How many clients and sales are you losing out the back door?

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How many clients and sales are you losing out the back door?

Are you aware that it is six (6) times more expensive to acquire a new client than it is to retain an existing client? Keeping clients onboard and engaged with your business is just as important as your sales team finding new business sales with new and existing clients, however many businesses do not pay enough attention to the back [...]

April 24, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

Are you aware that it is six (6) times more expensive to acquire a new client than it is to retain an existing client?

Keeping clients onboard and engaged with your business is just as important as your sales team finding new business sales with new and existing clients, however many businesses do not pay enough attention to the back end of their business leaving client retention to chance.

Have you ever mapped the whole value chain of your business and looked at where your clients engage with your company?

How many client touch points are there?

The more client touch points there are across your business the more chances you have of either:

impressing your clients and keeping them engaged with your business due to great service, great solutions, great ideas and due respect for your clients’ custom OR
losing them out the back door due to poor service, poor communications, non-user friendly systems and resources, difficult complaints handling procedures or just plain indifference on the part of the client services team or other departments

Too many business leaders complain about poor sales results yet they don’t address a major sales issue – the retention of existing clients and repeat business. For example, one Barrett client reported recently that their sales team brought in 4,500 new accounts in one year while their service/operational teams lost just over 4,000 accounts because of poor service and indifference to client priorities – ‘It’s not my job’ was the catch cry down the line. Fed up and frustrated their clients just stopped doing business with that company and no one asked why… until recently and now the real reason for declining Sales Growth is emerging. This company is not alone – losing good quality sales and clients due to disconnected or disengaged staff beyond the sales team is a real problem.

So before you lay blame solely on your sales team for declining sales you may like to look at the following information:

- Over 68% of clients leave a business because they are upset with the treatment they have received from the people in that business.

- However, between 54-70% of clients who complain will nevertheless continue to be clients if their complaint is resolved effectively and respectfully.

Prior to the internet one study revealed that happy clients, or clients who have their complaints satisfactorily resolved, told 3 to 5 people while one unhappy client told eleven people, who in turn told five other people. Now clients can tell about their experiences with suppliers and service providers to hundreds and thousands of people in an instant using social media. The exact numbers are not specific but with technologies like Twitter and FaceBook companies reputations and brands can be made or broken by client feedback almost instantly.

Clients have more options than ever before and if sales and service experiences are poor they will feel less loyalty as a result. Clients want products and services faster, cheaper and better from whoever will provide them. That means that as a sales and service provider, the competitive advantage for your company rests with you and your people across the entire value chain.

Client loyalty develops as clients feel a connection with a company and its staff. After all, most companies have the same “stuff”; it’s the genuine understanding of someone’s needs and priorities, the effective delivery of products and services that meet and satisfy those needs, and the genuine offer of service that causes product and company differentiation.

Customer Loyalty is rewarded

Organisations that provide superior sales and service experiences can charge more, create greater profits and achieve greater market share, because clients will generally perceive more value and be willing to pay a premium for superior advice and service.

When companies have a commitment to sales and service across their entire value chain it raises the bar of competition. The only way companies can effectively accomplish this is through their employees. As the competitive bar goes up, the quality of employees must go up equally.

Having a better team is good for the individual employee, good for the company and very good for the client. When a company is committed to a proactive sales and service culture, its corporate culture will change to absorb this new dimension, first becoming an integral part, and then becoming the driving force causing amazing results to take place.

The subsequent culture is automatic and infectious. Employees will demand it of new employees, and the corporate culture becomes even stronger because employees have taken ownership.

If you want client loyalty and repeat sales you need to make sure that everyone in your business understands: That selling is everybody’s business and everybody lives by selling something.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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First, people buy the salesperson

Here’s a simple reality… Prospects and customers buy the salesperson first during every sales call – or they don’t buy at all. In any major sale, especially Business-to-Business (B2B) or complex Business-to-Consumer sales, the prospect or customer makes a predictable series of buying decisions that lead to a final purchasing decision. The first and perhaps the most important of these [...]

January 25, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Skills

Here’s a simple reality… Prospects and customers buy the salesperson first during every sales call – or they don’t buy at all.

In any major sale, especially Business-to-Business (B2B) or complex Business-to-Consumer sales, the prospect or customer makes a predictable series of buying decisions that lead to a final purchasing decision. The first and perhaps the most important of these is:

‘Do I buy what this salesperson is saying?’

This decision is always made before the prospect or customer will seriously consider factors such as your product or service offering and price. Yet many sales people are unaware that it is how they are presenting and conducting themselves that is setting up the success or failure of the sales opportunity.

Most sales people make the mistake of devoting the selling time to pitching their products or services. Here’s the problem: whether the prospect or customer realises it or not, the first thing they decide is whether they like and trust you, the salesperson. If you bury your prospects or customers beneath a mountain of product information while the prospect or customer is making up their mind about whether or not they like and trust you, you have already lost the deal.

When prospects and customers can relate to you, like and trust you, everything about the sales process becomes much easier. Here are a few ideas that will help you build and gain that trust and create genuine connections…

show interest and understanding, be organised

Demonstrate your interest: Stop trying to be interesting, instead, demonstrate your real interest in your prospect or customer, don’t talk too much about yourself.

Show that you understand: People have a strong need to feel understood. Ask questions, listen and make sure you understand your prospect or customer’s needs and priorities. Confirm the person’s need by restating them so they know you understand their situation by verifying. Verifying is very useful when trying to understand another person’s situation or point of view. Verifying your customer’s needs requires the combination of three key communication skills: listening, paraphrasing and clarifying. Verifying can be a useful technique to ensure the message has been received and understood by both the sender and receiver. Verifying involves paraphrasing or summing up in your own words what you think the person has communicated.

Use an organised sales procedure: A step-by-step procedure keeps you on track and helps you be methodical, thorough and professional. Your professional approach will sell you.

Be dependable and consistent: nothing annoys customers or prospects more than inconsistency and lack of follow up. So do what you say you will do. Being reliable, be consistent and above be sincere and genuine.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

PS You can get a Sneak Preview as well as purchase and download the detailed 49 page report of the 12 Sales Trends for 2013 now to see which trends will have the greatest impact on your sales optimisation efforts in 2013. In the meantime you can download our past trends here for free.

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Hey Retailers – stop whinging and start caring!

January 7, 2013 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Customer Service

Having immigrated to Australia last year you may find interesting the sage observations of our Head of Sales Strategy Peter Finkelstein about our retail industry: Over the past few months there has been a plethora of editorial regarding the decline in retail sales. Amongst other things, an argument being put forward by traditional retailers for these poor sales numbers is the unfair advantage Internet traders have because many don’t have to charge GST for products under $1,000. This, claim the brick and mortar retailers, makes it impossible for them to compete and still be profitable. Never mind that international retailers have recently opened (brick and mortar) stores in Australia and are making a profit; never mind too, that most retailers have steadfastly refused or learned how to embrace the Internet in their sales strategies and have thus failed to harness this highly lucrative and growing channel.

cut back on service staff

Instead of finding ways to harness the Internet, the response from so many retailers has been to cut back on already low levels of service by reducing the number of staff on the floor, or alternatively employing untrained sales and service people. Worse, some retailers have simply capitulated and provide no level of service at all. Today, it isn’t difficult to find a customer with at least one horror story about poor or no service from a major brick and mortar retailer.

The reduction in the number of staff on the floor would, one assumes, reduce operating costs which could then be passed on to customers, making these retailers more profitable and more competitive. But it appears that the strategy of cutting heads has failed. Low and poor service levels have left consumers dissatisfied and disgusted. And prices have not been anywhere near as competitive as they could be.

Recently a major outdoor sporting goods retailer ran a television ad campaign for its Christmas sale. But it failed to have staff in the stores who were able to service customers as they entered (and in most instances, then left the store in disgust); they had none of the stock advertised (and no staff to explain when stock would arrive or where they were displayed). With this kind of management and lack of interest in customers is it any wonder that retail sales are falling? And what of the cost of the advertising campaign. How could these costs be recovered if the staff are unable to service or sell to customers attracted to enter the store?

It seems that traditional retailers have gone back to the drawing board and come up with another useless solution…

Recognising that less staff hasn’t really reduced costs or attracted new customers, they have adopted the strategy of “Let’s be totally rude to our prospective customers. Let’s provide them with no service at all; let’s give them the minimum amount of attention by untrained people; let’s offer them high prices and a limited range. Then we can cry to government to bail us out. This time, so the new strategy appears to go, if we get it right, government will have to help us out in order to save the economy. It’s a failed strategy and one that is producing a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Every retailer knows that positioning is crucial – one has to be at the right location to attract customers. Range is important, because buyers expect variety. And price plays a role. But most importantly, is the fundamental principle that the Customer is King! In terms of order of importance for retail, it’s Location, Customers Care, Range and Price – in that order!

a search on google for “customer care” delivered 80% images showing “people with headphones” – possibly an indication of the state of the retail sector’s service.

If proof of this is needed, one can go back to Jan Carlzon (Scandinavian Airlines System – SAS). Before he launched his iconic Moments of Truth program SAS was ranked 14^th out of 17 airlines in Europe and was losing $17 million per annum. A program of satisfying customer expectations turned SAS around. By 1984 it posted a profit of $ 54 million and was ranked as the number 1 airline in Europe

So why should the Australian retailers be excused from the basic tenants of retail – making it easy to do business, providing customer service, exciting range and good pricing? After all Internet retailer have got it right.

In my opinion that’s what the Australian retail sector seems to have overlooked. The real reason for the Internet being such a strong competitor is because it has a good position and makes access very easy. Customer service is good. Without exception the genuine Internet retail sites make it easy to get answers to questions, information about deliveries and refunds. They provide access to people who are knowledgeable and who care. They too have both range and competitive pricing.

Retailers should be learning how to harness the value of the Internet by using it as an additional channel to market, rather than as a rival. By using brick and mortar and the Internet in combination, retailers can get more traffic for both channels. In the end buyers go where they feel they are important to their suppliers. When retailers learn this lesson, and more importantly get their staff to understand the importance of it, they will find more people returning to them to buy.

sales trends 2013

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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What customers really want from their suppliers

Most salespeople will be quick to tell you that their customers say what they care most about is product and price. It goes further. When salespeople lose out on a deal the first thing they tell management is that the product quality wasn’t up to scratch or the price was too high. Yet the studies we have conducted and most [...]

November 1, 2012 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Competition, Customer Service, Education in Sales

Yet the studies we have conducted and most of the feedback we get from our clients’ customers is that the most important thing is having a great sales experience.

By the way, that’s not something new. A year or two ago McKinsey published a report that said basically the same thing – customers want good products and fair prices, but most importantly, a good sales experience.

The brutal facts…

price-for-same-product-are-the-same-everywhere

price is not a differentiation anymore

A company needs to have a good product or chances are it won’t survive. But now that just about every product that competes – feature for feature, benefit for benefit – is basically the same, the product quality isn’t really a competitive advantage any more. And the same applies to pricing. Sure, some products in a category are more expensive than others, but the price differential is usually within a range. If a company tried to sell something that was essentially the same as its rivals’ at an inflated price chances are that company too would go out of business.

So in essence product and pricing are usually within bands of parity and seldom differentiate one product or company from another.

When it comes to building valuable relationships with customers, salespeople themselves are the critical players. Buyers are looking to professional salespeople to enhance the buying experience. They recognise that the products are generally the same, the pricing is more or less aligned so if they really want to identify a preferred supplier they are going to go beyond the evidence and look at the experience they have with the sales executive who manages their business.

It’s a tight balancing act. Customers want to be contacted just enough, without being bombarded. They expect salespeople to know their products or services intimately and how their offering compares with those of their rivals, but they don’t want to be over-whelmed with an information overload. Customers need information on exactly how a product or service will make a difference to their businesses and they expect the sales executive to understand their business, their challenges, their pressures. And while they say price is one of their biggest concerns, a satisfying sales experience is ultimately more important.

That’s a good insight and part of the challenge facing salespeople today. One of the complexities of selling today is the reality that salespeople are dealing with buyers who are much smarter. Very often they start the purchase journey long before they meet the salesperson. Without hesitation people we speak to tell us that one of the key contributors to a good sales experience is when the salesperson knows where in the journey the customer is, and is sufficiently flexible to adapt the sales cycle to meet the buyer at a point in the journey that is comfortable to him or her.

Some customers are fairly sophisticated. Others less so. It is up to the sales executive to determine where on that continuum the buyer is. For a customer without previous experience the sales executive may have to adapt the sales style to one of educating the customer. For those with vast experience in the category, the sales interaction may simply be one of facilitation.

We have found a big difference between what salespeople say their customers believe is important and what these same customers tell us when we ask them the questions.

Example

“Payless Shoes has been placed in voluntary administration with debts of more than $10 million. Payless Shoes operated in a ‘discount land’. Well if the only real benefit they have to offer is that they’re offering shoes at a very low price and that’s all they have got, people aren’t going to spend their money with them … as proven by the fact they are no more.”

Salespeople insist its price and product aspects are the dominant factors that influenced customer’s opinions of a supplier’s performance.

Yet time after time, in customer satisfaction surveys what customers rate as important in determining a vendor’s overall performance was the overall sales experience followed by the supplier organisation’s integrity and then price and product quality – in that order.

The upside of getting the sales experience right is significant. Improving product quality – if it can be done – is usually a long term and high cost exercise, with little guarantee of improved sales. Equally, lowering price – again if it can be done – simply puts undue pressure on margins.

Improving the sales experience is a relatively quick, low cost exercise that guarantees at least some reciprocal response from customers. In truth customers who have a trust-based relationship with their suppliers and who enjoy their buying experience tend to be less price conscious and easier to negotiate with – why? Simply because they want to do business with the supplier.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Delivering “good service” isn’t enough!

October 16, 2012 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Teamwork

I was impressed by a brief, but excellent ABC News Video on the impact of social media on a business’ reputation and brand, especially when things go wrong and that to reduce or eliminate any negative publicity issues to begin with starts with something rather old fashioned – delivering Service. This got Peter Finkelstein, our Sales Strategist and I musing about and the importance of good ‘ol fashioned customer service’ and what it really means today in a digital world. Peter has proposed we adopt C.A.R.E. as our mantra.

Here is what he has to say about C.A.R.E.:

Everyone knows that delivering good customer service is a fundamental building block. Here’s the challenge… If everyone knows about it, and most organisations are doing it (or at last trying to), then how can the delivery of “good service” be used as a differentiator? Or, is the question more likely to be: “How does one use service to create a competitive advantage?”

The reality is that delivering “good” service just isn’t good enough. In today’s competitive market, delivering good service is passé! To gain any advantage from service, companies will have to find ways to delight their customers. The best way to give sales a boost is to learn to live by the message hidden in the acronym C.A.R.E.

Companies need to dig very deep to find the competitive advantage

Following these fundamentals will help make C.A.R.E. a strong, lasting and profitable connection with customer….

1) Create a learning culture in the organisation. However long companies have been in the game and no matter the experience level of the customer-facing staff – sales, service and production – there’s always something else to learn about the products, services, customers, techniques, company and competition that will contribute to an improvement in both selling and customer support efforts. Stimulating a culture of innovation, where everything to do with customers is constantly challenged in order to find ways to improve information, ideas and strategies, helps develop the techniques that delight customers.

2) Give away advice freely, but make sure it is good. Make it a goal to become a trusted adviser and business resource to customers. Most of the time, new and repeat customers and increased sales will follow. Customers should regard the company, and its sales and service people as people they can turn to for sound advice that helps them improve their own operations without worrying about having to pay for assistance.

3) Map and communicate customer touch points on the value chain. No one really likes surprises – let customers know what is going to happen to them when they work or partner with you. What are the touch points in the relationship? What can the customer expect to happen and when? If you are in any form of long term arrangement with your customers it helps that your salespeople clearly communicate these touch points up front and that the rest of your organization along that value chain knows their role in delivering your promise of value to your customers.

4) Be consistent. The single most important aspect of brand equity (i.e. that magic ingredient that makes a brand strong and valuable) is consistency. Potential customers are always sizing the company and its customer-facing staff up. Credibility, achievements and even the delivery of outstanding service in the past can be obliterated in the blink of an eye by the failure to keep promises. It is now more important than ever that companies commit to and live by the mantra of professionalism – “Make promises you can keep and keep the promises you make…” Make sure you have the tools in place to monitor and measure turnaround and response times – because your customers do. Make sure that your actions match your words.

5) Continuous Improvement. Customer centric organisations stay flexible and open to change. They follow the lead set by their customers in a segment. When buyers are informal they develop a culture of informality. When customers are businesslike they create a culture of unity by reflecting that characteristic. To be able to delight customers organisations have to size up the situation and circumstances in a segment and adapt their service delivery to a level higher than the expected. It is no longer good enough to have a standard service ethic. Whatever the current level of service is, that’s good enough for today. Tomorrow it has to be better.

6) Think resolution and closure. The constant goal of any customer-centric organisation should be to resolve any customer concerns or obstacles as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Provide customers with all the information they need to make an informed decision and reassure them why a decision to buy / support the organisation is a wise choice.

Companies need to incorporate that
Customers Are Really Everything

In any customer interaction service is the backbone of success. Most customers will not buy the cheapest product or service if they have to pay a higher price for dealing with an insensitive, uncaring or unreliable service or sales person in an organisation. Incorporating the C.A.R.E. philosophy – Customers Are Really Everything – into the fabric of the organisation goes a long way to building the competitive advantage that rivals will find hard to emulate.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au