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Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

By: Stephen Novak

I was heading home after a late meeting and didn’t feel like cooking.  On my way was an Italian restaurant that I’d heard had great food – being a sucker for Italian, I thought I’d give it a try.  When I entered the building I walked to the front counter. I approached the employee behind the register who was seated on a bar stool leaning back against the wall while staring off into space.  I explained that this was my first visit, I had heard good things, and would like to order some dinner to-go.  The employee leaned forward…popped out his ear buds…and said, “Hugh”.   I took a step back and then repeated what I had just said.  He had a puzzled look on his face as he said, “You can’t order to-go food up here.” 

Of course I asked, “Well, where can I order food to-go?”  He pointed to an area towards the back of the restaurant…put his ear buds back in…and leaned back.  I walked to the area that he designated and waited…and waited.  Two servers walked by at least twice before I flagged one of them down.  I immediately recognized the why-are-you-bothering-me look on her face.  I’d go on, but the rest of my visit wasn’t any better.  This experience enlightened me to the fact that although good customer service may be hard to define, poor customer service stands out like fingernails scraping along a chalkboard.  Let me explain:

You could pull a hundred different people off the street and ask them the question, “What is good customer service?”  And you would probably get a hundred different responses.  What’s OK for one person may not be good for another, but there are some fundamentals that must be present in any customer interaction.

Some typical “good customer service” elements that we all look for are:

1. We want to feel welcomed when we enter a business.
2. We want to be treated with respect.
3. We want to be listened to.
4. We want to get what we were promised and treated fairly.
5. We want to be thanked for our business.

Any business that is serious about providing good customer service must have these elements at the core of their customer service process.  Keep in mind that these elements are just a starting point.  If your goal is to provide excellent customer service, then you must notch up the intensity of the above elements while monitoring their effectiveness.  Tweak when necessary and eliminate any obstacle that prevents your customers from having such a positive experience that they honor you with their business time and time again.

Copyright © Stephen Novak 2011 Rising Moon Publications. All rights reserved.

By: Stephen Novak

I remember when starting a new business was as easy as…

1. The IDEA.
2. Acquiring some powdered lemonade.
3. Mix it up in a pitcher with water, sugar, and ice.
4. Put up a card table by a busy sidewalk.
5. Painting a sign that reads, “ICE COLD LEMONADE .35 CENTS A GLASS”.
6. Smile and say hello to people. 
7. Make sure that the lemonade doesn’t get too watered down from the ice melting.

Come to think of it…starting a business today requires very similar steps.  Just on a larger scale.  Let’s look at some key points compared to our theoretical lemonade stand.

1. The idea  =  the visualization stage. This is usually the most exciting part.  One can explore the possibilities of taking a raw gut feeling and transforming a dream into something innovative, rare, and successful.  Enjoy this stage but don’t linger in it – once an idea is revealed, it quickly starts to accumulate dust and lose its luster.
2. Acquiring some powdered lemonade, sugar, water and ice  =  The acquisition of the materials and concepts that lay out the building blocks of the product or service that you want to sell.  This may require financing: please read one my earlier posts “Starting a small business” (July, 30^th 2011) for more information on this topic.
3. Mix it in a pitcher  =  the manufacturing, making, or developing your product or service.  This is the nuts-and-bolts of your operation.  If you are predominantly a service oriented business, how you do what you do is more important than what you do. It’s your know-how and skill that will differentiate you from your competition.  If you will provide a product, will you manufacture it yourself or have it built for you?  What will be unique about its nomenclature?
4. Put up a card table where people can see you  =  the location of your business.  This could be a standard brick and mortar or web based site.The U.S. Small Business Administration has an excellent page that discusses this topic in great detail.  http://www.sba.gov/content/tips-choosing-business-location
5. Paining a sign  =  advertising.  This is your declaration to the masses: who you are, what you are about, and what you can do for them.  This proclamation could be as subtle as a handing out business cards, or as obvious as a flying around in a blimp with your name plastered all over the side.  There are literally thousands of new and innovative ways to get you name out there.  Explore.  Have fun.    
6. Smile and say hello to people  =  customer service.  This involves hiring, training, and holding accountable qualified customer service artists.  Without a proper customer focused business strategy, you will be out of business in no time.
7. Make sure that the lemonade doesn’t get watered down  =  Quality control.  This may be one of the most overlooked areas of any small business.  Big businesses have processes like Six Sigma in place to measure and improve their products or processes.  It may not be practical or cost effective for a small business to have a whole quality control department; however, it must be the responsibility of everyone in your business to make sure that by the time your product or service contacts the customer, it represents what you need it to. Any business must continually ensure that the products or services that they are offering exceed their customers’ expectations.

So we’ve had the vision, got the startup cash, created our product or service, picked our location and got the word out…whew…that was hard work.  I think I’ll have a glass of that lemonade now.

Copyright © Stephen Novak 2011 Rising Moon Publications. All rights reserved.

By: Stephen Novak

 Everything we do requires some form of a process.  From brushing our teeth to planning a trip, there is always a chain of events.  Merriam-Webster defines a process as:

1 a : progress, advance <in the process of time>

   b : something going on : proceeding

2 a (1) : a natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result <the process of growth> (2) : a continuing natural or biological activity or function <such life processes as breathing> b : a series of actions or operations conducing to an end; especially : a continuous operation or treatment especially in manufacture.

We learned as a child how to brush our teeth, walk, and eventually ride a bike.  These processes took practice and determination to perfect.  A novice salesperson should constantly read new books, continually train with knowledgeable teachers, and diligently practice with the same resolve as a strong-minded child.  Come to think of it – experienced salespeople should do the same thing!!!   

 As an exercise, let’s look at a basic step-by-step approach to sales – The ever enduring 5 Steps To A (Anything) Sale:

1) Friendly greeting.

2) Assess needs.

3) Make recommendation.

4) Explain benefits and features.

5) Ask for the sale.

 If we left out step 2, we wouldn’t have any idea which product or service was right for the customer.  It would not help to push the two-car garage if the buyer’s main concern is the age of the roof.  Your job as a salesperson is to seek out what the customer wants.

 If we did not explain the benefits and features in Step 4, it would be impossible for the customer to differentiate our product or service from our competitor.  

 If we did not even ask the customer for the pleasure of his or her business…well, we probably should be doing something else for a living.

 Just as if we had forgotten to use a toothbrush while brushing our teeth, we could not be as effective as we should have been.

 BEWARE:  Do not allow yourselves to become slaves to any process just for the sake of the process.  If what you are doing ain’t working, you MUST try something else.  If the process gets in the way of customer communication, scrap it…amend it…modernize it (Read, train, practice).  Every sales process should enhance customer interaction, and keep a salesperson on track.  A process should NOT be there just to hook customers into buying something that will later regret.   

“We must first identify, before we can satisfy the customer’s proclivity…profitably”.

Copyright © Stephen Novak 2011 Rising Moon Publications. All rights reserved.

By: Stephen Novak

Consider the following situations:

A child is eating watermelon in the blistering dog day’s heat – The smile reverberates the true joy that only a simple summer treat can provide.

A man’s feet stammer in the aisle of a church at the beginning of the best decision he will ever make – His prospective spouse’s soul sings as she steers toward the aisle.

Now contrast with the following:

A single mom is leaving work; she notices her tire is low.  She’s knows that she’ll be late picking up her child from daycare (They penalize by the minute if you’re late) as she limps towards her favorite car repair shop.  She’s relieved that the shop doors are just now coming down, someone is still there, she thinks.  The person behind the glass doors waves their hands and yells, “We’re closed”, and steals away into the back room.

Now the reason for the rant:

I went into a convenience store a few days ago.  After checking out, the clerk stuffed my purchases into the bag and said, “Thanks, young man”.  During my sales training courses, I’ve heard similar statements from inexperienced salespeople for years.  When confronted they usually say that they’ve been told to always compliment the customer…to make them feel good.  And while that statement is true, they forgot the most important part of a compliment – IT MUST BE SINCERE.  Today’s customers are a lot savvier than they have ever been – They can spot a sales pitch a mile away.  After being assaulted by such a line, most customers will just smile back while thinking to themselves, what a schmuck. 

For anyone that works with people, commit to this: if you give anyone a compliment, IT MUST BE SINCERE.  People know how old they are, if they’ve lost weight, or if they’ve been working out.  Trite or dishonest statements will shore up any preconceived barriers that the customer may have.  Always remember: it’s our job to break down ANY barriers that get in the way of building strong relationships with our customers.

As for being there for your customers…we’ll cover that later.

Copyright © Stephen Novak 2011 Rising Moon Publications. All rights reserved.

If you have an online business here are some sure fire ways to get and keep your customers. One of the best ways to start off is to ask questions and to encourage them to ask questions also.

This way you have more of an idea of what the really want and where you can tweak your business to meet their needs. You will also want to look into how your business will benefit your customers. The homepage should talk about how your product will benefit them, make sure you have a list of benefits and main selling points but keep the details of the product for the second page.

How did your potential customer find your site? They were obviously looking for a product like yours or very similar otherwise they wouldn’t be there. Give them some information but not too much, don’t make them over think, but give them a reason to keep reading. If your description is enticing enough they will either purchase right then or they will come back.

Most buyers will come back to a site that interests them a few times before they make a purchase, so give them a reason to keep coming back to yours! Buttons for adding their email, bookmarking and telling a friend are great ways to do this.

Maybe your potential customer has a question, make sure you have a FAQ page or a place where they can email you to ask their question and make sure you answer them back asap. The quicker you can have an answer for them the more likely it is that they will buy your product AND tell their friends about it and your business!

Make it easy for your customers to purchase your product. Don’t have them fill out form after form and answer questions that will take them so long they just decide not to purchase after all. Go with the bare minimum to make it quick and easy and something they will remember the next time they are in need of one of your products.

Remember, it’s all about the “NOW” society, people want their questions answered, orders put through, information and so forth NOW, they don’t want to have to wait, so the better you can fulfill these slots the more likely you are to have a repeat customer, and one that will tell their friends.

If you know your customers you will be better able to meet their needs. Not every customer that walks into your store is going to want to buy the same thing as the one before them. If you can find out what it is they are looking for you can point them in the right direction.
This is sometimes hard to do when most people don’t want to be followed around or hounded, so you are going to have to be careful. Greet them right away, ask them if you can help them if they are looking for anything specific and if they say no they are just looking let them be.

Watch what they gravitate towards, what they are looking at, without being too obvious, if they spend a lot of time on one product or in a certain section of the store then you can approach them again. Apologize for interrupting and explain that if they are looking for…you have these on sale, or this brand is actually better, even if it is a bit cheaper than what they were looking at.

This builds trust in your customer that you aren’t out to gouge them or make them spend all their money, that you truly do have their best interest at heart and are their to help them.

Once a customer trusts you, you can find out a lot about them just by asking specific questions. For instance, let’s say you sell appliances. You notice your customer going between the cheapest washer and dryer to the most expensive. They can’t seem to decide if they want quality or to go the cheap route.

Ask them if they have any questions, are they purchasing it for their home or a rental unit, is it for a big family or a small one. How much laundry do they do in a week etc. Then you will be able to decipher their needs more and point them in the right direction.

Again, it’s all about trust, not pressure. Nobody likes to be followed around and hounded when they aren’t sure exactly what they want, they like time to look for themselves first, talk amongst themselves and then when they seem confident in what they are looking for they will be more approachable.

The best sales person is one that doesn’t have to sell!

There is a world of difference between a sales person and a sales manager. What makes a good or even great sales person doesn’t necessarily make a good sales manager. Why? Because sales people, good sales people are all about personality. They have it, they know how to use it and therefore they make the sales!

When you are promoted from sales person to sales manager things change. No longer is your glowing personality front and center, now it’s all about using what you know as a sales person to build up your team and encourage them to sell as well as or better than you did.

It no longer comes down to selling the product but more about teaching your sales staff HOW to sell the product. It’s easy for someone to tell someone else how to do something that they have done successfully for years, it’s much harder for the other person to grasp and duplicate the same.

The leader can’t expect their staff to ‘just do it’ they have to understand that they have years of experience under their belt, they have done it time and time again, they started from the bottom and worked their way up. They know the ins and outs and the pitfalls. They know how to deal with hard headed customers.

You can’t expect a newbie to know all of these things and so you have to take yourself off of the sales floor and learn how to TEACH. Once you have that down, once you can teach properly and you staff actually gets, and understands what you are saying and can utilize what you have taught, then you become a leader.

So remember when going from a sales person to a sales leader, you need to learn to be patient, know how to teach, understand you are no longer selling but are teaching others to do so, you can become a great sales leader and lead your staff into selling as good as you did, or maybe even better!

Just about everyone has sold something at one time or another, whether you had a garage sale or put an ad in the paper, you have most likely sold something at some point in your life. Think back to when you were a child, maybe you had a kool-aid or lemonade stand.

Some people are born for sales and some aren’t. Most people get into sales as a way to boost their income. The one thing with most sales positions is that you can make as little or as much as you want, in this way your income is adjustable.

If you aren’t a born sales person, like most, you could definitely benefit from sales training. Even if you have been in sales for years there is always room for improvement. Society changes, people change, there are always different tips and tricks that sales people come up with and these are things that you might not be aware of that could help up your sales.

Sales training will also teach you in how to better reach your potential customers, how to handle objections and persuade people into purchasing from you.

Through sales training you will also learn that with the right attitude and approach you will be able to sell more and to more customers. Sales training gives you techniques that you might not have thought of and you will have a fresh outlook on selling when you are through.

Last but not least, with sales training you could advance in your job position. If you get good enough at anything there is always the chance for advancement. So think of sales training as schooling for advancement.

When you go to an interview one of the most asked questions by the interviewer is “what are your strength and weaknesses”? Could you name at least one? What about two or three? If I were to ask this of your company could you do the same?

Most people know what their companies strengths are, but it’s hard to come up with weaknesses, why? Because it is something that most business owners don’t want to admit to. Do you have a weak sales staff? Are your books a mess? Do your employees take advantage of you?

Knowing what your businesses strengths and weaknesses are will help you in building a self-management sales system, but you have to be honest with yourself and about your business! If you don’t spend enough time on the books admit it!

Take out a sheet of paper and put a line down the middle of it. On one side write strengths on the other weaknesses. Now start to write them down as they come to you. Which side has more listed? What things could you start working on today and which ones will take a little time?

Could you tell me in 1 minute or less what it is you do and what your business could provide me with? Most business owners can’t. This is important, it’s a way of selling your business quickly and effortlessly.

Know your business inside and out, know all of the inner workings, what is working and what isn’t. Is there a weak link or several? What can you do to change this so that your business is a well oiled machine that can run without you sitting there pushing the buttons.

If you can leave your business for a week and not have a care in the world and know that those that you employ will be able to manage and run things without you great! If you can’t, then you need to do some thinking, make some changes so that it will be possible for you to do this in the near future.

Nobody, not business owners nor their managers like to make the hard decisions, the hard choices, change things or let people go. The bottom line is, this is YOUR business, your living, you need to do what works, and if it’s not working fix it!