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Add You - Sales Recovery: How To Manage a Sale Going Wrong
Business cards can be used for advertising your new venture in town and not only for identification purposes. By distributing them to the public in your area you are introducing your business to the public.You can design and print your cards your self in the beginning when you have just launched your business. This will save you a lot of money until you have a better cash flow to spend on professional printing. It is not so much how the cards look but how you distribute them that counts. The more you distribute the more people will know that you have moved into their area in a brand new store. This generates curiosity and people will come and see where you are situated.You might want to magnetize your cards to make them a little different. Paste small magnets at the backs of the cards. These magnets can be purchased from any craft store. This will encourage the recipients of your cards to take them home with them and place them on the fridge. This prolongs the life of the card as it will probably remain there for quite a while.Never leave any public place without leaving your business card behind. Find a conspicuous place to leave one, perhaps on a counter of a bar or restaurant or at a bus stop of train station. The restrooms are places where people are continually going in and coming out again. Leave a couple of cards here and there will definitely be someone who will take a card home with them. You can attach a magnetized card to some metal surface where it will be seen. Be innovative with your little advertisements and it will amaze you how many
The real issue for organisationsIt used to be that the biggest staffing problem organisations had to deal with was high turnover. Today, the real issue is engagement . . . finding a way to get staff to do more than just turn up to work physically. It’s about finding ways to engage them mentally and emotionally. It’s finding a way to take a stale attitude and freshen it up.For some organisations lack of engagement is an ongoing issue, perhaps due to the nature of the work people are employed to do. For others it is more circumstantial, such as staff coping with busy periods, adapting to change or even just getting out of a rut. Even organisations with highly motivated staff can find they still benefit from the occasional boost to their motivation levels.Whatever the cause the result is the same: lack of engagement is a real issue with real costs attached. A survey of 50,000 employees by the Corporate Leadership Council in 2004 found that only 11% said they were fully engaged at work, 76% knew they could demonstrate more commitment and 13% described themselves as actively disengaged. Imagine if you could increase the productivity of 89% of your people, simply by finding a way to engage them.What happens when people aren’t engagedWe’ve all experienced the disengaged worker at some point. They’re the person doing the minimum, blaming others for mistakes and generally creating a negative environment around them. In other words, they are S.T.A.L.E.:Stressed, Tired and Lacking EnthusiasmWhat’s really h
How can you tell, midway through a sale, whether you’re on track for success or you’ve lost the deal?
How can you tell, in advance, that the sale won't close... ever?
All prospect situations seem to be going along successfully until they aren’t. You work hard to find the prospect who has appropriate need and interest. You do your front end due diligence. You promote and pitch the product professionally. You follow the process of objections, time delays, surprises. You even project a time when the sale will close – much to your manager’s dismay. And you hope, hope, that this time all of your hard work will pay off. But it’s a guess.
There seems to be no way of knowing which prospect will actually close, and which one will disappear forever into choices you have no control over.
OUT OF THE LOOP
How do you end up being wrong so often? Most calculations state that from first prospecting call to close, only approximately 7% of your prospects will make a purchase. If that’s true – or anything close to that number is true – you’re wasting, say, 90% of your time. What’s even worse, you believe that you’re going to be successful until far into your time wastage.
I know I personally sometimes either deny signs that a sale might be going south, or arrogantly believe I can save the day somehow.
But the reality is, as outsiders, the only data you have is either data your prospect has chosen to share, or from your own best guess based on similar situations.
One of the problems is that you’re basing your hopes and guesswork on historic patterns – buyers who have bought given the same fact pattern, or problems you know your product can resolve and seem to be a perfect fit. It seems logical that the new prospect should buy if they want their problem solved.
As an outsider to the buyer’s unique cultural norms and mental models, you have no way of going into the team or Problem Space of the prospect because you don’t live there with them. You don’t know their internal politics, or the complete set of people issues that must be managed; you don’t know exactly what is maintaining the problem that your product can solve – if the prospect knew how, the problem would have been solved ‘yesterday’ (and why wasn’t it??); you can’t know all of t
Direct marketing and direct mail can work for a mobile carwash company. Most mobile carwash companies are quite happy with the word-of-mouth advertising and referrals they get from providing excellent service to previous customers. This is great indeed, however by using a targeted direct mail and direct marketing package to achieve more business a mobile carwash company can cluster their customers close together.The closer together that customers are for a mobile carwash the easier it is for them to remain efficient and this means less travel time between customers and therefore less fuel expended. With gasoline at 3 dollars per gallon it makes sense to cluster customers and put them closer together and this is one thing that direct marketing and direct mail can do for a mobile carwash company.I have been a mobile carwash business for 27 years and I have always felt that if you keep your routes consolidated that you can wash more cars in a day and therefore make more money. You can also add more units to your business to handle more consolidated routes. Direct mail and direct marketing package therefore makes sense for mobile carwashes almost as much has fixed site carwashes. Please consider all those in 2006.
There seems to be no way of knowing which prospect will actually close, and which one will disappear forever into choices you have no control over.
OUT OF THE LOOP
How do you end up being wrong so often? Most calculations state that from first prospecting call to close, only approximately 7% of your prospects will make a purchase. If that’s true – or anything close to that number is true – you’re wasting, say, 90% of your time. What’s even worse, you believe that you’re going to be successful until far into your time wastage.
I know I personally sometimes either deny signs that a sale might be going south, or arrogantly believe I can save the day somehow.
But the reality is, as outsiders, the only data you have is either data your prospect has chosen to share, or from your own best guess based on similar situations.
One of the problems is that you’re basing your hopes and guesswork on historic patterns – buyers who have bought given the same fact pattern, or problems you know your product can resolve and seem to be a perfect fit. It seems logical that the new prospect should buy if they want their problem solved.
As an outsider to the buyer’s unique cultural norms and mental models, you have no way of going into the team or Problem Space of the prospect because you don’t live there with them. You don’t know their internal politics, or the complete set of people issues that must be managed; you don’t know exactly what is maintaining the problem that your product can solve – if the prospect knew how, the problem would have been solved ‘yesterday’ (and why wasn’t it??); you can’t know all of
Administrative Professionals Day is just around the corner, always the same, last week of April. But for some reason we all tend to forget. Bosses and managers rushing around at the last minute searching for the perfect gift for that irreplaceable assistant, secretary or paralegal is a common sight. But why not make it easy. A bouquet of flowers can be just the right gift to say exactly what you want, if you know where to look. The ancient Greek and Egyptians had it right and even our forebears, the Victorians knew the power of flowers to get your message across without all the hassle and fuss of gifts that your trusty helpers may not like. Everyone loves flowers! Looking for the right flower to give an administrative professional? These floral beauties hold just the right message:White Chrysanthemum - symbolizes trust, honestyGive white chrysanthemums to assistants who are trustworthy and forward, always on time, ready to work and forthcoming about any issues that may arise.Mullein, from the Snapdragon family - symbolizes good natureYou know who they are; the assistant with a bright smile and good attitude no matter the circumstances is deserving of the Mullein.Blue Hyacinth and Bluebell - loyalty, dependabilityThere is always one in any office. He/she is always willing to stay late, come in early and work on weekends just to make your job easier. Give your loyal and dependable assistant a blue hyacinth or blue bell today.The following flowers also make a great gift to deserving assistants:Queen Anne=s Lace - which re
I know I personally sometimes either deny signs that a sale might be going south, or arrogantly believe I can save the day somehow.
But the reality is, as outsiders, the only data you have is either data your prospect has chosen to share, or from your own best guess based on similar situations.
One of the problems is that you’re basing your hopes and guesswork on historic patterns – buyers who have bought given the same fact pattern, or problems you know your product can resolve and seem to be a perfect fit. It seems logical that the new prospect should buy if they want their problem solved.
As an outsider to the buyer’s unique cultural norms and mental models, you have no way of going into the team or Problem Space of the prospect because you don’t live there with them. You don’t know their internal politics, or the complete set of people issues that must be managed; you don’t know exactly what is maintaining the problem that your product can solve – if the prospect knew how, the problem would have been solved ‘yesterday’ (and why wasn’t it??); you can’t know all of
I lost my mobile telephone. The telephone company told me to file a police report and then come down to their office to buy a new phone.When I arrived, the counter staff member was helpful and understanding. She gave me a discount on my new phone purchase and a free replacement SIM card holding my personal account details. I was pleased and grateful.Five months later I lost my handphone again! This time I knew what to do. I filed a new police report and went back to the company to buy a new phone.The counter staff member was helpful and understanding, but she gave me neither a discount on the new phone nor a free replacement SIM card. I asked if she had forgotten, or if the company policy had changed.She replied, ‘We are very sorry that you lost the phone, and our policy is to give a discount and a free SIM card to make things a little easier for you. But our records show you lost your phone five months ago, and we can only feel sorry for you once a year.’ Key Learning Point -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Generosity is a good service policy whenever your customers need help. If they need help twice, be generous twice. (No one loses their mobile phone twice on purpose.) Action Steps -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Look for situations where your company policy restricts the flow of generosity towards customers who have a problem. Change the policy. Don't hold back. Give generously when customers need you. Over time t
One of the problems is that you’re basing your hopes and guesswork on historic patterns – buyers who have bought given the same fact pattern, or problems you know your product can resolve and seem to be a perfect fit. It seems logical that the new prospect should buy if they want their problem solved.
As an outsider to the buyer’s unique cultural norms and mental models, you have no way of going into the team or Problem Space of the prospect because you don’t live there with them. You don’t know their internal politics, or the complete set of people issues that must be managed; you don’t know exactly what is maintaining the problem that your product can solve – if the prospect knew how, the problem would have been solved ‘yesterday’ (and why wasn’t it??); you can’t know all of
I’ll bet you don’t have a clue as to what I am talking about – Sea Gull Management.Let me give you a scenario. The typical manager flies into the department, rapidly flapping his wings while squawking loudly enough to hear it in the next building. He then squat shakes his butt, craps all over his employees and flies out of the department. For those of you with less vivid imaginations, it is when a manager delivers only bad news, never praise or positive feedback or recognition.Ever worked for someone with this approach to management? De-motivating wasn’t it? Many managers just don’t get it. Most employees would like to be effective, do a good job and get their work done on time and right. Problem is, many organizations sabotage employee performance top-down and refuse to look in the mirror to determine the cause of this situation.For over 30 years, I have consulted with hundreds of organizations in a variety of industries worldwide. Would you be interested to know what I have learned as one of the most common critical mistakes managers make every day? …Too little positive feedback and recognition, and poorly delivered negative feedback or discipline.You get the behavior you reward. Behavior reinforced is behavior repeated. What goes around comes around. Doesn’t matter how you say it, the result is always the same. If you don’t like the behavior you are getting, don’t just look at your employees, but look at your management style, corporate culture and communication patterns to determine where part of the problem lies.Remember: You will get more o
CHANGING THE POSSIBILITIES
Let me tell you a story about how assumptions get us into trouble. It’s not specifically about how a sale was lost without knowing why, but a story of how a sale never got to happen because the sales approach was wrong and the seller didn’t know how to recognize what didn’t work. It’s the same premise: operating from the assumption that the seller 'knows' what’s going on and doesn't recognize his own approach as being part of the problem.
I know this tale intimately: it happened with a new member of my team who was recently trained and just getting his head around the difference between selling and helping someone manage all of the elements necessary for a buying decision.
My salesperson told me he was having problems getting a good response from a specific industry when he made cold calls. He was quite frustrated because he only had a finite number to call, and asked what he’d do when he’d completed all calls in the category without a sale. It was obvious to him that we were in the wrong industry, given the responses he was getting.
When I asked him what he was doing, he shared a scenario that made it clear that he was using conventional sales techniques, and hence received conventional responses. Here is how one of his conversations went:
Seller/John: Hello. My name is John from Morgen Facilitations. This is a sales call. Is this is a good time to speak? [So far, so good.]
Prospect: Sure. I’ve got a few minutes. What are you selling?
John: A new paradigm sales training. How are you currently bringing new thinking into your team to enhance their skills? [Good job, John. On the money.]
Prospect: We purchase scripts that we have designed especially for our product. We’ve used this scripting
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