The problem with noisy call centres

By / / Brand & Reputation, Communication, Customer Service

If you look up ‘Noisy Call Centres’ on the web you will find a lot of information about the welfare of call centre staff. Often working in open plan office environments side by side, with many people speaking at once, ringing phones, office equipment hum and in some cases loud music in the background, you can understand why the welfare of staff is top of mind.

The ability to concentrate and do your job well in these environments can be severely hampered by all these distractions. Try selling and servicing in these conditions – it can be very challenging. Especially for …

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Put the polish on your new sales year

By / / Brain Science, Brand & Reputation, Neuroscience in Sales, Presentation & Grooming, Sales Presentation & Grooming, Self Development, Self Promotion

I have previously written about ‘putting yourself in another’s shoes’, however, I have never written about actual shoes before. In this post I wanted to raise awareness about our attire, our physical presentation – as sales and business professionals. There are 2 key areas we need to consider:

  • The overall congruence of what we are wearing and how we present
  • The relevance and suitability of what we are wearing and how we present

    • You may think this topic doesn’t matter much with the broader and more relaxed approach to business attire these days, but it does. Consciously …

    Put the polish on your new sales year Read Post »

    Corporate social responsibility at the sales coal face – no more only ‘what’s in it for me’

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Sustainability & Environment

    Imagine our organisations making people feel good because they bought from us; imagine people changing their behaviours for the better because  our organisations showed them how; imagine the kinds of conversations and messages that will happen in our businesses when our people see what their contribution is making to the lives of their customers and their teams.

    This is not the stuff of fantasy this is now happening in real time with real people. In late 2012 we published the detailed 49 page 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released …

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    Buyer Beware of Trademark Scams & Scammers

    By / / Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values

    As much as we promote and encourage honourable and effective selling and buying practices it is just as important to keep an eye open for the latest scams and scammers looking for unsuspecting victims. One of the latest scams dogging businesses and business owners is the area of the registered Trademark where business are receiving unsolicited invitations or requests from companies purporting to be from official government agencies.  As you may be aware Trademarks are the new real estate in the world of brands, slogans and 140 character messages that flood the market every day. Capturing people’s attention in a …

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    Is your business Customer Focused & Customer Centric?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

    As with many things these days, words or expressions get bandied about with little regard for what they really mean.  For instance, when we ask people how they define ‘Prospecting’, the overwhelming response is ‘Cold Calling’. Prospecting is far more than cold calling: it can happen anywhere with new, existing or lapsed accounts – anywhere you are trying to uncover and develop new business opportunities.  And with social networks abounding, very few people ever have to make a true cold call.  See what I mean?

    And so we enter the confusing world of …

    Is your business Customer Focused & Customer Centric? Read Post »

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

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Forecasting, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Pipeline

    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 …

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

    Delivering Real Value beyond Product & Price

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Business Acumen, Competition, Sales Forecasting, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Value Proposition & Value Add

    In December 2012, we published the 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released a brief summary of each trend. This month we are focusing on the Sales Trend “Delivering Real Value beyond product and price”.

    For many years most of a product’s value came from the production processes that converted raw material into useful forms. Now real value is coming from supply chain logistics, partnership agreements, overall business improvements, shared innovations, technological improvements, styling features and other attributes that only people can create.

    In the 21st Century the intangible is now more …

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    If you’re a sales person you should be a brand leader

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Marketing

    In the last 40 years the concept of branding, as a means of differentiating one company or product from another, has become an important and powerful marketing tool. Enormous sums of money, and extensive executive time has been invested in developing and promoting brands, and making sure that more buyers were aware of the value that a brand had to offer.

    Since then many people – particularly those in the public eye, including actors and politicians – have come to recognise the value of developing a strong brand. It wasn’t too long before some

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    Hey Retailers – stop whinging and start caring!

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Customer Service

    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 …

    Hey Retailers – stop whinging and start caring! Read Post »

    Intuitive CRM

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, CRM

    ‘Intuitive Customer Centric CRM’ was voted by our readers as the number 10 Sales Trend of the 12 Sales Trends of 2012.  The goal of a CRM solution should be to drive growth (i.e. revenue) and maximize efficiencies (i.e. profit) in business practices and processes developing relationship management (sales) with customers at the centre of every decision.

    However, for too long CRMs and sales automation have essentially been technological concepts foisted on salespeople by IT specialists who convinced management (not sales) that CRMs and SAs would …

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