The biggest handicap to increasing market share is the inordinate amount of time that sales people spend cold calling trying to get into new accounts. This is tough duty. It's tough because there are no relationships to leverage for information and upward introductions. Precious time is wasted calling or pounding doors to leave advertisements to generate interest. Sales people cost too much to do that. They should not be used as an advertising arm of marketing.
Answering RFP's is another time sink and waste of valuable selling time unless you have relationships with people that count for that project. If you haven't been involved in the development of the RFP and you haven't gotten to the P/L leader to understand the business issues, you don't know how to present your solution so that you stand out as more valuable than the rest. Even if you submit the lowest price, you may not win over the ultimate decision maker because price is usually not his issue - even though everyone always says it is.
I'm in sales. I sell my consulting, my books and my training programs. My focus is on my existing customers. 90% of my time is spent with existing customers trying to develop selling relationships - meaning - learning, observing, interviewing, integrating and showing how I can deliver their results. I use and develop my network. As for new accounts, I've hired a marketing company to generate qualified leads. Once they've got a prospect to a point where I can interview an interested leader, I'll invest to see if I can fit into his solution image. I don't chase windmills. Unless I have an opportunity to develop a relationship -- credibility with someone on the inside -- I will let it pass. I invest my valued asset, time, to develop my valued asset: relationships. Relationship selling is how I can make the most sales.
And now I invite you to learn more.
Bonus Tip: FREE E-Book "Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers". Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_ManferStrategic planning is the exercise that organizations struggle with in defining their sales strategies plans and the future direction of the company. This article addresses a few ideas to assist you in the sales part of the overall sales strategies plan.
A great series of starter questions should be answered right at the start.
What do you want to do?
Run the business
Or
Grow the business
Or
Transform the business
Run the business: Status quoi, business as usual, just like before, keep the lights on. No big
changes.
Grow the business: Increase revenues/sales, grow markets, and add resources, facilities and people, expand.
Transform the business: Big changes, risk, new stuff, different markets, products, channels, skills and resources.
Now keep these three questions in mind through the process, write them out on a flip chart or white board.
1 What is it that we do?
2 Who is our target, who do we do it for?
3 How do we do it better, how do we excel over others that we compete with?
Where to start:
If you have recently had a detailed assessment of the sales group done great if not I suggest you get one done to establish a true baseline for all of your decisions. The sales strategies plan should be done by the senior management team and within reason should be completed without consideration of the ability to execute. (I will explain later) It is important to get buy in with the entire team for all parts of the sales strategies plan. Start by establishing a time frame for the sales strategies plan. There is a ton of information on the web regarding details that will help you through this sales strategies process. Outline the sales strategies plan, establish strategic objectives and goals identify key strategic projects and stack rank them in order of importance to the overall sales strategies plan and then for each ask yourself the following two questions about each.
1 How important is this to the business
2 What is our ability as an organization to execute?
If it's very important to the business and you can execute with ease then it should go to the top of the list. If it is not so important and very difficult to execute on then it should go to the bottom of the list ..
Now what can you expect from the current sales group to do their part. There will probability be a gap between what you need and what they can deliver.
The model is simple and if you spend a few minutes understanding its power it will explain what you have to do. It goes on to explain the steps required to complete a sales strategies plan
Dealing with the gap: You will recall that I asked you to develop the sales strategies plan without constrengths. That is because I believe that you should be able to dream, vision what the future should hold without always being concerned that the sales group may not be capable of delivering. We can fix that; you can fix that...close the gap and manage the business towards those goals without being weighted down by doubt and uncertainty.
Keep it simple; check out Google see strategic planning and good luck!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gordon_Petten
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Five Words That Could (and Should!) Kill Your Sales Career
There I was, the proud owner of a beautiful new washer and dryer set. Cherry red, front-loading, state-of-the-art; they were everything my wife and I wanted. There was just one problem: the units were nowhere to be found. I had blocked out a portion of my Saturday to make the 45-minute drive to the Home Depot where we had purchased the set, excited to get them set up and running. To my disappointment the units hadn't been delivered to the store yet; worse, no one from the store had even bothered to call and save me the trip down. In fact, when I had called the store earlier in the day to check whether the units had arrived, I was assured they had. You can imagine my frustration.
Now I'm a pretty reasonable guy: I understand that trucks sometimes get delayed or orders get misplaced or a warehouse is out of stock. No problem. The problem was that everyone I talked to (the customer service clerk, the salesman I had purchased the set from, and even the store manager) responded to my dilemma with what I consider to be the five lamest words in the English language: "There's nothing I can do." A couple of them went so far as to add an "I'm sorry" to the beginning of the statement, but somehow that didn't make me feel any better. I was given a long list of reasons why no one could do anything, but this, too, failed to improve my mood.
My options were to come back in a couple of days to pick the units up or to wait for the store to deliver them the following week for an additional charge. Since my old unit was broken and the laundry was piling up, I opted to make another trip to pick them up myself. I left the store frustrated, annoyed and certain that my next appliance need would be met elsewhere.
I share this story with you because it highlights a growing problem in the fields of sales and customer service: failure to recognize the importance of the customer. I've said before that the customer is the most important person in any transaction, but I'd like to take that a step further and say that the customer is the only important person in a transaction. After all, no customer, no transaction.
You see, I did have a third option: I could have asked Home Depot for a refund and taken my business somewhere else. The only reason I didn't was that it would have created a greater inconvenience for me at the time; however, you can be sure next time I will probably opt for one of their competitors. Remember that your customers have this same option available to them, as well. No matter how good you or your products or services are, your customers can always get similar or better products or services from one of your competitors, and probably for a lower price. If you resort to the use of the five lamest words in the English language, you can be sure they'll exercise this option. So what if there really is little or nothing you can do to resolve a customer's complaint?
First, realize there is always at least one thing you can do and that is to empathize. To empathize means to identify with another person's feelings or difficulties. A simple statement like, "Mr. Kennedy, I understand how you feel, and I can assure you I will do everything in my power to resolve this situation to your satisfaction," would have gone a long way toward making me feel better about my experience. At least I would have known that someone cared. You can always do at least that for your customers: let them know you care and that you will exhaust all your options to rectify the situation.
Of course, you have to follow that up with actually doing everything in your power to resolve the problem. In other words, you should be an advocate for your customer. If he or she has a problem, take ownership of that problem and see it through to resolution. Fight for your customers, argue for them, bend or even break the rules for them, but never, I mean never, be caught telling them "There's nothing I can do!"
Jerry Kennedy is the owner of Inside Out Business Solutions, a sales and customer service training provider based in Northern California. With a lengthy background in petroleum sales, Jerry has been on the front lines and knows the challenges sales people face every day. You can learn more about Jerry and Inside Out Business Solutions by visiting http://www.inside-out-solutions.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jerry_Kennedy
Now I'm a pretty reasonable guy: I understand that trucks sometimes get delayed or orders get misplaced or a warehouse is out of stock. No problem. The problem was that everyone I talked to (the customer service clerk, the salesman I had purchased the set from, and even the store manager) responded to my dilemma with what I consider to be the five lamest words in the English language: "There's nothing I can do." A couple of them went so far as to add an "I'm sorry" to the beginning of the statement, but somehow that didn't make me feel any better. I was given a long list of reasons why no one could do anything, but this, too, failed to improve my mood.
My options were to come back in a couple of days to pick the units up or to wait for the store to deliver them the following week for an additional charge. Since my old unit was broken and the laundry was piling up, I opted to make another trip to pick them up myself. I left the store frustrated, annoyed and certain that my next appliance need would be met elsewhere.
I share this story with you because it highlights a growing problem in the fields of sales and customer service: failure to recognize the importance of the customer. I've said before that the customer is the most important person in any transaction, but I'd like to take that a step further and say that the customer is the only important person in a transaction. After all, no customer, no transaction.
You see, I did have a third option: I could have asked Home Depot for a refund and taken my business somewhere else. The only reason I didn't was that it would have created a greater inconvenience for me at the time; however, you can be sure next time I will probably opt for one of their competitors. Remember that your customers have this same option available to them, as well. No matter how good you or your products or services are, your customers can always get similar or better products or services from one of your competitors, and probably for a lower price. If you resort to the use of the five lamest words in the English language, you can be sure they'll exercise this option. So what if there really is little or nothing you can do to resolve a customer's complaint?
First, realize there is always at least one thing you can do and that is to empathize. To empathize means to identify with another person's feelings or difficulties. A simple statement like, "Mr. Kennedy, I understand how you feel, and I can assure you I will do everything in my power to resolve this situation to your satisfaction," would have gone a long way toward making me feel better about my experience. At least I would have known that someone cared. You can always do at least that for your customers: let them know you care and that you will exhaust all your options to rectify the situation.
Of course, you have to follow that up with actually doing everything in your power to resolve the problem. In other words, you should be an advocate for your customer. If he or she has a problem, take ownership of that problem and see it through to resolution. Fight for your customers, argue for them, bend or even break the rules for them, but never, I mean never, be caught telling them "There's nothing I can do!"
Jerry Kennedy is the owner of Inside Out Business Solutions, a sales and customer service training provider based in Northern California. With a lengthy background in petroleum sales, Jerry has been on the front lines and knows the challenges sales people face every day. You can learn more about Jerry and Inside Out Business Solutions by visiting http://www.inside-out-solutions.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jerry_Kennedy
The Painting Business - Tough Economy, What Do You Do?
The first thing so many painting businesses do is to run around and low ball every estimate. Why?
Because they firmly believe that painting customers buy exclusively on price. But, studies show that for the most part that is not true. Painting customers want the best value.
Best value and that is? Think about what reasons you buy for. Try to get into the mind of the customer. If you have a really nice home in an upscale community, and you want your home to look good, the finish to last (good paint jobs are not cheap, even the cheap ones are not cheap) and actually sometimes cheap things cost more, the first time that you buy, and you pay the second time to do it the right way first. And they want the painting contractor to start and stay until done, not to take the deposit and leave only to work in dribs and drabs, until the owner finally throws the bum out. They want value, and this means a good job relatively priced, from someone they perceive to be honest, hardworking, going to do a good job and is not going to kick the dog, drink on the job and smoke in their house.
People buy for the most part on their emotions; people buy because they like you. Or they trust you. If you take a $5000 paint job, one guy quotes $5000; the other guy quotes $5050. And the client needs to pick one. The first guy looks sloppy, he was late for the appointment, and when he got out of his truck a beer can fell on the ground. The other guy is clean, came on time, and his truck looks like it was just washed. Which will they pick? The low ball painter only thinks the one who is low bidder will get the job. But if you were buying something this big, and you had doubts, would you buy from the low ball or the painter that you were confident in?
What if the prices were $5000, and $5051? Is that enough of a difference? This is supposed to be a 10 year paint job. Spread $51 over 10 years, does it matter then?
What if the prices were $5000, and $5100, at that point what is another $49? What about $5000 and $5200? $5300? Maybe if they need to buy that job badly enough, and they could not feel good about the low ball painter no matter what the price difference, they might even pay a few thousand more.
I have heard the catcalls, at a PDCA dinner that was for getting new members, from the cash painting contractors were sitting at the table all the way in the back. When the speaker was telling the audience about his hourly rate. It was (4 years ago) $65/hour. The goons in the last table were hooting and laughing, the last thing I heard was them saying he was "full of it", and he would never get that price here. And here was Princeton, NJ. If anyone knows the Ivy League Schools and the towns and communities around them. They know that this area has some of the highest paid people in the states. What was funny to me was that I had been talking to this painting company owner, for a few months prior to this dinner and, I was then charging $65 per hour in that exact area.
It is all in the mind. What do you perceive? What does the client perceive? What is their perception of you? If you want to win more jobs at a higher price than your competitors, then think Value, not low price.
By the way just today, I quoted on a new porch and deck that a decorator referred me to. She also referred 2 other respectable painters. I talked for a while about the benefits of the job, (keeping my estimate hidden), never mentioning price. Talked about the benefits of a quality job, from the primer on the new cedar rail, and what to use on the new mahogany deck, mostly emphasizing quality. I felt that they liked me. Finally they asked me for the price, at which time I told them verbally, without the estimate. I said $2196 for the porch work, and $850 to bleach and rinse the house to clean the mildew off. They said, "how do you explain that Harold quoted $1400 and $450 to bleach the house"? Saying nothing negative about Harold, (actually he is a pretty good guy), I just explained what we would do and how much time it would take. Then they said Steve quoted $1800, after that I just said I don't understand their prices.
Long story short, he said can you do both the porch and the wash job for $3000?
I walked out of there with a $1000 deposit. And this happens a lot to me.
Last year in another part of town, I took a $10,000 exterior paint job, my competition was $6000, but I got the job. And hey, we are good.
So quit dropping your price because nobody cares.
By the way, I bet Harold is thinking that his price was too high.
Click here to find out more about Getting Higher Prices than your competitors, for your Paint Jobs.
Patrick Cavanaugh has 30 years+ running a successful painting business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=P_E_Cavanaugh
Because they firmly believe that painting customers buy exclusively on price. But, studies show that for the most part that is not true. Painting customers want the best value.
Best value and that is? Think about what reasons you buy for. Try to get into the mind of the customer. If you have a really nice home in an upscale community, and you want your home to look good, the finish to last (good paint jobs are not cheap, even the cheap ones are not cheap) and actually sometimes cheap things cost more, the first time that you buy, and you pay the second time to do it the right way first. And they want the painting contractor to start and stay until done, not to take the deposit and leave only to work in dribs and drabs, until the owner finally throws the bum out. They want value, and this means a good job relatively priced, from someone they perceive to be honest, hardworking, going to do a good job and is not going to kick the dog, drink on the job and smoke in their house.
People buy for the most part on their emotions; people buy because they like you. Or they trust you. If you take a $5000 paint job, one guy quotes $5000; the other guy quotes $5050. And the client needs to pick one. The first guy looks sloppy, he was late for the appointment, and when he got out of his truck a beer can fell on the ground. The other guy is clean, came on time, and his truck looks like it was just washed. Which will they pick? The low ball painter only thinks the one who is low bidder will get the job. But if you were buying something this big, and you had doubts, would you buy from the low ball or the painter that you were confident in?
What if the prices were $5000, and $5051? Is that enough of a difference? This is supposed to be a 10 year paint job. Spread $51 over 10 years, does it matter then?
What if the prices were $5000, and $5100, at that point what is another $49? What about $5000 and $5200? $5300? Maybe if they need to buy that job badly enough, and they could not feel good about the low ball painter no matter what the price difference, they might even pay a few thousand more.
I have heard the catcalls, at a PDCA dinner that was for getting new members, from the cash painting contractors were sitting at the table all the way in the back. When the speaker was telling the audience about his hourly rate. It was (4 years ago) $65/hour. The goons in the last table were hooting and laughing, the last thing I heard was them saying he was "full of it", and he would never get that price here. And here was Princeton, NJ. If anyone knows the Ivy League Schools and the towns and communities around them. They know that this area has some of the highest paid people in the states. What was funny to me was that I had been talking to this painting company owner, for a few months prior to this dinner and, I was then charging $65 per hour in that exact area.
It is all in the mind. What do you perceive? What does the client perceive? What is their perception of you? If you want to win more jobs at a higher price than your competitors, then think Value, not low price.
By the way just today, I quoted on a new porch and deck that a decorator referred me to. She also referred 2 other respectable painters. I talked for a while about the benefits of the job, (keeping my estimate hidden), never mentioning price. Talked about the benefits of a quality job, from the primer on the new cedar rail, and what to use on the new mahogany deck, mostly emphasizing quality. I felt that they liked me. Finally they asked me for the price, at which time I told them verbally, without the estimate. I said $2196 for the porch work, and $850 to bleach and rinse the house to clean the mildew off. They said, "how do you explain that Harold quoted $1400 and $450 to bleach the house"? Saying nothing negative about Harold, (actually he is a pretty good guy), I just explained what we would do and how much time it would take. Then they said Steve quoted $1800, after that I just said I don't understand their prices.
Long story short, he said can you do both the porch and the wash job for $3000?
I walked out of there with a $1000 deposit. And this happens a lot to me.
Last year in another part of town, I took a $10,000 exterior paint job, my competition was $6000, but I got the job. And hey, we are good.
So quit dropping your price because nobody cares.
By the way, I bet Harold is thinking that his price was too high.
Click here to find out more about Getting Higher Prices than your competitors, for your Paint Jobs.
Patrick Cavanaugh has 30 years+ running a successful painting business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=P_E_Cavanaugh
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