Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

The JF Guest Author Spot:

“Your Greatest Asset“ By Joe Heller, Trust Cycle Selling.

Your greatest asset is your own customer list. These people have already purchased something from you in the past. If you’ve delivered as satisfactory product, they are very likely to buy from you again.

The easiest sale you’ll ever make is to an already established customer of yours. They already trust you. They feel comfortable in dealing with you. You’ve delivered what you said you would so a certain degree of trust has already been established. Your customers are probably quite confident that you wouldn’t sell them something that wasn’t in their best interest.

The high road to increased profits always takes the route of established customers. There’s always an expense associated with finding a new customer. Regardless of the marketing method used there’s always an investment required in establishing a customer whether in terms of real dollars or human capital. Once you have a customer, any subsequent sale is made without the cost of locating that customer. The cost or finding a new customer is proportionally much higher than the cost of retaining an existing customer.

Keys To Success

The secret of capitalizing on your customer base is to continually feed them with new products and services you know they’ll want. This is no time to diversify into completely new areas. Everything that you make available to your customer list must be compatible with what made those people customers to begin with.

Whatever subsequent products and services you offer must be related in some way. Think of your customers as belonging to a specific group. They’re gardeners or small business owners or health enthusiasts. Whatever you offer must fit that product niche.

Always be on the lookout for new things you think your customers would gladly pay for. And give customers first crack at any of these new products and services. If you can offer a discount, that’s even better. By letting them in on new products and services, you’re giving them priority customer status, an added value of doing business with your firm.

Be careful not to overdo it. You don’t want to annoy anyone, least of all your customers. Allow enough time and space between customer contacts. How much time you allow between mailings or calls depends on the nature of your business.

Examples

When a clothing store receives a shipment of new designs, they should first notify all previous customers who’ve purchased in the same price range. All the store has to do is contact these customers by phone or by mailing invitations to a special event where this new line is unveiled. Suggest to customers how additional new outfits can be created by mixing and matching and you’ve provided an extra service that will help retain customers.

This approach would seem natural for a wholesaler who relies on distributors or retailers to act as re-sellers. By showing your new merchandise and suggesting ways to move more of it, you’re providing a valuable service while keeping in touch with your customers.

A self-published author of book on camping tips, should come up with natural additions to his product line to sell to buyers of his book. Things like maps of parks, local facilities, lists of “must-see sites” or specialty camping equipment, could all be add-ons made available to the author’s buyers.

“Revenue Warrior”, Joe Heller moves between different types of businesses and professions showing his clients to “out think” the competition. Clients see growth of 517% or more with his advice and strategy on copywriting, marketing materials, life-time value, target markets and profit acceleration. 

Joe Heller’s clients include entrepreneurs and professionals to huge corporations. Joe is the mastermind behind the successes of hundreds of individuals who have taken their businesses to new levels of profitability and growth. Read more about Joe here.

Over on Leadership Turn my chum from down under, Kevin Dwyer asks: “What Is A Team?” - fascinating insights from Kevin as ever.

Tomorrow:”Ideal Customer Profiling” - does the ideal customer exist?
 

Emerging salespeople typically believe that all business is good business and to an extent, I can understand this viewpoint. If you are trying to make a name for yourself, being put under pressure by your sales manager to get “runs on the board” and earn the respect of the more experienced and successful members of the team, it is difficult to walk away from any opportunity if you believe you have the remotest chance of winning it.

However, it is essential that more seasoned professionals fully understand both the value and importance of rigorous objective qualification, not just at the front end but right the way through the sales cycle.

Qualification is a process not a single event and even internal and reactive salespeople should be fully skilled in asking a small number of basic questions regarding precise requirements, time scales, budget, competition etc before they are prepared to reveal their price and delivery.

As the value of the product, service or solution increases, the depth of the qualification should increase proportionally.

External salespeople have the opportunity to meet with prospective customers and it is far easier to extract information face to face than it is via the telephone, however, it is vital that some initial answers are elicited prior the that first exploratory meeting in order to ensure that the meeting will be worthwhile to both parties. With sales costs spiralling upwards and sales time becoming limited, considerable prudence is required on the part of the salesperson.

During that first meeting, a considerable amount of detail can and should be uncovered e.g. background and history of the company, the key individuals, the composition of the DMU (Decision Making Unit) if there is one, timescales, budget, competition, current suppliers, buying criteria etc. Only by rigorous questioning will the salesperson be able to answer the following questions when they get back to the office: Is there a requirement/need that my company can satisfy? Is it winnable? Do I want it?

The very best sales professionals will not pursue the opportunity, after proper objective analysis, if the answer to any of those questions is “No”. They will rather invest their precious selling time seeking out and closing opportunities that will provide a profitable return on that investment.

At the very highest selling levels i.e. strategic “big-ticket” selling and marketing, clearly the sales cycle is much more protracted, complex and typically moves through four stages i.e.

•  Rigorous Opportunity Assessment
•  Develop A Strategy
•  Present The Solution and Re-Assess The Opportunity
•  Gain Formal Commitment, Sign The Order and Develop

In Summary:

Having a tilt at every windmill that presents itself, is neither practical nor profitable. Qualification, is a core competency that every professional salesperson should take on board as quickly as possible. Working to the maxim that “All business is good business” is unrealistic and totally erroneous. It takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the pipeline only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one – the ability to determine which is which, can have a huge impact on your ultimate success in a front-line sales role.

Tomorrow: Occupying the JF Guest Author Spot is my buddy Joe Heller with: “Your Greatest Asset“