Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling

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Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling

December 11, 2007 in Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Up-selling & Cross Selling, Value Proposition & Value Add

Do you sell one thing and one thing only? Probably not. I suspect your business has a range of things it can offer. And I suspect that many of these things can be integrated together to make an end-to-end solution or various combinations that lead to much larger sales.

If this is the case, then how well are you selling in the size and scope of your business offerings?

Too many times sales people get fixated on the immediate sale in front of them not really seeing the potential of that sale now or into the future. If they would only ask the right questions and get a bigger perspective to work from they might get more and bigger sales for less effort.

If you do not ask the questions you will never know. I learned that if you ask, at best, you can get a lot more back in return and, at worst; they can just say ‘no’. At least if you ask you never die wondering.

So I thought I would share a personal story about one of my up selling and cross selling experiences and what I learned from it. I share this story because it continues to remind me not to settle for second best.

A while back I made a presentation to a large group of people from large Australian corporation. My topic was about the ‘Huge Cost of Hesitation’. This was my first entrée into this business and I really wanted to do a great job for all the obvious reasons. Whilst the topic was challenging, the presentation was well received and my sponsoring client was very happy. I knew this could lead to great things.

Well within three days, I received a phone call from one of the senior managers who attended the presentation. He wanted to know if he could use an assessment tool I referred to in my presentation for the recruitment of new sales staff. I replied ‘yes of course you can’. He then said ‘OK so how do I go about using it?’

Now at this point, I could have set him up to use the tool and only sold in that tool, instead, however, I asked him to tell be more about what he was trying to achieve. To which he replied that he was setting up a whole new business area and wanted to hire a different type of sales person than they had traditionally employed in the past. He thought the assessment could help him do that. I asked him if I could ask him more questions to which he replied ‘yes’.

I wanted to see how open minded he was so I asked him had he defined what this new type of person would look like. He said ‘no’. I suggested there were a number of ways he could approach this and I proposed two options to him:

At best we could develop and map the ideal sales person profile for his business model, build a recruitment kit he and his managers could use to properly assess the candidates, supply the right assessment tools and then provide feedback.
At worst he could just use the tool and we provide feedback as originally requested.

He was very happy to explore this further. I committed to getting him a detailed proposal that day. Which I did. Besides everything mentioned previously, I also included 2 bullet points outlining sales and sales management training which could form part of their induction training. (you just never know)
After I sent the proposal, I received a call the next day asking me to elaborate on the 2 bullets points around the sales and sales management training piece as well. Which I did.

They then rang back the following day and asked me what my best price was. I said what they had was my best price. They said they were used to working in markets that always bargained on price. I said that was fine but that I didn’t do that in my market. My price was my price. It was transparent and they knew what they were getting piece by piece. They said ‘OK, that was fair’ and then asked when could we get started on the project. We agreed a date and that was the beginning of a very fruitful relationship.

So what did I learn? If you take things at face value that is all you are likely to get. By asking a few more questions, getting an understanding of their bigger picture and knowing how my products and services worked in concert and separately I was able to turn a $1,000 sale into a $90,000 sale.

Did I do anything special? No not at all. All I did was ask more questions and tried to understand their whole issue. Oh and I knew how my products and services all worked together.

By the way, whilst they paid more, it was worth it to them because their new ‘breed’ of sales people achieved:

Achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months ·
Sold the annual sales budget within 5 months.

My client was very happy and said he and his team had learned a lot about how to select in and develop sales people; skills they hadn’t had before and could now take with them anywhere they went. In turn, he referred me on to other areas within the business and so the journey and sales continue.

Here are some handy hints to help you up sell and cross sell:

Product Knowledge: know all your products well
Product Associations & Combinations: Know how your products integrate with each other and how they form a bigger picture. This goes with this goes with that, etc.
New topics: know how to introduce relevant new topics and products into the conversation.
Education: Don’t underestimate your value in terms of the education you bring to clients
Pricing structure: know how your pricing works: the structures, bundling, unbundling, volume pricing, various product pricing combinations, etc

For more information try this research site: www.findarticles.com.

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Don’t tell me it’s out of your control

December 6, 2007 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

‘It’s out of my control.’ ‘I can’t do anything about it.’ ‘I’m just the sales person.’

Sales people who sell in equipment and service contracts take note. This story is about you and your responsibility to the customer for the life of the sale not just the initial sale of the machine and the signing of the contract.

The quotes above are what I heard this week from a sales person from a well-known equipment manufacture who sold us a complete equipment and service package 18 months ago. It certainly wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Without going into too much detail we have had the ‘printer from hell’.

This piece of machinery has never lived up to the expectations promised by the afore mentioned salesperson and has been in repair, on and off, for nearly 18 months. Service person after service person came and went, only bandaiding this issue as it turns out.

Over time after various discussions with the nice service people we found we had been sold a specific product type, which had had issues from day one with many people. We looked at getting out of our contract on several occasions. We asked other people in the know and they said we were probably going to be stuck with this contract. For a while we lived in hope that this was just a glitch and we would be ok. And for a few months is was, however, whenever we did any big print jobs it just kept getting worse. We spoke to the service people and the customer service people who could do nothing. Our issue was never escalated to management. The service people where coming out, on average nearly every three weeks. It had to be costing them big time too.

Well we finally lost patience. So we recontacted the sales person and told him of our issues. We told him that we had been clearly put under incredible pressure with lost productivity and wasted materials. But did he care? NO.

He had no concern or desire to understand our situation or the cost to our business. His first attempt to ‘help us’ was farcical. He told us there were two ways we could solve the problem:

1. We could get out the contract by paying $9,000, or

2. We could upgrade to a new machine and sign a new contract with him.

Great! Just great!

When I told him that his suggestions where clearly unacceptable and that we did not trust him he came up with this:

‘It’s out of my control.’ ‘I can’t do anything about it.’ ‘I’m just the sales person.’

That finally took the biscuit.

I told him that he was ‘holding our business hostage’ and if he was unprepared to help us I would go to the top. Which I did. And guess what? Action occurred that day and our issue is in the process of being resolved. We have a replacement printer and we are in discussion with management as to where to go from here. ·

Did that sales person have the authority to do something about this but couldn’t be bothered?
Was it out fo his power to make any decision?

I don’t know but what I do know is that it was in his power was to take it to management which he didn’t do.

There are clearly many questions still to be answered and it is not my place to go into that company’s business (well not yet anyway) to assess why this occurred. However, being treated like that by the sales person who did not care one bit about our plight makes me sick.

When you enter into contracts with companies you are engaged with them over a period of time. This type of arrangement usually happens when a business leases equipment i.e. a printer for instance. These companies not only want you to get their machine they also want to you to buy the ‘servicing’ of that machine.

In this case what I think the sales person failed to grasp was that this type of relationship is a long-term customer relationship. The sale doesn’t end at the signing of the contract and delivery of the machine. You cannot abdicate your responsibility as a sales person. And sadly I am sure this not an isolated incident.

That sales person and others like him need to recognise they have a duty of care to that customer and their duty of care only ends when that customer ceases to be a customer.

And by the way saying ‘Sorry’ would have helped too.

Here is an acronym I got from a neat website www.customerservicepoint.com which this sales person could have benefited from applying:

L.E.A.R.N. is an acronym, with 5 easy steps to follow: ·

LISTEN – Listen carefully to your customer. Don’t interrupt or tell the customer to calm down, this will only ignite the anger. ·
EMPATHIZE – Feel the pain of the customer, and tell her that you can understand how they feel.
APOLOGIZE – Apologize to the customer, even if you feel that you have no part in the problem. Do not blame the customer, but there is no need to take the blame yourself! ·
REACT – Decide what you will do to resolve the problem, and tell this to the customer.
NOW! – Do not delay. Take immediate action! The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service.

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You’re on show

November 30, 2007 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Sales Culture, Sales Relationships, Self Promotion, Value Proposition & Value Add

Today people are looking for honesty and authenticity and do not have time to be misled. They want to work with people who are what they say they are. They are assessing your every word and action. They are looking beneath the surface and are wanting to see the real you.

Many people are now more wary about companies and sales people making big claims and promises with lots of ‘sizzle’. They are wary of the ‘charmers’ and the sales people after the ‘big kill’. What they are now looking for is the steak and all that comes with it: i.e. what kind of steak is it? How it was it grown, prepared and cooked? Where did it come from? Is it grown in an environmentally friendly, humane manner? etc. They no longer want to confuse packaging with substance. They look for evidence at every turn and how you align with the promises you make.

Sales is now getting personal. The spotlight is now squarely on the sales person and the business they represent. Their actions and words are scrutinised every day.

Going (not quite gone) are the days of the ‘charmers’ who try to seduce you into buying something – the term often used in this situation is ‘getting into bed’. In recent times I have seen some sales people, salesmen to be precise, usually with 20+ years sales careers whose whole sales strategy was to seduce people with their charm, designer suits, Tiffany cufflinks and personal flair. Their preference was always for face-to-face meetings – none of this telephone stuff (meaning it is much harder to dazzle you over the phone).

I have even seen them try their ‘charm’ offensive on colleagues and myself in training sessions. But we were having none of it. In fact it was very inappropriate and quite embarrassing, mostly for them. What we found was that they shied away from acknowledging the relevance of effective selling skills like questioning, active listening, problem solving, etc. and didn’t like being put under the spot light when it to came to participating in competency oriented role plays and validating themselves. Instead they complained and tried to distract us with their charm again. Some of these men had also found they were in and out of sales jobs more quickly in recent times, with one man having 4 sales jobs in different companies in the last four years. He was clearly frustrated and was struggling to come to terms that his ‘charm’ strategy wasn’t working anymore. He and others like him hadn’t adapted nor recognised that people want more than the packaging on show they are wanting substance.

Then there is the overly competitive, self centred, soloist sales people who want everything for themselves – everyone else, even their peers, are either there to serve them or are competition. And they want to win and win big. Being on top of everyone else is what they want – but I ask you at whose expense? They see sales as a sport, more precisely Big Game Fishing or Hunting. Customer are ‘Targets’. Getting a Sale is referred to as ‘the Kill’. Customers are regarded as objects to be possessed or trophies to be placed in their cabinet, to be shown off and admired (perversely so) like stuffed animal heads on the wall.

Quite frankly, as a customer I do not want to be possessed, or displayed like a trophy nor do I want to be seduced or charmed into ‘getting into bed’ with someone. I want to be in a productive effective relationship. Like I said before I do not have the time to be misled nor do I want to be misled, coerced, bullied or intimidated into buying.

Thank goodness these types are dying (al beit slowly) and making way for a more enlightened, consultative, big picture focused, business oriented, cooperative sales person who is well organised, disciplined, can prospect proactively, is fully aware of their product and business’ value to their customer market, their competitive edge and how to make business work for them and their customers.

They are fit, well-presented, up to date, self aware and relevant – and they are not just female. There are more men out there working this way too. I am also noticing a growing trend among younger men who recognise the need to be more integrated as sales people and people as a whole. In fact I have three men this week alone mention this without prompting. What they and others like them recognise is that if we only focus on competition for competition’s sake or try to seduce people with our charm we are apt to miss the main point; which is:

Without the cooperation and kindness of others we cannot exist.

That is why I am finding more and more people saying they want to work with others (suppliers, partners and customers) in a spirit of cooperation, consultation and respect not competition or deceit. This personal insight and awareness makes for much better sales people and much better sales results.

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Broken Promises & Bagging the Competition

November 23, 2007 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Competition, Ethics & Values, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

Watching the antics of all the parties in the Federal Election, especially the two major parties, and how they go about trying to convince the electorate to vote for them, has reminded me about what NOT to do in sales:

Make promises you cannot keep

Bag the competition

Nothing irks customers more than sales people overstating their capabilities and making claims and promises they cannot keep or live up to. It’s the fastest way to break trust and leave customers doubting you and your business. Making grand claims with little or no substance is foolish at best. In today’s networked world, many people have access to information and can check pretty quickly whether what you claim is true or not.

So can you do what you claim you do?

The other thing that can drive customers away from you is making derogatory comments about your competition. If your prospective customer has been using your competitor before you came along and was really happy with them and you start bagging the competition what you are essentially doing is bagging the customer’s decision to use them in the first place. Not a good strategy to set up a basis for an ongoing relationship. Find out whom they have used first before you open your mouth and watch what you say. No one likes to feel pathetic because they made a poor decision or haven’t kept up with the latest trend, or have their decision laughed at by an arrogant “I know better than you” smarty-pants sales person. Be very careful in how you position yourself and your offerings.

My advice:

Know your competitive advantage and how legitimately it compares to your competitors

Know how to present it in a manner that is respectful and non judgemental

Know how you can help people genuinely, with real substance and how you can demonstrate that to your customers.

That is why it is sadly amusing to watch the political parties trying to convince us of their merit and bribe us with their promises just so we will vote for them. All the while they behave like bullies beating each other up in the process. It all seems so primitive really. I had hoped we had come farther than this. I do live in hope though.

So maybe one day we will be pleasantly surprised that they will speak to us like adults, behave like adults and make decision like adults with the interest of all of us at heart. Good sales people do this everyday.

All this reminds me of a saying: A Politician thinks of only the next election. A Statesman thinks of the next generation.

Some food for thought.

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Learn to say ‘NO’

October 18, 2007 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Communication, Ethics & Values, Resilience, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Value Proposition & Value Add

Giving away the margin and undercutting your prices because you can’t say ‘NO’ is no good for anyone. It devalues you, your product, and your market. If done on mass then customers expect ‘cheap’ all the time, not fully appreciating the real value of the products or services they buy. All you do is risk devaluing you and your business.

Just look at the ‘perpetual sales’ going in retail all the time. No one ends up making any money and people go out of business. If you are in retail check Debra Templar’s website www.retailservices.com.au and read what she has to say about this. She is appalled at the state of many Australian Retail businesses and their inability to hold their prices and run successful businesses.

Let’s face it; there will always be someone offering their products or services cheaper than you. But are they offering exactly the same as you? Make sure you know how you compare to the competition. It’s worth it – are you comparing apples with apples?

If your customer is saying “I can get the same thing much cheaper down the road” don’t just accept this as truth. Too many sales people accept these statements at face value not bothering to check if it is true or not. And some customers try this tactic to see if you will cave in or not so they can get something at your expense.

A particular example springs to mind for me:- I recall, in the early days of starting my business, meeting with a recruitment consultant with the express need of helping me find an admin person. I needed an admin person and I didn’t have the time to find one myself so I was ready to buy. The meeting went well and I thought she would do a good job for me. Having been a recruitment consultant myself I knew what was good value in this field. So I asked her how much her fees were. Her immediate response, with no prompting or bargaining from me was this “Oh it’s 12% but you can have it for 10%!’ I was quite shocked. Not only hadn’t I haggled, I didn’t even say anything to indicate I wanted a discount. I would have paid 12 % but instead, took advantage of the discount. Why not was I going to say ‘oh no I’ll have it for 12%’? She was clearly at fault here and had assumed that I would try and beat her down on price so she got in first.

This got me thinking about what is the real price for things and why do so many sales people drop their prices time and time again. If sales people continually do this it can leave the customer doubting the people they are buying from and questioning the real value of what they are getting.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of “The Little Red Book of Selling” points out that more than 74 percent of all people are willing to pay the recommended price. He suggests that your prices need to be fair and your need to be firm. You need to be able to stand your ground and know how to prove your value. He then recommends that you ditch the other 26 percent and let them hammer your competition into no profit and bankruptcy, and concentrate on the customers who are willing to pay.

I recall my days working as recruitment consultant for Morgan & Banks. We were not the cheapest in town, in fact we were in the upper quartile for fees and service. When I met with potential new customers to see if we could work with them we would also discuss the fees we charged. We charged 15% and upwards for recruitment assignments as compared to the industry average at the time of 10% or 12%. Many prospective customers assumed that we recruitment consultants were all alike and baulked at the idea of 15%+. Now I could have crumpled and said ‘ok you can have it for 12%” but I didn’t. Instead I asked them what they were getting for their 10-12% so I was able to understand what was on offer and what they saw as value. Once I had that information I was then able to compare our service offering to what they were getting. What they found was there was more on offer for our 15%+ than what they were getting for 12%. And they were able to compare and contrast the various offerings using evidence not just hearsay and make an informed decision. And so was I.

More often than not they went with me and paid the 15%+.

Don’t forget The price is just an arbitrary figure until it is ascribed a value. It means nothing in of itself. Sure the pricing of your product or service needs to be pitched in the right market level, however, make sure you can articulate the value of your product or service offering using real evidence. If you do your homework you might find that you are selling yourself, your products anfd services too cheaply. Here are some hints:

Make sure you know how your products and services compare and contrast with that of your competition.
Make sure you fully understand what the customer needs and what they value so you can build a sound business case for using you and make sure you have an economic case to justify your price point. Know what your Return on Investment (ROI) offering is.
Stand up for your business. Do not fear confrontation or conflict. Be proud of what you do and tell your customers that you do not discount unless it is based on volume. Make sure you can always make money.
If your strategy is to buy market share then be very careful as lifting prices from a lower base is much harder. And you don’t want to end up like Visy or Amcor.
Do not give things away to keep the customer ‘sweet’ either, they will not respect you and will keep trying to take advantage of you at your expense.

Learn to sell to the ‘right’ customers:

It helps to identify a ‘Viable’ customer – someone who can buy from you right now for the right reasons. Do they have the following three conditions operating simultaneously?

MONEY – the willingness & ability to pay for it?
AUTHORITY to make a decision, and
A real NEED for your product or services?

If so then sell to them, if not move to the next customer but always leave the door open so they know to come back to you when they are viable.

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