A friend of mine, who is a master salesperson, recently went shopping for a new car. He owns a sales training company serving the hospitality industry, as well as being a gifted professional speaker. Last night he faxed me a sales letter he received from a auto dealership he visited that might be the WORST sales letter I have ever read. The names have been changed to protect the innocent victim; I’m not sure why I shouldn’t mention the dealership, but I won’t.

“Dear (Customer):

As the General Manager of (Dealership) of (City), I wanted to thank you for recently visiting our dealership. However, I was concerned that we have still not been able to get you into your next vehicle. I need to know if I can personally be of assistance in this matter.

I would also like to reiterate some key points about this dealership that hopefully were explained to you by the sales and/or management staff:

• All new or used cars will be sold at a fair and and honest price.
• All service work will be done quickly, efficiently, economically and intelligently. We will do everything possible to fix it right the first time.
• Free shuttle service will always be available to you while your car is being serviced.
• I will personally be available and accessible to you for any questions or problems you may have with your car.

Again, the goal of this dealership is to earn your business by satisfying all of your automotive needs. If I can be of any help personally, please give me a call.

Sincerely,

General Manager”

What apparent problems do you see with this letter? Let me suggest a few, some of which are obvious, but some are not:

• The mail merge was entered wrong. The greeting only contains the customer’s last name (i.e.: Dear Smith)
• The “I Factor.” The GM uses the word “I” seven times.
• I cringe at the phraseology of “I was concerned that we have still not been able to get you into your next vehicle,” as opposed to wondering WHY he hadn’t bought.
• His bullet points talk down to the customer, as if he is saying, “In case you didn’t get this the first time…”
• The letter is totally focused on the needs of the dealership, not the customer.
• The letter contains several typos.

Let me make three simple points.

1. Your primary focus should always be about the customer. This dealership appears to be totally focused on just selling cars, not taking care of their customers.
2. What you distribute in the form of sales literature and customer correspondence speaks volumes about your commitment to sales and service excellence. If you can’t proof a letter, how can you possibly know the features of something as big and complicated as a car, much less know how to fix one!
3. If this guy is the GM, were I the owner I would be more than a little concerned about how he trains his people, since he is willing to sign a letter like this.

Everything is important. Keep your customer’s needs in mind at all times, and let everything you say, do, or send out reflect your commitment to excellence in serving your clientele.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: sales training, professional speaker, sales letter, auto dealership, sales, customer correspondence, sales and service

This week I presented the keynote speech to a gathering of top financial advisors with Smith Barney, a division of Citigroup, which was held at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin. This educational conference was attended by advisors from five states, as well as representatives from 14 financial services distributors who “wholesale” investment products through these advisors. My presentation was on client referrals and client relationship development, but I picked up a great idea from one of the wholesalers.

He mentioned that most of the financial advisors in attendance were in his territory. Knowing these FA’s would be at this conference for three days, and that their assistants would be back at their offices, he decided to do something nice for these assistants. The wholesaler had his assistant send each of the FA’s sales assistants a note recognizing their hard work while their boss was at the conference, along with a $10 Starbucks gift card. A little caffeine helps when you are putting in long hours!

Let’s examine this example of sales excellence.

• The investment wholesaler either started or maintained a relationship with the “Gatekeeper” for some of his best clients and prospects
• He also helped his internal wholesaler do the same
• The sales assistants will likely mention this to the FA in a favorable light
• The wholesaler made himself stand out from his competition.

When the cat’s away, often their assistants shoulder the load for keeping clients happy and the business running. Too many salespeople ignore, and in some cases are rude to their clients’ assistants. This simple expression of recognition and appreciation goes a long way to making certain you get past these gatekeepers when you call for an appointment. When competitors call, assistants often have a say in what products salespeople choose to sell. At the end of the day, it never hurts to be nice to people.

What ideas do YOU have for reaching out to assistants of your clients and prospects? Write a reply to this post if you have an idea you would like to share.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: keynote, financial services distributors, client referrals, client relationship development, financial advisors, Starbucks, sales excellence, investment wholesaler

Yesterday I delivered the keynote speech for the 21^st Annual Conference of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP.) AIIP members provide businesses and organizations with “specialized research; information, knowledge, records management, writing, editing, indexing, training, translations, database design, and web page development.” (www.aiip.org) These talented professionals cover a very broad range of information disciplines, including business and industry, banking, finance, legal research, healthcare, public records, government, and others

In preparing for this presentation over the last few months, I spent time interviewing several of the officers and other members of AIIP. When I arrived at the conference, my suspicions were confirmed; these people finished much higher in their class standings than I did! Many are former librarians, and they are incredibly intelligent people and talented researchers. In addition, they are exceptional business people!

During the opening session, they came to the podium, and in 30 seconds or less, gave their value propositions, defining statements, and the taglines for their companies. Here are some of my favorites:

• “An HMO of Information”
• “A High Tech Business Doing Business The Old Fashioned Way”
• “Making green while going green”
• “The world of information at your fingertips”
• “Only The Smart Survive”
• “Linking Data to Decisions”

Wow! I witnessed what is possible when you have a collision of extreme technical competency and exceptional marketing. This raises a question…how do YOU describe what YOU do with YOUR value proposition, defining statements and tagline? The time you have to capture the attention and interest of a prospect continues to shrink. In a bullet-point world you must be able to quickly tell people what you do, and how you do it. If you have a good tagline, I would love to read it. Feel free to send them to me, or leave a response to this post and share it with others.

So…what DO you do, and HOW do you do it?

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: keynote speech, AIIP, value propositions, defining statements, taglines

What a week! Seven speaking engagements in five cities in Washington, California, and Texas, with five flights provided for an exciting but tiring trip. When my wife picked me up at the airport last night, the last thing I wanted to do was dine out. However, she had had a long week as well. She was prepared to have a quiet dinner at home, but I surprised her by suggesting we go out for dinner.

Jensen’s Café in Burnsville, MN is a wonderful breakfast and lunch restaurant, open from 7 AM to 2:30 PM. The Jensen’s are third generation restaurateurs, with another store called Jensen’s Supper Club in Eagan, MN. On my flight home I read in a magazine that they were diversifying their business by using the Jensen’s Café location to launch Jensen’s Wine & Dine, which uses the same facilities and opens at 4:30 PM. They have an entirely different crew that comes in to provide a warm, upscale, but reasonably priced dining experience with fine wines, an excellent menu, and an entirely different feel than you would find if you showed up earlier in the day for breakfast or lunch.

What does this have to do with sales? Jensen’s is growing their business using four principles of successful diversification. To be successful we must focus on what we do best, but when we become successful, we can diversify our business, and add exponential growth to our bottom line. To diversify your sales business you can use the same strategies, which are:

1. Stay in your area of experience and expertise
2. If possible, use existing business assets and resources
3. Provide better service to and more profitability from existing customer relationships, and/or…
4. Use diversification to expand your customer base

Don’t forget to focus on the profitability of expanding your offerings; it has to make sense from a business perspective. Once you have established yourself and become a solid presence in your marketplace, offering additional products and services allows you to increase your profitability and take advantage of scale. Take a look at what you can offer that will build on and strengthen your existing business. Build a plan to grow…and execute your sales plan!

Bon appetite… and good selling!

Technorati Tags: speaking engagements, sales business, customer relationships, sales plan

Many firms use surveys as a way to gauge different aspects of their business. It makes sense for salespeople to survey customers as well, even if their company already has a survey process. The first objective of corporate surveying is to improve the company. Smart firms know that helping their salespeople will ultimately help the company, but there may be some information that YOU want to know that isn’t being covered in the corporate survey.

Here are some examples of questions that will help you grow your business:

• “Do you feel I listened to YOU to determine the solution to best fit your needs?” Sometimes we spend too much time talking, and not enough time listening. Jaime Calva, a master salesman with TSC, a company in the corporate retirement plan business, says, “Telling isn’t selling!” Jaime has been selling for over 50 years! Enough said.
• “If a family member, friend, or business associate asked you about [Your Services] and wanted to know who you used, would you mention my name to them?” If they say “Yes,” call them and thank them, and then tell them to whom you wish to be referred!
• “May I use your comments with people / companies that I call upon?” Testimonials sell! And how beneficial will it be to be able to tell prospects that a large number of your clients…and use the number…are willing to refer you!
• “What could I do to serve you better?” Sometimes you will get answers that might surprise you; in fact you might find out problems you didn’t know you had!

Another reason to survey your clients is to find out their hobbies and interests. If you find out you have a large number of clients that have the similar interests, you can send them articles or information on those topics. This becomes an additional way to develop deeper relationships with your clients and prospects. It shows that you CARE about their business and about THEM.

To get the maximum feedback from as many clients as possible, build in an incentive if they complete the survey. For example, give away a gift certificate or a choice from several types of gift cards. Consider offering discounts on a particular type of product or service from your company; you can do that at cost! Also, this is a great way to allow customers to sample new items, or experience a new service that could lead to future sales.

This may sound a little cumbersome. To make customer surveys easy, take a look at a company called SurveyMonkey. This firm offers internet-based survey tools at a nominal cost. A basic subscription is FREE, and a professional subscription is about $20/month, and includes up to 1000 responses per month. SurveyMonkey is easy to set up and effective.

A little effort in developing a meaningful survey will tell you a great deal about the people that are your business…your customers! This knowledge will help you grow your business and provide better customer service, and your customers will tell you how to do it.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: salespeople, customer service

As a professional speaker and sales trainer, it is important to know what I don’t know, and as a result, I focus on very specific topics. I just returned from western Kentucky. While I was there I heard the following on a local radio station, and it is the antithesis of specialization. This may not be an exact quote, but it is VERY close.

The medical staff at [NAME] Hospital specializes in all types of general surgery.

How do you specialize in all types of general surgery? Doesn’t the term “General Surgery” preclude specialization? Is it really possible to specialize in being a generalist?

Organizations and salespeople need to be careful in the way they position their services. I see sales brochures and advertisements that say “We specialize in…” followed by a list of 10 -20 items. Does that send the message that you really specialize, or does it say indirectly that you need some business, and will sell whatever you need to sell that day just to make a commission? If in fact you do specialize, be specific and zero in on your best possible target market. If you truly are a generalist, define yourself by the problems for which you are the solution. Doing this conceptually as opposed to offering a laundry list of products and services communicates a clearer message of what is in it for your prospects.

In positioning your business, the best success comes when you can niche or micro-niche yourself with products or services that truly make you totally unique and valuable to a large potential customer base, or when that expertise is so specific that you are the only solution for a certain problem. Few of us have that high a degree of expertise, so craft your defining statement to appeal to the largest possible prospect audience. No matter how tempting it may be, you will maximize your profitability if you don’t specialize in everything.

Good selling!

Technorati Tags: professional speaker, sales trainer

Referrals and introductions drive the business of top professional salespeople. Among the myriad of prospecting techniques, Referred Lead Prospecting makes the most sense for several reasons:

• Referrals are a low-cost lead acquisition strategy
• Referrals help prospects feel comfortable with you, because you were introduced
• Centers of Influence have a tendency to self-replicate if you keep your sales and service promises
• Once you build a referral network, your new product and service offerings spread like wildfire, because people in your network talk to each other more often than you know
• Building referral marketing technologies are relatively simple

Referral marketing works best when you NETWORK with others. Among the many networking strategies, one of the best known is BNI (Business Networking International), which organizes referral networks for sales professionals and entrepreneurs. The following comes from BNI’s website, which is www.bni.com :

“The World’s Largest Referral Organization Welcome to our website. BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. It offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.”

Posted in Marketing Ideas | 1 Comment »