produced through the interaction; the cost of the interaction; and the level of compliance with company and governmental policies. A poor service experience can impact a customer’s future buying decisions in as little as three months. Responding to issues not only improves your support performance scores, but drives customer loyalty and business profitability.

It is important to provide a cross-channel customer experience via email, speaking or chatting with an agent, using web self service or by browsing. The information needs to be up-to-date and consistent across every channel.

When a customer is routed to an agent, the transition must be smooth. The call should be routed to the agent that can best help, and the agent needs to know what happened before the transfer so the customer doesn’t have to repeat information. The agent should also be aware of the customer’s interactions across all other channels, but should only be presented with the information they need to solve the issue at hand.

With the right contact center software in place, your customers get consistently great treatment every time they interact-regardless of the channel they choose. This results in a superior customer experience that keeps customers coming back for more.

Modernization has changed the style and procedure of business management and handling. Are you also worried about Customer Relationship Management for your fruitful business development!!!

Technology has opened the doors of advanced resources that can enable your business success at par excellence. Masses of crowd are these days tech savvy and are computer geeks. Most of the business and market has turned to online services. More and more of service seeker and service provider are seeking help of online solutions and services. All these due to the fact that online services are prompt, easy to fetch, most varied options at just one click and more over it has an approach all over the globe which is most amazing benefit to be online.

Every business thrives for its successful development which entirely depends upon its customers. Customer relationship management CRM emerged as a wide-application tool designed to reduce the burden of cost and enhance the profit ratio by gaining more and more loyal clientele. Here in this edition we will discuss WHY of CRM i.e. major advantages of online customer relationship management.

CRM management software is widely acquired these days as it is a legitimate powerful source and most adequate to help businesses to make best and most out of their resources, man-power and technology to get in-sight into conduct and value of consumer. Customer relationship management services offers most adequate search results and compile all sort of information relevant for the company from inside and outside world to know each and every customer nicely.

The most effective key that works universally is “To convince someone gets easier by understanding their ethics, morale, needs and behavior”. Similarly applies for business before imparting bunch of services unnecessarily can irritate your client whether having a sound communication and understanding can very well portray a better idea of customer needs and value. This entire procedure is worth but time consuming hence it was found that it creates huge impact so the empowering version that results customer relationship management for your business these days is CRM management software.

The most successful CRM strategy includes three key factors:

• People

• Process

• Technology

These are most powerful and amazing tools that completely offer you a hold on customer relationship management. Online available are best and leading companies which offers best quality services for customer relationship management services, CRM management software, sales management software, sales lead generator, client relationship management software and CRM software. You can acquire best and legitimate service provider companies for software customer management to get the organized management by CRM management software. You can cash most advantageous output out of customer relationship management only with the selection of reliable, experienced and most effective service provider for CRM management software.

Development should not be structured as a loner business development is a criterion which has to be developed on the basis of changing mindsets and preferences, pacing technology and advanced procedures and methods. It is highly essential to make business development match up with timely development or it can later on haul you back from present cut-throat rivalry. Change is a part of life adopts most advanced and technologically adept resource for effective customer relationship services and development of software customer management to lead a sound fruitful business with advanced technological approach and effective customer retention.

There are several times in your sales process when customer follow-up is critical.

1. When your customer is in the decision stage of the buying process.

Perhaps your customer did not buy at the time you showed them your product. This could be for many reasons – maybe they needed to talk it over with a spouse, or maybe they needed to save up some money. Maybe they went on vacation and forgot about you. There are many reasons why your customer may not buy from you the first time you show them your product. You owe it to that customer to remind them that you are still there ready to help them.

2. After your customer has purchased a product from you, it is imperative that you follow-up with that customer to see how the product is working out for them.

Perhaps you would eventually want to show them some additional features that they may have overlooked or forgotten about. You need to assess their satisfaction with your product for two reasons. If they are unhappy with the product, you want to make sure you find a way to make it right. Either they should receive a full refund, or another product, or something so that the last experience the customer has with you is a positive one.

If the customer is happy with your product, you need to ask for a referral to other people they know who might like your product. You also want to ask for a testimonial from your happy customers. Testimonials are valuable to add to your marketing materials.

3. Finally, if a customer has purchased from you before, and they were happy with the experience, they are likely to purchase from you again if you have additional products or services that match their needs.

It is up to you to continue to follow-up with information and relevant suggestions for products that will help your customer.

You Need a Customer Follow Up System

Have you developed a plan for customer follow-up yet? If not, this section will help you get organized. Is the desk in your small business office overrun with business cards to search through every time you need a phone number? Perhaps you are using a day timer or on-line calendar. Perhaps you are using a contact manager. These are good tools but you need a better follow-up strategy.

If your customer follow-up system consists of boxes of business cards or names scribbled on writing pads I have a plan for you.

Continue reading ‘Customer Follow-Up is an Important Key to the Sales Success of Your Small Business’ »