Customer care has become one of the most important issues facing businesses in every market – there are less customers, spending less and making fewer purchases.

There has never been a more appropriate time for every organisation to examine it’s approach to customer retention. 

Customer care programs come under a number of titles – customer services, customer satisfaction, customer focus, customer orientated etc.

Their common theme is meeting the customer’s requirements and ensuring that all aspects of the business contribute to customer satisfaction. The intention is to build repeat business if customers are satisfied with the product and the standards of service they receive, they will return again and again.

Inconsistent Customer Care
 
Inconsistent customer care performance can have a negative effect on customer perceptions. Petrol companies for example, know that every time a customer walks into one of their outlets, wherever they are in the country, they should expect to receive the same standards of service. Nation-wide consistency is essential when customers are likely to visit multiple outlets – one poor performance can threaten the customer’s perception of the entire operation.

What Is Customer Care?
 
 Customer care is about addressing three sets of requirements:
 
• Customer
 
• Staff
 
• Organization
 
These requirements are interrelated, i.e. it is more difficult to deliver consistently high standards in customer care if the needs of both the organization and the staff are not taken into account

Customer Requirements
 
• Excellent personal service – feels valued, listened to, treated as an individual

• Products that meet expectations

• Encouragement to express views and give feedback

• Effective relationship with the organization

• Problems and complaints are handled effectively

Staff Requirements
 
• Effective management style

• Suitable working environment – pay and conditions / tools for the job

• Relevant training to develop skills

• Career potential

• Clarity of role / job description

• Performance standards and appraisal systems

• Sense of involvement / value

• Open communication

• Teamwork

• Rewards / Recognition

Organisational Requirements
 
• Mission statement
 
• Corporate structure
 
• Feedback and communication systems
 
• Profit
 
• Human and technical resources
 
• Demonstrated commitment

Who Are Your Customers? 
 
If you are not serving the customer, you should be serving someone who is. Harmonious relationships with customers and colleagues are essential to service success, because providing outstanding customer service is primarily a team effort. For excellent customer service to exist it has to be practised on an internal basis

The What And The How
 
 The “What” is the material and the “How” is the personal element. To be outstanding, organizations must deliver excellence in both material and personal service.

Customer service is no longer just a question of interpersonal skills

The difference between you and your competitors is achieved when expectations are exceeded. Doing the unexpected, going the extra mile, moves us from meeting expectations to exceeding expectations

How To Delight Customers:
 
• Be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is the driving force of quality service.Customers do not just want products they want products plus enthusiasm
 
• Be professional. The word professional does not go with the job, it goes with the person
 
Be The Best
 
• Someone, somewhere has to be the best at this job – why not me?

• Decide to be outstanding
 
How To Be The Best
 
• Use positive self talk – e.g. tell yourself ‘Everyday in every way, I get better and better’

• Don’t be ordinary

• Develop a ‘How can I do it better?’ mind set

Today Everyone Sells
 
 In a successful company the number of sales people equals the number of employees

• Everyone sells something  – either products, services or the image of the company
 
And Finally: How To Help Yourself Sell
 
• Pay attention  – give people the benefit of your attention

• Customers like to give their business to those who show they want it

Ready to overhaul your customer service approach? You’ll find a lot of helpful advice here

Tomorrow: It’s the w/e, and that means it is the JF Guest Author Spot – do try and join me?

“If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him you are his sincere friend.” Abraham Lincoln

A well known so called “sales guru”  recently used this quote, and suggested that nowhere is this truer than in selling, where you are trying to persuade another, often a stranger, to make a decision they may not even have considered prior to your meeting.

My view? Total and utter rubbish! Potential clients are not interested in making friends with you – but they do want to trust you. Don’t concern yourself with being liked, but concentrate on earning respect – you may think they like you, but will they respect you in the morning?

The reality is that the buyer-seller situation – like any human contact – is an exercise in human relations: the interplay, cause and effect of behavior by two or more people on each other. In the buyer-seller situation, the seller must be responsible for shaping mutual behaviour.

What’s the difference between human nature and human relations?

• Human nature is the instinctive behavior that governs action concerned with the self and with self-interest.

• Human relations are concerned with how we think and act in terms of other’s interests.

Successful selling demands that human relations be dominant over human nature.

Selling is not something a salesperson does to a prospect. Selling is something you do with the prospect in a process of discovery and interaction – human relations at work.

The greatest barrier to success in this process is the “Egocentric Predicament.” This consists of being overly and unnecessarily concerned with self. Our ability to be perceptive and concerned about others is inversely proportionate to our self-concern.

When self gets unnecessarily in the way, the fruitful cycle of good human relations stops producing.

The key to understanding and accepting others, is to first understand and accept oneself – starting with the realization that, rather than strive for an unattainable “I should be” image, we should settle for our real self as “I am” – accepting shortcomings along with strengths.

The following points provide a practical answer to the “I am” versus “I should be” conflict.

Recognize it – and recognize that its source is rooted in the views of others.

Either (a) accept your “I am” image or (b) decide on attainable, constructive steps to achieve “I should be” in the future.

Our behavior is a reflection of our attitudes; and our attitudes grow out of our values. Each is an integral part of the other. Do your life values make it easy for you to put the other person’s interests first?

Sincerity is a much-used word in relation to selling.

Integrity is a kindred word. Integrity implies a consistent kind of honesty: acting outwardly the way you truly feel inwardly. That’s why sound values are so important to your success with others. Remember: “People buy our product not so much because they understand the product… but because they feel that we understand them.”

There are many effective ways of doing this: The best way to create this kind of buying climate is to “transmit on their frequency.” This opens their mind to you…makes them willing – and eager – to listen.

A sincere, specific compliment on a point of real meaning to them gets the other person talking about things of interest to them. It opens doors.

“Before I sell my prospect what my prospect buys, I must first see my prospect as they see themselves.”

In Summary:

Empathy is the magical word in the lexicon of human relations. It means feeling as the other person feels, not just with them. It means putting yourself in their shoes and shaping your attitudes accordingly.

Beyond getting the order, the plus factor in selling is to make people look good in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Rather than sell to them, we help them buy.

We do this best by building their self-image. This helps them grow. And as we help others grow, we grow. To do this, we must be open and honest – this is the essence of good human relations.

These concepts are applicable to every facet of our lives and in selling, they pave the way to the truest and most fruitful success.

Today’s News: We have finally finished messing around with the new design here and I am very happy – now we can finalize the new JF Consultancy site in the next 48 hours.

Over at AllBusiness, on my “Ask The Expert” weekly podcast, I am discussing the massive benefits of publishing articles, and I reveal my experiences – HERE

As with all things in life, the quality of the preparation affects the final outcome and this is certainly true when it comes to planning and preparing a presentation.

I have experimented with a number of methods over the years but I do believe that the simplest are usually the best.

The Collection:
Over a period of time think all round the subject and note down on a large sheet of paper or indeed several sheets, everything that comes into your head about the subject of your presentation. This is rather like a personal brain storming session and should be done roughly, in the order in which the thoughts occur; do not attempt to write a speech at this stage

The Central Theme:
This second method requires you to decide on the exact message you want to get across and writing it down in one simple sentence. Then you think all around the sentence, scribbling down the ideas as they come to you – this method is almost identical to ‘mind-mapping

Before selecting or rejecting any idea, it is important to decide:-

• Who are my audience?

• How much do they know already?

• How much time will I be allowed?

Having taken account of the answers to those three key questions, it should be possible to answer one further one -

• What do I want to say?

This is the stage at which you can decide your headings and sub-headings and put them into a logical order. Your structure then begins to take shape. Essentially you go back to the notes you made during the ‘ideas’ stage and select which ones you wish to use – and then put them in the right order.

Remember you probably will not have time to tell your audience all you know about your subject – after all this is not an ‘information dump’ Use only what is relevant and what can be dealt with in the time at your disposal – this may involve a ruthless reduction exercise.

It is suggested that if possible leave the speech, once written, for 24 hours. Then re-read and revise, removing any jargon or unnecessarily flowery phases or faulty reasoning.

The actual notes that you speak from can be the final draft of the speech but this will normally cause you to read most or all of the presentation and the audience will find this dull.

It is much better, therefore, to read the final draft and put it to one side. Then, without referring to it, write short, key-word notes or, if you are very experienced, headings only, on to numbered post-cards.(Numbering your cards will prove to be an invaluable exercise in the unlikely event you drop them half way through your presentation!)

You can now re-look at the final draft to check that you have included all the major ideas on the cards, but be careful, the chances are that if you forgot that idea when making out the cards, you will forget it when you make the presentation.

And Finally -Final Notes:
Unless you are a very good actor with a phenomenal memory, do not dispense with notes by memorising a speech ‘parrot-fashion’. Unless your audience are ornithologists, they do not want to listen to a parrot! Also, it is easy to lose your way when giving a memorised presentation and easier still to lose an audience.

Today’s News:

So many companies struggle when it comes to choosing a training company that is right for them – and so many make bad choices. I have some advice for you over on my AllBusiness blog today – simply click on the little widget above.

I have been “leading” since I was eight years old – my first soccer captaincy – and I have been leading for most of my life. It is better that way because I really am a lousy follower. So, based on my own fifty years of leading experience, here is my list of just six – the important six:

Enthusiasm:
We will all agree that enthusiasm for what one is doing is one of the first traits. No man or woman can install much enthusiasm in anyone else for something about which they themselves are not enthusiastic. Genuine enthusiasm does not mean a glib, backslapping, plastic smile type attitude. More often, the genuine leader’s enthusiasm is likely to be of a more quiet nature – but it is there! It is shown by the manner in which they go about their work. Their manner of handling their job seems to say to everyone. “This is important! It must be done right. It must be fairly and squarely done!” And -“You Can Do It!”

Unless a person feels right down in their bones that the work they are doing is worthwhile, they can never consistently (day in and day out) act as though they do. So, if they have any feelings or doubt about the importance of their work and cannot get enthusiastic about it, the trouble is in the person himself or herself. Whether they realise it or not, those around them sense their feelings, their attitude is showing!

Courage:
Leadership takes “guts”. The true leader has the ability to “take it” when the going gets rough. Often the leader has to “take it” for the whole organisation to keep its morale high. The leader has to face up to a new problem all the time. Indeed, many successful leaders invite difficulties just for the sheer joy of coping with them. The genuine leader approaches each day with a sort of “joy of battle”.

Courage in leadership sometimes takes unexpected forms; it may mean standing up to a principle. (Has anyone ever known a real leader who was a “yes person”?) It means having the character to stand up for what you believe in without comprising or cutting corners.

It may mean taking a bold approach to a new idea – sticking your neck out in support of something, which you think is worth trying. It means loyalty to your conviction.

Self Confidence:
An important requirement for the leader of today is self confidence. However, in making decisions about people, their motivations and the way they act or react, the leader can never feel completely sure they are right. The best they can do is to make a sort of “educated guess” based on the facts they can assemble and then depend upon their past experience and knowledge to interpret them.

However, a leader can be self-confident. A great help is to know and work within their personal assets and limitations. They know what they can personally do and what they are unable to do. They are willing to listen to other opinions, assess them and be big enough to adopt the meritorious ones even if they do not square with their original thinking. They can take small reverses in stride.

A self-confident leader is never satisfied with their present accomplishments, does not spend their time in useless longing for things they cannot have. Rather, they set about realising their immediate and realistic goals.

Integrity:
A leader keeps promises. They keep their promises to their associates as meticulously as those made to their superiors. They keep promises made to themselves, which are the hardest to keep and failure in this is the easiest to rationalise. They can keep all these promises because they never commit themselves rashly; but always within the limits of reality and their present capabilities in terms of personal ability. Part of this matter of integrity is certainly, unquestioned loyalty to their organisation – to its reputation as well as their own. Also they must have loyalty to their products and to their associates and loyalty to their industry.

Loyalty to one’s associates is extremely important in any leader. They should never allow themselves or others in their group to ridicule, or down grade other leaders or people in the industry, as it is a sign of jealousy and this is one trait that cannot exist in a true leader. Part of this loyalty is a sense of stewardship – a feeling of responsibility for the welfare, progress and security of the industry as a whole, and that includes everybody who ethically runs a business, everyone in their organisation, their customers and their family.

Interest:
Even the Oxford Dictionary has difficulty in describing the meaning of the word “friendliness”. Of “friendliness” it says, “it signifies befitting or worthy of a friend”.

A leader has a genuine and sympathetic interest in and a respect for, people as individuals. A very high percentage of any leader’s day is spent working directly with individuals.

Be careful – do not go overboard. Here there could be a danger signal. Friendliness can, of course, be overdone. Although interested and sympathetic, the true leader stays firm – never getting so involved in the personal lives of people that he forgets the implications of their role as a leader. They never play favourites – and should never play one personality against another. They know where to draw the line.

Humor:
Whilst not advocating that the leader be the ‘life and soul of the party’, it is essential that they have a keen sense of humour. There will be times when an appropriate joke or light hearted remark, will do more to relax and motivate than all the arranging in the world.

These then are the six basic characteristics, which help a person to be a successful leader.

Think of others: Upon reflection, you will probably agree that your ideas are closely allied to or even a part of the six detailed here. They are not by any means a guaranteed panacea that will assure success as a leader. Though all leaders possess them to a varying degree, all of us have known people who have had them all, but were still unsuccessful as leaders.

Characteristics or traits by themselves do not make leaders, certain core skills are equally necessary.

Latest News: So how do you like the new masthead and design? Cool eh? Just wait until you see the new JF Consultancy site on Friday – orgasmic just does not describe it!

The single most common mistake that organisations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager.

The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team, are totally different from those required for selling.

As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales.

Insufficient Time for Sales Team Development:
The majority of sales managers – new and experienced alike – say they do not have sufficient time to train and develop their sales teams. They are so focused on sales results – and so accustomed to achieving success through their personal pursuit of those results – that they overlook their greatest potential source of power, the power to increase sales performance by developing their people.

Providing Development for Sales Managers:
Successful Sales Directors ensure that some sort of training and development program is in place to help sales managers continually improving the way they coach and develop their team. Equally important, top-performing Sales Directors look for ways to provide sales managers with the resources they need to perform effectively. This may mean, for example, giving managers tools with which to identify each individual salesperson’s strengths and development areas, providing them with an easy-to-use framework to address development areas, and putting a process in place that helps their team to implement new skills.

Opportunity to Make a Difference:
Every sales manager has a powerful role to play in developing and supporting their team members’ potential so that an increasing emphasis is placed on performance management to enable more salespeople to achieve more of their potential. We have identified the eight most common reasons why salespeople fail i.e.

Wrong or no selection process = The wrong person for the position

Wrong or no training = Insufficiently developed

Wrong or no planning = Expected to do all of their own planning

Wrong or no supervision = Left without competent supervision

Wrong or no motivation = Not properly motivated to meet objectives

Wrong or no stimulation = Not stimulated by appropriate incentives

Wrong or no evaluation = Not regularly appraised against a set of agreed objectives

Wrong or no executive action = Not adequately supported by a competent manager

The Sales Manager has control over all of these factors, including the final one!

Latest News: Expect to see a bit of a makeover here this week, plus a really major makeover at the JF Consultancy, where the elves have excelled themselves.

Oh, and it’s the last week to have a vote over at Top 10 Sales Articles

There has been increasing evidence – unsurprisingly – that sales professionals and sales captains are working longer and longer hours, thereby putting health and family relationships at risk. This is not a topic that we can simply sweep under the carpet, it is not going to go away, and I am witnessing it more and more frequently, amongst friends, colleagues and clients.

Pressure to complete and meet the ever-increasing demands of customers (as well as the need to achieve higher sales quotas)  is forcing people to spend more of their time working.

Whilst stress does have its benefits, too much can cause errors of judgement, mistakes, accidents and damage to health. Some people are more vulnerable to stress from overwork than others.

American researchers have identified two types of managers – Type ‘A’ who, though thriving on stress, are vulnerable to its effects, and Type ‘B’ who rarely let events disturb them.

Not only are there Type ‘A’ managers but also Type ‘A’ organisations – is yours one?

Types A & B:

Type A:
• Try to do more and faster
• Concerned with speed, performance and productivity
• Tend to be aggressive, impatient, intolerant, hard driving and always hurried
• Preoccupied with time
• Start early
• Strong competitive tendency
• Always want to succeed
• More likely to have heart attacks

Type B:
• Easy going
• Take difficulties in their stride
• Spend time on what they’re doing
• Rarely harassed
• Less prone to heart attacks
• Take time to ponder alternative
• Usually feel there’s plenty of time
• Not as preoccupied with time

You will know which category description best describes you right now!

And Finally – Prime Time, When Are You At Your Best?

We all have a ‘prime time’ during the day when we are at our best and fully alert, the secret is to recognise this and complete those activities that require energy, application and thought, when you’re at your sharpest.

When energy is low, we are sluggish and tend to make mistakes, so watch what you eat – a heavy meal and wine make a lot of people sleepy; a healthy meal can provide energy for hours.

Work in periods of time; a maximum of an hour before you give yourself a break – this way you’ll concentrate better.

If you want help in identifying your time robbers, this originally titled article will help: “How To Identify Your Time Robbers”

Today’s News: As I mentioned yesterday, I am travelling home to Paris this w/e, which means I probably will not have time to post – but you never know! In the meantime, you might enjoy my post over at AllBusiness – “The Real Value of Networking”

Have a great w/e!! – JF

Most sales leaders will not have experienced such a severe economic downturn before.

My advice is quite simple: “Stay focused, constantly challenge paradigms, but always keep the overall sales strategy sharply in focus”

One of the key tasks of a sales manager is to continually seek ways to improve the way in which their team operates – constantly challenging paradigms and questioning “the way we do things around here”, will ensure the team remains at optimum performance levels.

However, it is also important to stay within an overall long term strategy and not effect change for change’s sake. Here are some thoughts on moving forward in a structured manner.

First, keep the key management functions in mind:

• Define objectives (your own and others)

• Plan (and time) action

• Communicate (throughout the process)

• Support others’ action

• Evaluate performance (and link to the future)

• Then relate this to the task, the team and the individual people

Keeping the Overall Management Process in Mind:

Define Objectives:

• Task – Identify task and constraints

• Team – Set targets and involve the team

• Individual Needs – Agree targets and responsibilities

Plan:

• Task – Establish priorities

• Team – Structure and delegate

• Individual Needs – Assess skills, train and delegate

Communicate:

• Task -  Brief and check understanding

• Team – Consult, obtain feedback

• Individual Needs – Listen, advise and enthuse

Support/Control:

• Task – Monitor progress, check standards

• Team – Co-ordinate, reconcile conflict

• Individual Needs – Recognise, encourage and counsel

Evaluate:

• Task – Review, re-plan and summarise

• Team – Reward success, learn from failure (and success)

• Individual Needs – Appraise, guide and train for the future

This view encapsulates, and simplifies, the whole process.

With this picture in mind certain key issues are worth a mention:

Link to the Future:

Ongoing success as a manager is influenced by:

• The attitude you take to the transition

• What you do before you move into a new appointment

• The early focus you bring to bear on key issues

• The relationship you thus cultivate with staff

• The working habits you create for yourself (and others) in process

Together, all the above influence early success in the job – and how you take things forward into the future.

Key Issues:

From the beginning, always operate on the basis that managing people:

• Takes time – you cannot get so bound up in your own workload that you skimp on time you should spend with others

• Takes effort – it is challenge, there are no magic formulae or quick fixes that will do the job for you

• Needs thought – the obvious or immediate answer may not be best, things may well need research, analysis and thinking through

• Is not a solo effort – seek and take advice from where you can, including your own staff

• Will not always go right – as Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes”: admit your mistakes (publicity if necessary) and learn from your experience

Remember too that managing people:

Is a process of helping others to be self-sufficient – this implies trust and that management works best when you take a positive view of what people can do (and do not see your role as a sort of corporate security guard)

Is based on good, regular and open communication – something that pervades many issues.

Needs to be acceptable to people before it can be effective– hence the crucial role of motivation as part of the management task

Become self-sustaining when it works – i.e. if people find your management helpful (to the job, the organisation and to them) then they will support it and support you

Overall, management is not what you do to people but the process of how you work with people to help prompt their performance. Work with people from day one, and go on doing it throughout your management career.

At the end of the day success comes down to a considered approach. Charge in, desperate to make an impression, go at everything at once in order to make an impression, and disaster may closely follow. ‘Twas ever thus:

“First organise the near at hand, then organise the far removed.

First organise the inner, then organise the outer.

First organise the basic, then organise the derivative

First organise the strong, then organise the weak.

First organise the great. Then organise the small.

First organise yourself, then organise others”.

General Zhuge Liang

Perhaps we should highlight the last sentence: “First organise yourself, then organise others”

Last Word:

Being a manager is a challenge but it is also almost infinitely rewarding to create and maintain a team of people who deliver excellent performance and produce whatever results are targeted. It is a task that takes time, requires effort and needs a considered approach.

All sorts of things can help, but only one person can guarantee that you become a good manager – and that’s you.

Latest News: So the cloud of volcanic dust has finally moved out of UK air-space and everyone is on the move again – the recriminations and the finger-pointing has begun already, and will probably go on for a long time. Me? I can now head home to Paris on Saturday, where the temperatures are currently a very respectable 20 C – something about “Loving Paris in the Springtime”

I certainly will not miss the pre-election frenzy that is currently monopolizing air time on TV here. By the time I get back, Britain will have a new Prime Minister, or two, or three – it is far too close to call, and I suspect that the turnout will be much higher than the thirty odd per cent, who could be bothered to vote last time. Thank goodness the whole affair is not played out over twelve months!

Cynical, disinterested, complacent, bored, suspicious, apathetic – are all words that would accurately describe the British electorate right now, which is entirely understandable. Maybe, just maybe, they have finally woken up to the fact that there is an alternative to the two sad and tired old ladies - at last, the Liberal Party have a fighting chance. The “Thinking Classes” are getting very excited!

Did you know that:

• 40% of salespeople are failing in their sales careers?

• 45% of all salespeople earn the average income for their industry?

• A typical salesperson devotes only 10-20% of their time to actual selling because a large proportion of their available time is devoted to cold calling?

• 85% of all salespeople do not generate enough quality referrals?

• Salespeople who actively seek and exploit referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than salespeople who don’t?

•  Referral business closes and converts more than 70 percent of the time?

Why is referral based selling so powerful?

A referred customer is already pre-sold on the credibility of the salesperson, their company and the relevance of the products/services sold. These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it maximises the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person.

By association, salespeople are consequently perceived in a different light compared to those that have made contact ‘out of the blue’. The costs of selling to a referred customer are reduced because they are easier to see, and are likely to be reasonably well qualified so that the probability for converting the business is much higher. Generally speaking referred prospects will accelerate through the sales pipeline at a much faster rate than other types of opportunities, and they will also be more receptive towards providing future referrals.

What are the biggest barriers to getting referrals?

If asking for referrals has not been included and communicated in the sales process, this will deter salespeople’s focus as they will see asking for referrals as a ‘nice to do’ rather than a ‘must do’. This in turn usually means that there is no rigorous method for measuring and monitoring how many referrals are generated and what the conversion ratios are for closing referred customer business.

Energy goes where attention flows, so without specific attention to this salespeople are unlikely to invest their energy in this direction. (Even if they are firm believers in the positive impact that referrals can create!). For many salespeople asking for referrals is uncomfortable because they feel unsure about how to do this effectively, and they aren’t confident they will get their desired response.

If people don’t know how to do something and they believe that what they are doing will damage their existing relationships, then it’s better to avoid it all together. Additionally, if salespeople make the common mistake of asking for referrals too early on in the relationship this can result in more refusals that further erode salespeople’s confidence.

Therefore, to optimise the use of referral-based selling the following components are vital:

1. Asking for referrals and acting on them needs to be incorporated in the overall sales process.

2. Metrics around referrals should be sought and evaluated on a regular basis, because this contributes towards furthering the rationale for generating them.

3. Development and training needs to be delivered to the sales team so they can maximise the impact of referrals and feel confident with this skill.

When is the best time to ask for referrals?

People will freely give referrals when they have benefited from your product/service and have an established relationship with you. This rarely occurs during the initial meeting because whilst they may like you, they haven’t yet validated what you can do for them. That’s why asking for referrals should be when the relationship you have established is strong enough to ensure their trust and belief in you.

Assessing the strength of your existing customer relationships can be very subjective unless there is a meaningful set of relationship criteria in place.  Although these will vary from organisation to organisation, they may include factors like:

- Communication frequency with key influencers
- Satisfaction with product/service
- Speed of response to queries/problems
- Length of relationship

The customers with the highest scores (based on the relationship criteria) are those that should be approached for referrals.

What is the best way of generating referrals?

1. Prepare a description in the form of a criteria list that specifies the type of person or organisation that you are looking to approach. This should be based on the profile of your Ideal Customer.

2. Evaluate all your customers using a relationship criteria and identify a list of those with the highest scores. For every customer your aim is to generate a minimum of 5 referrals. Therefore, if you have 25 customers on your list your target number of referrals will be 125.

3. Contact each customer on your list and take the pressure of them by explaining that you don’t want to sell to them, you would like their help.

For example: “Do you know anyone who is (specify your criteria) that would be interested in learning about how our products/services can benefit them?” Preface your question with a softener such as: “I wonder if you can help me” or “I would really appreciate some advice.”

4. When customers give you referrals, ask their permission to use their name when making contact. Alternatively, where your relationship is ‘rock solid’ ask customers to make the initial introduction by letter or email. Often customers will give a glowing testimonial and create a relevant context when introducing people.

5. Thank customers for referrals and keep them appraised of your progress. This creates a positive association towards the giving of more referrals in the future.

So, there we go, my most recent thoughts on the importance of referral selling, but if you are serious about learning more about this very sophisticated subject, I recommend you go straight over to Joanne Black’s site – www.nomorecoldcalling.com because Joanne is probably the leading expert in the world.

Today’s News: A lot of people have asked why I shut down my Twitter account (imajf) and the reason is quite simple: In my haste to accommodate as many people who might want to follow me, I just accepted all requests and the whole thing got totally clogged up, and so I opened a new account – jonofarrington – and if you would like to follow me, you’ll see the banner over on the left. I do intend to be more active – I promise.

Incidentally, I have been asked why “iamjf” – slightly arrogant? Not at all. Someone else had grabbed “jonathanfarrington,” so I tried “jf “- too short – so in my impatience, I just went for “iamjf” Jono is a name that my team mates used for years, and it was only resurrected quite recently by Jill Konrath, so now other people are catching on.

It’s amazing the variations of “Jonathan” that have been used: When I was a toddler, my mother called me “Jonny” Then pre-school, it became “Jontie” .. and so on. These days I respond to all of those ….. and some others besides!!!

A recent global survey of more than two thousand organisations that I recently read, identified that one of the biggest issues facing Sales Leaders today is that salespeople’s self-limiting beliefs constrain their performance, which obviously in turn, limits their sales results.

I do subscribe to the theory that whatever you believe you can do, you will; and whatever you believe you can’t do, you won’t.

Like everyone, salespeople hold stubbornly to private beliefs about themselves, customers, the market, competitors and the economy – beliefs that can have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on their sales performance. If salespeople don’t see themselves as providers of value, they’ll be blinkered to the customer’s genuine business needs.

This manifests itself in a number of undesirable behaviours that range from being too pushy, to being far too accommodating. This can also lead salespeople trying to sell customers something the customer may not need or want, and that certainly will not build long-term customer relationships.

Typically, salespeople who believe that if they had more competitive prices they would win more deals, tend to attract more price objections. This in turn leaves them feeling fearful or reluctant to discuss price and their downward spiral becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A salesperson’s state of mind is instantly transferred to their prospect or customer because they unconsciously transmit their attitude in a variety of subtle and even overt ways. Whilst the prospect or customer may not be consciously aware of the salesperson’s underlying attitude, they will just have a feeling that something isn’t right and will put a distance between themselves and the sales person.

This problem is further compounded and validated by research from Objective Management Group Inc who found that the typical sales person possesses a minimum of ten limiting beliefs that are having a detrimental impact on their performance. Once these beliefs are eliminated the average sales person will increase their sales by approximately 25%.

Many Sales Leaders understand the vital importance of the right mindset and those who are able to tackle and resolve the issue of their team’s negative beliefs will see a dramatic upswing in their team’s sales results.

Today’s News:

Over on my AllBusiness blog today, I offer you: “Salespeople Do Not Fail, But Managers Often Do”

You would think that particularly now, as the dark clouds of financial uncertainty are being replaced with the first glimpses of clearer skies, and just a glimpse of sunshine , we would be more confident about leaving our comfort zones, and go off in search of opportunity?

Not “most” people, because “most” people are still too afraid.

I often quote this:

“Prince Rabadash’s army lay close behind them, Anvard ahead. If they did not reach Anvard before Rabadash and his horde, their journey, their entire lives, would have been wasted. The horses, Bree and Hwin (both of whom could, of course, talk) galloped. Certainly both horses were doing, if not all they could, all they thought they could do; which is not quite the same thing. But a lion appeared out of nowhere and with the spur of terror; Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast, not quite as fast, as he could“.

This extract is of course taken from “The Chronicles of Narnia”, that fount of a million, simple and usually overlooked truths, and it illustrates perfectly what it takes for some of us to be steered out of our comfort zone.

Perhaps of all the temptations we meet in life, money, power, sex, alcohol, drugs and fame, the subtlest of all is the comfort zone, that invitation to settle for less, to go for content when the stresses of over achievement beckon. The way that takes you out of the comfort zone is the route less travelled by. Most of us when we come to that place where the two paths divide prefer the one that leads to safety, to warmth and to comfort.

Both in sport and in business, I have witnessed countless companies, friends, colleagues and team mates that underachieved, despite having far superior skills and talents when compared to others who have made it to the top. The reasons have always been the same, fear of leaving the comfort zone and entering into the unknown, the land potentially of failure and rejection.

However, I believe there is another way to motivate individuals and coax them out and it relies on one simple fact; most people do not know what they want from life. Certainly, the majority working in a commercial field will say they crave success but without understanding what success means for them. Of course, describing success is difficult, because it will be different for all of us. The definition I prefer is ‘The achievement of a worthwhile goal’

I also believe that I can speak with authority about the comfort zone, but in my case, I was lucky enough to discover Earl Nightingale, probably the greatest motivational speaker and personal development guru of our time,and yes, I include Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Tom Peters et al in that assessment.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to listen to Earl, I strongly recommend you seek out his work – I can honestly say that no other single person has had such a profound effect on my own work.

My experience is that you cannot have everything you want, but you can have anything you really want – you just have to know what it is.

Today’s News:

 About two years ago, the sponsors of Top Sales Experts, SalesNexus and I began considering marrying a CRM solution with online sales team development. Craig Klein, founder and CEO of the company, had for a long time, believed that such a project was viable, and with the imminent completion of the JF Sales Academy, we decided to create the SalesNexus Sales Institute, exclusively for SN users.

In fact, once we began the planning, my team here at JFC decided we should go even further, and now we have created a whole “community” – The SalesNexus Sales Community.

As I suggested, it is exclusively for SN clients, but for a few days, until the registration system is installed, you can have a wander round – it really is ground-breaking stuff!! – HERE