Colleen’s Blog

Do you ever wonder what happened to good old-fashioned handwritten letters? Although communication tools like email have become the norm and have eliminated most practical uses for handwritten letters, it seems as though the transition period between the two methods of communication was almost overnight. In business today, it’s clear that letter writing is no longer in style. However, have you ever thought of how you can use this fact to your advantage? It isn’t a coincidence that most high ranked sales professionals that I know are also prolific letter-writers. Consider the benefits of writing a letter:

It's frustrating. When you see a sales rep struggling month after month, and missing target after target, it's enough to make any sales leader uneasy. The problem is most leaders handle poor performers the wrong way. There's a tendency to have "tough conversations" or attempt to punish them into higher performance. Some leaders even give poor performers the "cold shoulder" and allow a rep's professional performance to seep into their personal behavior towards them. These are all things that are extremely counterproductive and more often than not, contribute to more negativity and even worse performance. Luckily, there are strategies you can put into place to help improve their results. 

Is your market slowing down? Be sure not to get caught up in a “slow down” mindset! While most salespeople will complain about the market, the successful salespeople will be looking for ways to turn a negative situation into a positive one. The majority of salespeople fail to realize that a market slowing down is actually the perfect opportunity to revise sales strategies and increase sales activity. Think about it, the slower market does not just create problems for you, your competition is likely struggling as well. Chances are they're facing the same challenges your sales team is facing, so it’s important to capitalize on this opportunity. By switching yourself from a  “slow down” mindset to a “speed up” one, you are essentially taking the first step towards achieving prosperity in difficult markets.

How long do you typically take to get back to a prospect upon receiving an inquiry from them? Anything longer than 24 hours is too long. Your customers are busy people - by taking too long to respond you’re letting go of an otherwise potentially easy sale. ← Click To Tweet The number of salespeople and organizations who let days or weeks pass before responding to an inquiry is absolutely staggering. This type of behavior not only breaks several rules in sales etiquette but also displays a complete lack of professional etiquette as well. If you're looking for the easiest, most foolproof way of losing a sale, just trick yourself into believing that your potential customer will be at your beck and call and ready to buy whenever you feel the urge to reply to them. For example: I once sent an inquiry to a company about buying a tradeshow booth. I expressed a strong interest in their product and indicated that I simply needed a few pieces of information before making a purchase. I expected a prompt reply due to my clear readiness to buy their product.

Your sales process could be out of date or prone to more errors than you think. Recently, I worked with a sales VP who was looking to retool their entire sales process. He works with two sales managers who have been in their respective positions for a number of years. Due to this, their process has become more or less automatic. I helped them conduct an end to end sales process review, and here's what we discovered:

This month's award goes to the Hyatt at Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa who has a breakfast ordering system that is second to none in stupidity. You choose your selections and place it on the door like any other hotel. The hanger specifically reads to place it outside before 2AM. You are invited to choose a delivery time starting at 6AM and they ask that you honor a 15 minute delivery window. That's where the trouble begins!

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast. Recently, we've been involved in a very large sales reorganization. There are three sales teams, a channel sales team, a field sales team and an inside sales team. It was always assumed that the field sales team was the main revenue engine. After all, they were the ones going out, finding leads and closing business. But, we uncovered something interesting...

In the hotel business you have three moments to create a positive service experience for your customer. When the customer enters your hotel, during their stay, and when they are leaving. Let’s examine some recent negative experiences of mine and consider what could be done differently. The Hilton shuttle has standing room only on the way in from LAX, and when we arrive at the hotel the lobby is full of people attending. It looks like you're in the middle of a large conference. To greet the approximately 30 arriving guests are only two check-in people. This created palpable frustration for the guests in line. Solution: Have the driver call ahead to alert the front desk staff of the high number of guests arriving and his ETA. I call to find out about the hotel shuttle and I am told that it arrives every 20-30 minutes...on no set schedule. What does that mean and how is that helpful?  Getting to the airport on time to catch flights is a major stressor for many guests, By not having a schedule you are adding to that stress and creating a negative experience of your hotel when guests leave. Will that cause them to want to come back?