Colleen’s Blog

We are halfway through the year. How do you stand against your goals? To finish strong, you must have a quick planning session. Take the time next week to take stock of where you are and regroup.

Many salespeople understand the value of upselling but don’t understand how to take advantage of an opportunity to upsell, especially within their existing client base. Want to know the good news? There is one clear and fairly simple step you can take to increase your chances of receiving opportunities to upsell. For each new customer that you acquire, set up an interview within 30 days. The purpose of conducting an interview is to ensure client satisfaction and to create an open stream of communication between you and your customer. However, this interview is also an opportunity to understand your client’s potential to become a bigger customer in the future. During this interview, (which must be done over the phone - not over email!) ask questions similar to the following:

As a salesperson, you are undoubtedly aware of the massive power that testimonials can provide you. However, many salespeople struggle with receiving testimonials because they simply do not do enough to make it a priority. Consider an individual who is trying to get into shape. They may buy all of the right food and even purchase a gym membership, however if they continue to order out every night and never actually go to the gym, their physical appearance will remain the same. Many salespeople face a similar challenge with their testimonials. They provide good service and have a great product. They even have the intention to receive more testimonials yet they are not taking the steps required to actually receive them. Here are a few strategies you can consider implementing to create more testimonial success:

You will often hear that the best way to maintain and grow your current client base is to ensure that you have the best product on the market, or the best customer service. While these factors surely contribute to client success and loyalty, they are hardly the most important factors. The best way to create client loyalty is by building and maintaining trust. ← Click To Tweet If you have average products and customer service yet you have built trust with your client, the likelihood is that they will still want to work with you. However, even with the best products on the market, you will be unable to maintain and grow your current client relationships if your clients do not trust you. There are two keys to building and maintaining trust with your clients. They are so simple, but they are often overlooked!

You did it. You made the sale. The paperwork has gone through and you’re ready to move on to the next prospect and close yet another deal. Little do you know, making the sale was the easy part, maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with your new client is where things start to get messy. One of the biggest problems salespeople face is dealing with the amount of issues that come up with clients after the initial sale is made. Many clients can be high-maintenance, or can be difficult to please. The good news is you can take steps before the sale is made to ensure that you are drastically reducing the chances of such scenarios arising. 1) Don’t Sell To Everyone There is a certain amount of information you can gather about your prospect prior to making a sale. The problem is, salespeople get so wrapped up in trying to close a deal that they disregard their judgment as to whether or not the prospect will be a right fit. Don’t fall into this trap! Be confident enough in your own judgment and abilities to become selective with who you choose to work with. Think about it, if you make a sale with a client who wastes a considerable amount of time (you could be using to close more deals), is that initial sale even worth it?

Hands down there is nothing more frustrating than to have manufacturing or operations make a mistake on the very first customer order or interaction. Despite the effort and investment to attract a new client, it only takes a minor error to completely destroy the customers experience and erase and positive impressions they might have had. In business, individuals in marketing or selling have an outward focus placed on identifying and capitalizing on that which the customer values. Those in operations or manufacturing however have an inward focus centered on productivity and efficiency. Explained another way, the responsibility of Sales is to attract and close new customers while Operations delivers the customer’s product or service as fast and efficiently as possible, minimizing costs along the way. These opposing viewpoints result in what I call the Customer Value Disconnect, or C.V.D. for short. Fortunately to close the C.V.D. gap is not as difficult as you might think and is somewhat counterintuitive to conventional thinking. The key is in shifting Operational perspectives around what it is that customers value. There are a few critical questions that can support diminishing C.V.D. and bring about a broader perspective on what it means to satisfy customers. Here are the three most critical:

Stupid Ass Sales Technique. These companies are ticking off potential buyers and clogging their in-baskets. Worse, they are at risk of being blacklisted because recipients (including me) are indicating that the emails are SPAM.