That Payday Punch

There is a right way and a wrong way to try to get a prospect on the phone that is guarded by a secretary or another sentry.

The wrong way is to start the call by asking, “Is Mr. Smith in?”

Who wants to know? Does he know you? Have you spoken before? Are you selling something?

The same type of response is provoked by the polite question, “May I speak to Mr. Smith, please?”

Some brash intruders try to demand: “I need to speak to Mr. Smith!”

Again, they’re likely to be shot down by call sentries.

To get through, we need to communicate the idea that we deserve admittance, using the equivalent of a “password” so the gate will be lifted, and we’ll be allowed to pass through.

One way to signal that we warrant cooperation is to disclose vital information in advance.

“Hello, Gary Goodman, with Customersatisfaction.com, for Bill Smith please; thank you!”

In one economical phrase I’ve told the sentry my name, my company, and the person with whom I wish to speak. I’ve sounded polite, professional, and firm, even thanking the person, in advance, for his or her cooperation.

This line, by itself, will get you in much more often than the alternatives, listed above.

But you may need more ammunition, and that I’ll provide in future articles.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Everyone has experienced the sales blues, when everything seems perfect and you are confident the sale is going to close until you hear the words, “sorry, we’re going ahead with someone else.” It is important that we take the emotion out of the sales loss and learn something for it, in order to learn from our mistakes and create more successful closes in the future. Always remember that you cannot always control what happened to close the lost sale, but you can chose your response. The success of your sales future is made by these choices, it is important that you make the right ones.

When you’ve lost a sale, it is good to go through the following steps:

1)Be a hero-try with lots of digging to save the sale, if possible until you’ve determined that the deal is dead. Amazingly, studies indicate that 75% of deals lost can be resurrected if the salesperson will continue to be upbeat and persistent.

2)Find out why. This information is essential because it can help you get better and make the loss give you a return on investment for your future deals.

Be direct with the customer and ask: “What could I have done differently to earn your business? You won’t hurt my feelings, it’ll help me to continue to improve.” Then do something with the response you receive.

3)Continue to stay in touch with the contact. Frequently, the customer/prospect will rethink their decision to go to another provider right after their purchase. Keep your name in front of them and in your mailing list. It pays to check back and see how they are being treated by the new organization, you never know when they may need to make a change.

4)Sincerely thank them for their time by sending a card. Guaranteed this will differentiate you from 99% of all salespeople out there.

If the current provider has not done this, it puts you and your organization at a much higher level in the event they should decide to make a change.

5)Ask for referrals. Don’t hesitate to ask for a referral, just because they didn’t buy from you doesn’t mean they aren’t aware of others who could benefit from your services/products. In addition, you also keep the lines of communication open with the customer you lost the sale with.

6)Move on to the next opportunity. View it as a learning opportunity and don’t take it personally. Know the law of numbers and the sale lost just puts you closer to your next sale.

Finally, keep in mind that you have no choice about what happens to you but by choosing the best response you will enable yourself to experience success in future deals.

Tim Hagen owns and operates Sales Progress LLC in Mequon, Wisconsin. He has worked with organizations such as Bombardier Evinrude, Dairyland Seed and the Milwaukee Brewers. He has typically increased sales between 15-35% in virtually any industry. For additional information, please contact him directly at salebuilder@aol.com or http://www.SalesProgress.com.

There is no question the fact that the triumph of a firm ultimately depends on the hard work of the workforce, although one event can easily wipe out all your work and shrink the revenue to dust. So, to evade such an occasion, you are suggested to insure your business, whether it’s a small enterprise or a big corporation. Nevertheless, please note that SMEs are a great deal more likely to require business insurance protection in today’s world. This is mainly because smaller firm owners will have put their complete lives & earnings straight into the organisation.

A few of the items usually guarded by most business insurance covers comprise of: natural tragedies, landslides, machine or equipment malfunction that shuts down the company, loss of profits as a result of workforce slip-up and court cases brought against the company.

There are many insurance businesses, which provide covers that include protection for all main property & liability risks in one entire package. You can also opt for a separate policy. Such cover is typically labelled as a business owners’ policy (BOP). Bigger organisations might well get a commercial cover.

BOPs incorporate building insurance for buildings & gear belonging to the business. If there is any loss of profits because of disruption of systems & production because of accidents like hurricanes, it can be covered under the Business Interruption Insurance policy.

There are several policies, which protects the company’s legal accountability for the harm it might inflict to others. It is the consequence your businesses failure to do the business operations. It can as well be the actual injury or property damage caused through flawed items, faulty installations and blunders in services provided. Find a public liability insurance quote online today.

Still, BOPs do not protect against professional liability, motor cover, staff re-payment or health and disability insurance. Separate policies are essential for professional services, vehicles & employees. More often than not, floods, earthquakes and terrorist attacks are not covered in the business policy. Please double check before you acquire a policy!

It pays to be specific. I believe that statement is true. If it is true, why do so many salespeople pepper their sales presentations with phrases of generalities? There are two primary reasons. One is habit and the other is instinct.

So many people in and out of sales speak in generalities. It’s really hard to pin them down for the details. If speaking in generalities comes so naturally to so many people – it has to be instinctive. In sales it’s tempting to impress new and prospective customers. One of the ways salespeople do this is with their product and service presentations.

These presentations often include references to the following:

=> How many products are in your product line?
=> How many years your company has been in business?
=> How many customers you have worked with.
=> How much of your business is repeat business?
=> How much of a discount you’re planning to offer to get the business?
=> How much your product improves productivity?
=> How much your product reduces the cost of doing something?

When the time is right to begin talking about your products you’d be a fool not talk about these things. But for some inexplicable reason salespeople usually follow a similar path. Let’s review this list and see how salespeople tend to use all of the above during a sales presentation.

=> We have over 20,000 products in our product line.
=> Our Company has been in business more than 30 years.
=> Our customer database includes more than 30,000 customers.
=> Last year more than 50% of our business came from existing customers.
=> Because of the quantity you’re buying I’m delighted to offer you a 20% discount.
=> Our product will improve your department’s productivity at least 20%.
=> Our product will reduce the operating costs for this project by more than 10%.

Do you notice what all these statements have in common? All of the numbers cited end in a zero. Zeros seldom add credibility. In fact, they detract from it. Salespeople tend to feel more secure when they’re not pinned down by the specifics. Generalities make you feel good, but they don’t make you sound good.

It takes a great deal of self-discipline and determination to speak with any degree of specificity. Here’s an example that has repeated itself many times.Whenever I conduct an on-site sales training program (usually one-half day) I always provide the decision-maker, because he’s usually the one who introduces me, with a prepared introduction. It’s exactly what I want him to say and it also takes the pressure off him to improvise something at the last minute.

The last three lines of my introduction are:
– He has worked with 458 different organizations.
– Last year 68% of his business was repeat business.
– Jim Meisenheimer, Inc. has achieved 16 consecutive years of increased sales and profitability.

All the introducer has to do is read the introduction.Here’s how the last three lines are often delivered. He has worked with over 400 different organizations. Last year more than 60% of his business was repeat business.
Jim Meisenheimer, Inc. has increased sales every year he’s been in business.

Ironically, even with a written script the generalities come bubbling to the surface. Let’s try it one more time and see if you can sense the difference.

=> We have 21,973 products in our product line as of July 1st.
=> Our Company has been in business 33 years.
=> Our customer database includes 32,877 customers.
=> Last year 57.5% of our business came from existing customers.
=> Because of the quantity you’re buying I’m delighted to offer you a savings of $785.34.
=> Our product improved ABC Customer’s productivity by 23.6%.
=> Our product reduced the operating costs for XYZ by 12.7%.

Okay, let’s wrap it up. Think about these five questions.

1. Do you want to get someone’s attention?
2. Do you want to create the impression that you’ve done your homework?
3. Do you want to build credibility throughout your sales presentation?
4. Do you want to differentiate yourself from your competition?
5. Do you want to increase your sales?

You can do all of these things and more if you trade-in your generalities for more specifics. Specifics are more credible and believable than generalities.

Simply stated, you’ll become more believable and credible as soon as you become more specific.

Jim Meisenheimer is the creator of No-Brainer Sales Training. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268 or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com

Imagine you just met someone new. The formalities of names, jobs and the like have been exchanged and you seem to be getting along famously. But before you know it, a few minutes pass – and it looks like you’re running out of clichés!

Now what?

There comes a time in every conversation with someone you’ve just met when you must cross the chasm between “HOW are you?” and “WHO are you?” A helpful technique for doing so is by asking creative, open ended questions. These questions function as front porches, inasmuch as their ability to build rapport, spark creativity and invite people to share their experiences and preferences. What’s more, they show an interest in people’s opinions and insights.

The following list is an excerpt from my most recent book, The Power of Approachability, which has just been released and is available for sale on www.hellomynameisscott.com.

1) Who are some of your mentors?
Mentoring is a hot topic right now. In fact, some people make a living setting up mentoring programs for businesses and organizations! That’s awesome. People need more mentors. I know I’d be lost without mine. So, it’s a perfect topic to bring up with someone you’ve just met. And you can learn a great deal about your conversation partner when you ask this question.

My friend Michael, for example, has a life coach, business mentor and spiritual advisor! When I first learned these facts about him I gained a new insight into the type of person he was. As a result I felt more comfortable sharing those same insights about myself. That’s another beautiful thing about asking these types of questions: self-disclosure.

2) What’s the one book that’s been most influential on your business?
I go out of my way to ask this question to someone almost every day. It’s probably because I am an author and I love to read. But also, the books people read are partly responsible for creating who they are and how they do business.

I gave a speech a few days ago during which I asked the audience this question. The responses were excellent…and varied. People yelled titles ranging from The Bible to How to Win Friends and Influence People to The Yellow Pages (nice creative thinking on that last one!)

3) What’s the biggest mistake you made in your first year of business?
Admitting mistakes, embarrassing moments and errors you’ve made is a perfect way to invite someone into your heart. After all, a self-deprecating remark is one of the most effective forms of humor. And people love to know that the person they’re talking to is human, just like them. Talk about making an instant connection!

A few weeks ago I popped this question during the Q & A session of a National Speakers Association meeting. When I finished, the room “ooooohed.” It sounded like a studio audience of a sitcom! Then the panelist I addressed chuckled and offered his response, which was a story about a failed project he worked on a few years back. When he finished a few minutes later he said, “Thanks – that was a really great question!”

4) What part of your job do you enjoy the most?
This question is one of my all time favorites. It’s fun, positive and always puts a smile on someone’s face – because people love to talk about what they love.

Take my dad, for example. He’s worked in the closeout business for about 30 years as the president of the St. Louis based CWC Inventories (Closeouts with Class). When I asked him this question he said, “The Booth! I LOVE standing at our booth at those trade shows, talking to customers we’ve had for 20 years, showing them new deals. That’s the best part about my job.”

If you only used one question from this article, this should be the one. Ask it today. And just watch how the dynamic of your conversation partner’s persona changes. It’s beautiful.

5) What quotations or motivational phrases do you live by?
The challenging, impromptu nature of this question stumps a lot of people. However, no better reflection of one’s values shines like the words they live by. One of the valuable activities I do during various speeches is to have people write one of their “words to live by” on the bottom of their nametags. Then they have to share it with as many people as possible in the next five minutes. The room fills with laughter, smiles and instant connections! People discover CPI’s (Common Points of Interest) and get to know each other on a new level.

Next time you have a meeting or a group session, try this activity out. And just watch the connections spark.

6) What’s your preferred method of getting the news?
I enjoy asking this last question because it’s a generation mirror. Whether you obtain your news from Larry King, CNN, Paul Harvey, USA Today, Yahoo, Google, Newsgroups, List Serves, Talk Radio or your local news station, each medium offers insight about:

A person’s learning style, i.e., visual, aural, etc.

A great benefit of this question is its leveraging ability. Say your friend is obsessed with talk radio, and you come across a great new program on your local station. Well…call him up! Tell him you heard about this great new show and say “I thought you might like this.” It will make his day!

What’s more, he’ll KNOW you were taking an interest during that initial conversation when you learned this information. He’ll REMEMBER how you engaged with him. And he’ll FEEL the transition from HOW are you to WHO are you. After all, that’s what unforgettable communication is all about.

© 2005 All Rights Reserved.

Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, “The World’s Foremost Expert on Nametags” and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators – one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com.

Watching poker on television, you will often see a poker player show his bluff and wow the audience. It’s fun to see, but the times that it’s a good idea to show a bluff are few and far between. Many players like to show off how well they bluffed another player, and I’m all for that, because it hive you a better idea of how they play and what they’ll do with certain hands. Think about it-magicians never tell how they do their illusions because it would remove all of their mystique and effectiveness. It’s the same principle with showing how you won a hand. When you raise and another player or players fold their hands, it’s because they are afraid that you have a better hand than they do. When you rake in your chips without showing your cards, you leave them wondering what you had. If you decide to show your bluff however, then you show them an aspect of how you play poker, and they’ll be able to act accordingly the next time you raise.

Conversely, the times that you should show your bluffs are few, but effective. The only time I’ll show my bluff is if I bluff a player who I know has a tendency to go on tilt. If I think that seeing my bluff will enrage him enough to push him over that edge, then it’s worth the reveal.

Do you know what makes a good customer for your company? I’ll bet you do. You know whether your company is better with the Fortune 500 or the Inc. 500. You know what product lines your operations service best and where the quality is the highest. You know what industries are willing to pay a premium for your level of customer care. You probably even know which customers are likely to have a long and profitable relationship with you and which are just looking for the lowest bidder for this quarter’s supplies.

On the other hand, you know how to identify bad customers, too. The poor fits, the bad credit risks, and the demanding QA departments. The ones that ask for expensive prototypes with little probability of a significant purchase. Unfortunately, we book these either because they are easy sales or because we don’t have enough good business ready to close. As a result, we waste valuable personal time and company resources on clients that will never show a significant return on the investment.

Open up your Daytimer? right now and identify three clients that you know, in your heart of hearts, are bad fits for your company. Take this list to your sales manager and operations director and see if they agree. Now comes the hard part. Fire the bad clients!

I was facilitating a discussion at one of my clients last week when this very issue came up. It became clear that too many scarce engineering resources were being spent on projects that would never pay back the investment. As we outlined a typical ‘bad client’, the room erupted in a chorus of “I know which client that is!” We all agreed that this project had to be ended for the good of the company and, in fact, for the good of the client who would eventually be under-served. I asked, “Who’s going to call the client and tell them the bad news?” Without hesitation the most senior representative in the room raised his hand. Without one complaint Isaac said, “It’s my client. I’ll call them.”

We can’t focus on the winners until we shed the losers. Help your company win by understanding what makes a good client. Be willing to turn down bad business even when it means a big commission. Help your company win by following Isaac’s example. It’s your client. Make the call.

For a free copy of “5 Steps to Firing a Client”, email article7@waterhousegroup.com and ask for article #7.

Now go find some good business for your company!

Stephen Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse Group (www.waterhousegroup.com). They specialize in helping companies increase their sales and profits. He can be reached at 1-800-57-LEARN or steve@waterhousegroup.com.

Re-Print Permission This article may be reprinted in it’s entirety if the following conditions are met:

The complete tag with the author’s name and contact information is included immediately after the article. A copy of the printed article is mailed to the author at 1467 Walnut Creek Drive, Orange Park, FL 32003 within 30 days of publication. The article is presented in a positive light as part of an appropriate business related publication.

Are traffic tips important?…

Just think: someone told you that if you aren’t on Internet, you don’t exist. So you started reading about how to create a web page or you hired an expensive designer and finally, you are the owner of Internet’s most awesome web page about your product.

That’s fine! But…

Who’s going to find your web page among other 3.000 million web pages?

It doesn’t matter if you have a home made web page or a professional expensive made web page. People won’t find you unless you start attracting traffic to your web page.

Suppose for a moment that you have succeeded and you start receiving 1000 hits per week in your web page, is that good enough?

Well it depends… If you where receiving zero, 1000 looks pretty good to start, but the key question is. Do you just receive 1000 hits of ANY kind of people or 1000 TARGETED hits.

By Targeted Hits I mean people who’s looking for what you are offering. And believe me the key to an easy home business is to get TARGETED visitors.

There are many different ways to attract targeted visitor to your web page:

Search Engines Directories Links from other web sites Off-line media Word of mouth e-mail signatures Usenet Newsgroups Unsolicited e-mail Banners Opt-in mailing lists Ezines Why did I use different colors, just to point the difference between the: Good Never use Not so good

Lets have a brief description of each one of them…

SEARCH ENGINES & DIRECTORIES

As you probably know 80% of the sales usually come from 20% of the promoting effort, and with Search Engines this numbers usually are 90% – 10 %.

So, to have a good traffic wave, you will use a lot of different means of promotion, but 90 % of it will come from Search Engines and Directories; so they are the back bone of the Internet marketing, and here is where you have to apply your biggest effort to do the things in the right way.

And the best part of it is that they are a free!

LINKS FROM OTHER WEB SITES

You can get links to your web page from two different sources:

*Search Engines: when your potential visitor asks for information about one of your main keywords, the Search Engine will show your web address link in their results. This will result in a visitor to your web site IF you are listed in the first 20 web addresses shown, people very rarely go after the first 20 results

*Other sites: every good marketer is interested in providing good content to their customers, because if they like the content of their web pages, they’ll keep on returning for more information. So other sites might point to your web page if they consider that’s a good information to give to their customers

OFF-LINE MEDIA

There are many off line ways to generate traffic to your site: *Printed media *TV *Direct mail *Telemarketing scripts *Stationary *Flyers *Catalogs *Billboards *Blimps *News releases to targeted media *Business cards. *Etc.

I told you above that the first and best way to attract targeted visitors to your web page is through Search Engines and Directories, well… the second best way to attract visitors to your web site is to write an article for a magazine or newspaper that reaches your targeted market.

And why is this so important? Because if an important magazine or newspaper shows an article written by YOU, there is an implied endorsement from them. Their customers believe in them, and if they show YOUR article the customers feel they should believe in YOU.

WORD OF MOUTH

Word of mouth will cost you nothing and that makes it a very cost-effective way of attracting targeted customers. What could be better than a real person’s testimony? But it isn’t easy to get.

Why is people going to talk about you?

They will only talk about you and refer you if your offer them extremely good content, and if you treat them as if they where your only customer!

E-MAIL SIGNATURES

Very easy to create and free too!

This is a very powerful and legal way to attract targeted customers because every time you write an e-mail to one of your customers they see it.

And it becomes a strong way of promotion if you write to newsgroups, mailing lists, or any other place where many people will see it.

E-mail signatures are a combination of a business card and PS it should be located at the end of all your e-mail, and are the second most important part of any sales letter.

USENET NEWSGROUPS

We must distinguish between two kind of Newsgroups, Forums and Mailing lists

*Loosely regulated groups: Where anyone can write about anything. Yes you will be able to put your add here, but as anyone can, they are flooded and scarcely anyone pays much attention to the

*Serious groups: That will have strict self-enforced rules. Write any commercial stuff to them and you’ll be flamed. Here you have to build a relationship with the group, honestly participate in their discussions and they won’t care if your include your e-mail signature, but don’t try to fool them. They will insult you or you’ll get banned or both.

As a matter of fact, unless your product or service and the Newsgroups topic have a perfect fit, it’s better not to use them. You will have to read everyone’s postings everyday, and contribute regularly to get a small response and a lot of spam.

UNSOLICITED E-MAIL

If you send un-targeted e-mail to anyone, and don’t provide your name, reply e-mail address and a way to be removed, that’s named spam

My advice is no to use it, not only for moral issues, but because it doesn’t work, you will end loosing your ISP, your web sites and hours of hard work.

A different thing is to write to targeted lists of people that have specifically accepted to receive your e-mail. (Although most of them accept your e-mail because they want to receive some free gift offered to tempt them, and so are a low motivated un-targeted market)

BANNERS

Lets be direct: how many times do YOU click over a banner?

A banner to be of any use has to be: *Very well designed to produce high impact *It has to be animated to catch attention *It has to load quickly *It should be at the top or the bottom of the page to get best results *It better be the only one on the site *They are too expensive for most of the companies

That you read about a banner exchange program that’s free. Don’t dream about it. It’s never free, it will cost you A LOT of money, because although someone MIGHT click over your banner that’s shown in other site, when a targeted prospect that’s browsing YOUR site, clicks over the exchange banner, you can say good bye to your prospect. And that’s a lot of money!

OPT-IN MAILING LISTS

This is a good selling method! Because only targeted people will opt-in to your mailing list, BUT although opt-ins allow you to create a relationship with a targeted prospect that when they start trusting you, in many cases will by from you, this is a long term relationship, and here we are talking of TRAFFIC developers.

This is NOT a good way to develop traffic, is a good way to develop sales in the long term

EZINES

Same as with opt-ins, this is a long term sales source, not a traffic developer.

If you are looking for a good traffic building tips ebook, you can find it here: http://www.easy-home-business.com/how-to- sell.html

Written by Dr. Roberto A. Bonomi

There has been just about two metres of snow during the last seven days. The snow was so heavy that chairlifts were stopped, the railroad train was stopped at the Chamonix train station and not going onwards to Argentiere. Several roads have been closed and avalanche warnings published.

This is in direct contrast to a couple of seasons past, with the unbelievably warm February weather conditions, mud appearing on ski slopes, and reports that global warming would mean the end of snowboarding in France. The report from winter 2005 admonished that climate change could make ski holidays far too expensive for the majority of holiday makers, with one-third of ski resorts going bust and the disappearance of glaciers. Scientists assert that it is nearly impossible to attribute the seasonal differences in the weather to the off shoots of global warming.

So we may be experiencing the longest recession in nearly 30 years, and the Sterling has plummeted to more levels against the euro, but the conditions are fantastic, and the latest reservations highlight that people are enthusiastic to take of advantage of the supreme conditions with our ski accommodation full. This season is undoubtedly the best in eight seasons, and many are announcing it is the finest skiing conditions in ten winter seasons.

All the same recollect that big dumps like these mean significant avalanches risks.

4C THE FUTURE

Foresee the future, that’s what your customers expect, that’s what you need to deliver.

In an ever increasing global marketplace, the degree to which companies can deliver ongoing value to their customers’ evolving needs, determines their continued success. Value is a personal thing and successful companies discover what value means to their customers quickly, effectively and continuously. The challenge is great and meeting that challenge requires companies to recruit, train, develop and reward their people to deliver current and future value. Skills, knowledge, behaviours and thinking need to be uncovered and honed to enable people to deliver their best for the company and their customers.

If that is true, what implication does that have for leadership and senior management teams? The strategies that enable a company to gain and maintain customers are only as effective as the people that implement them; so recruiting, training, developing and rewarding those people effectively, is crucial. A phrase commonly used is the war on talent; but should it be a battle? What if a company’s talent strategy was such that the right people were attracted to rather than fought for?

At the frontline of any company is its salesforce. The salesforce of the future will need to reconsider the way it “sells”. “Tomorrow’s customers won’t just be looking for products they’ll be looking for solutions and services. In order to deliver them, companies will have to know everything about their customer’s organisation and how their products and services touch them… not only will companies have to figure out their customer’s current needs but they will have to work hard to anticipate their future needs as well….it will mean changing people’s mindsets from product centric to customer – service-centric” (1)

Building relationships to sell products is no longer enough. The salesperson of the 21@ needs to be a solutions provider and business partner for their customer. The increasing availability and usability of technology by companies means that there is greater transparency of price and product, so companies looking to develop and maintain long term customer loyalty need to transform their saleforces into customer advocates.

Traditional selling methods and their associated skills, will be less relevant, and more emphasis on building trust and rapport, creative thinking, needs analysis and partnership management will deliver the value customers expect. In a global context, these skills are even more critical as there are added dimensions of managing global strategies in local markets, understanding cultural differences and dealing with location, time and technological variations. One person may live in UK, have their HQ in Germany and their client base in EMEA, another may live in USA have their HQ in France and their client base in Asia. Effectively managing people and strategies in this context increases the need for having the right people in the right jobs to best serve those differently located customer bases. “Companies will have to burst out of their traditional habits to become true learning organisations.” (1)

To prepare customer advocates of the future and evolve current salespeople into customer advocates, there are 4 key areas that companies should focus on

CAPABILITY, COMPATIBILITY, CONNECTIVITY AND CREATIVITY.

CAPABILITY “Skills, knowledge and talents are distinct elements of a person’s performance. The distinction being, that skills and knowledge can be taught whereas talents cannot… Talents are recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behaviour that can be productively applied.” (2) They are a person’s mental filters. This has implications when recruiting and developing salespeople. In order to identify the skills and knowledge a customer advocate needs may mean approaching recruitment and training in a different way. If you can’t train talents e.g. being proactive, you need to select for it. Assuming you have selected salespeople with talent and potential how do you determine the training, and development that will optimise their talents and uncover their potential.

Firstly identify the business outcomes you need your salespeople to achieve. Without business orientated outcomes training and development becomes a “so what?” activity adding no value to the individual, the company or the customer. Secondly, create individual learning paths to optimise current skill and knowledge strengths, minimise weaknesses, develop potential and utilise talent. This may mean no more “sheep dip” training programmes. This may mean no more performance reviews constantly telling someone they need to be more proactive.

The insight of great managers is that “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough” (2)

COMPATIBILITY

Sales managers or directors need their teams to deliver for their company and their customers. They need their teams to collaborate effectively. Often this is interpreted, as we need people who are XYZ and who can do ABC i.e. a team of like minded individuals equally capable and equipped. Great managers say, “excellent teams are built around individual excellence. The manager’s role is to make sure that each individual is positioned in the right role…to balance the strengths and weaknesses of each individual so that they complement each other” (2)

Having a team with diverse skills and talents adds strength, as there are opportunities for flexibility and adaptability. As markets change, a company’s speed of reaction becomes paramount to maintaining competitive advantage. This may mean creating ad hoc teams or to use a military term “rapid reaction forces” These teams may consist of people who don’t know each other, aren’t located together and have no experience of the task/market or product they are being asked to deliver. However, through their diverse capabilities, talents, nationality and cultural awareness, as a compatible team, they can collaboratively determine their goal, plan and implement a strategy to deliver successfully much quicker and effectively than could a like minded group, who all think and act the same. Imagine a soccer team with 11 goalkeepers!

CONNECTIVITY

“…the reason for virtual team failure is directly related to the difficulties of building trusting, positive relationships across the three boundaries of geographical distance, time zones and cultural differences.” (3)

Where a company is a global player, the nature of its sales teams is different. A salesperson may have to manage a multi-site and/or multi-country customer and become a global account manager. They need to manage a global strategy in local markets and deal with the differences of time, location and culture. They need to think and communicate differently to ensure their customer, their team, their manager and their HQ and support areas are kept informed and aware of what they are doing for and with their customers. Providing and using appropriate resources to manage this connectivity issue will often be a key factor in effectiveness. To truly share information and learn from it to benefit the customer e.g. develop new products, takes well developed communication structure and processes.

“If one part of the company learns something important about a process or market or customer, it has to be communicate to all…Sharing knowledge avoids re-inventing the wheel and with all players up to speed, less explanation is required to make changes and become more nimble in the market. That is the core of a learning organisation” (1)

As such sales managers will take the role of conductor and orchestrator ensuring that all the players keep in time, play the same tune and complete on cue together to give an unforgettable performance for their audience.

CREATIVITY

Inside the successful organisations of the future, product developers must translate the customer’s changing needs onto new products and services. Tomorrow’s corporate leaders will have to discover new ways to make sure that everyone in the organisation… keep their eyes on one thing; the customer” (1) If they don’t their competitors will.

If a more intimate relationship between company/salesperson and the customer is needed, the traditional selling methods of “selling” features and benefits won’t work. A more consultative/partnership approach needs to be adopted. This will involve salespeople being industry, market and customer specialists. Only then can innovative or creative solutions be discovered. Maintaining the edge is crucial to succeed Taking this one step further, means that companies need to create processes for dealing with change and having the will, resources and structure to exploit it ahead of their rivals.

Delivering global value to customers has a variety of implications for salesforces. To keep ahead of the competition requires capable people, compatible teams, connectivity networks and creative solutions. The task for company leaders is to provide the structure and resources for mangers to deliver these for their people.

1 – The Great Business Challenges of the New Millennium – HR Chally 2002 2 – First Break All The Rules – Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman 3 – Grovewell – www.grovewell-global.com