My experience suggests that most frontline sales professionals, in most companies, do not enjoy sales meetings. It is also my perception that most sales managers in most companies do not have a clue when it comes to using these events as an excellent opportunity to motivate their people ahead of the next week/month/quarter, and send them back out into battle really fired up.

Even fewer appreciate the need to add in an “educational experience” into the agenda. So here are a few tips which will increase the chance of your team actually looking forward to your meetings. 

Ten Suggestions For More Dynamic Sales Meetings

Suggestion 1
Insist on punctuality, for there is nothing which detracts from a meeting so much as people coming in late with lame excuses, or returning late from a coffee break. Not only is this disruptive for the meeting, but it is bad for group discipline as well and each time a manager allows this, they relinquish a little leadership capacity. Start the meeting on time to the minute. Do not wait for late arrivals and whatever you do, do not be late yourself.

Suggestion 2
Begin the meeting in the way you plan to carry on throughout – with a friendly smile and a dynamic greeting; do not commence in a flat uninspired monotone. Be informal, relax and encourage team members to do likewise. Do remember that a sales meeting is one of those few occasions where you can provide “collective motivation” so you need to be at your inspiring best.

Suggestion 3
Explain the objectives and always ‘sell’ the objectives by providing the team with good reasons why each item has been placed on the agenda. It is likely that you will want to discuss performance(s) since the last meeting and it is essential that you highlight success. Whatever you do never, ever, hand out criticism en bloc, because that is the most morale sapping thing you can ever do. Rather deal with sub-standard performance one to one. However, do feel free to deliver collective praise in copious amounts whenever appropriate.

Suggestion 4
Use some kind of visual aid during each session. The most common and easy to use visual aid is a PowerPoint presentation; closely followed by the flip chart, which allows you to be spontaneous should you need to be – one picture really does paint a thousand words!

Suggestion 5
Make quite sure that you achieve full agreement at the close of each session. You should aim to get full commitment from all present at the meeting that they will definitely do what you have asked them to do. At the end of the meeting an action plan should be prepared and circulated to everyone present at the meeting. The previous meeting’s action plan should always be progressed at the meeting.

Suggestion 6
Make sure that at least 50% of the meeting is taken up with some kind of sales training. You can deliver this yourself, or you might consider using specialists from outside of the company.

Suggestion 7
Plan the amount of time you can afford to allocate to each session well before the meeting, and be sure to stick to your schedule. One tip I always pass on, is to avoid the dreaded “Any other business” at the end of the meeting. In reality, if an item is worth discussing, it should be a full agenda item, allowing for proper preparation.

Suggestion 8
Encourage everyone to participate by asking for their views and opinions, or by giving them presentation projects to prepare in advance of the meeting date.

Suggestion 9
Do not do all the talking yourself. Salespeople (and most other people) hate to be lectured at. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Ask for opinions, and always question the reason for a particular opinion. Do remember generally people comprehend:

  11% of what they hear
  32% of what they see
  73% of what they see & hear
  90% of what they see, hear & discuss

Suggestion 10
Finally, do set an example as the meeting leader. The manner in which you package yourself, your cheerfulness, your positive attitude and the way in which you have planned and conducted the meeting – all these things will be noticed by even the least perceptive of your team. Do all these things well and you will strengthen your position as the leader of the group. Do them badly and you can forget about training and developing your people, for they will take not the slightest notice of anyone who does not practice what they preach.

Summary
As with all things in life, the success of your sales meetings will depend to a large degree on the amount of planning and preparation you are able to do,  so do try to consider the following:

The Timing: Best day, time of the week/month/quarter, regularity.

Location: In relation to cost, facilities and transport.

The Room: Its lighting, ventilation, heating, degree of sound proofing, layout of table, comfort of chairs, seating plan, pencils and paper, flip chart, poster paper, markers, and of course, presentation equipment.

Organization: Arrange for regular breaks and refreshments.

The Meeting: Prepare the whole meeting
  Prepare the visual side
  Prepare the timing
  REHEARSE!

Good luck!

PS: You’ll find loads more really great  FREE advice/resources/information, over at the Sales Leadership Zone - where some of the smartest and most successful leadership gurus share their wisdom …. think Keith Rosen, Paul McCord, Linda Richardson, Dave Kurlan, Kevin Eikenberry, Ken Thoreson, Steven Rosen, Danita Bye, Christian Maurer, oh, and me!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Nigel Edelshain

Oh no don’t say it’s true! A sales person for a “Sales 2.0” vendor just called me and left me the following voice mail. Oh boy, this stings!

“Hi Nigel this is John Doe calling from Big Company. I wanted to talk to you about our ‘Cool Tool’ our new solution with relationship mapping. I understand you attended our webinar and I’d like to show you some more details on it and how it can be used with how you use social networks and social media on targets. Can you give me a call back at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thanks.”

[Note: this is transcribed exactly from the recording I have of the call. Of course I've changed the company, rep and tool name.]

OK then a few minutes later I got this email – nice follow up at least

“Hello Nigel,

Hope all is well. I was hoping to introduce our state-of-the-art social selling and trigger alerting offering that is called ‘Cool Tool’. We possess a patented Relationship Mapping, extract, and Alerting technology that no other provider can offer. It takes the users entire social capital via LinkedIn, Outlook, current and past employers, and other manual uploads, and maps them to over 13 million companies and 24 million executives to help you find connections. We can also help your sales team monitor their territories and identify opportunities within them via trigger alerts.

Would you happen to have 10-15 minutes this or next week to view a quick presentation? You would be surprised who you are connected too.

Sincerely,

John Doe
XYZ Company
Business Development
Office: xxx-xxx-xxx”

OK where to begin? I’ll try:

1. It kills me that this company actually has a pretty good tool that is VERY close to my social calling methodology and yet this sales person called me without any indication that they even looked at my LinkedIn profile. Their tool analyzes LinkedIn profiles! Killer. I’m actually shocked and I’ve seen plenty of sales mistakes.

2. Everything is about them. Nothing is about me. The sales person has not included a single element of relationship or trigger events in their script or follow-up email. Not even a sniff. This is what their tool does for sales people for goodness sake! Eat your own dog food.

3. Jargonville all around. I mean come on have you guys not read any recent sales or marketing books? Never heard of Jill Konrath, David Meerman Scott, Anneke Seley, Trish Bertuzzi, Jonathan Farrington, Mike Damphousse or Kendra Lee…Anyone at all who talks or writes about Sales 2.0? “I was hoping to introduce our state-of-the-art social selling and trigger alerting offering that is called Cool Tool. We possess a patented Relationship Mapping, crawl-and-extract, and Trigger Alerting technology” Gobbledygook meter through the roof!

Jill Konrath just made a right-on prediction in her blog that 2010 will be the year when sales leaders realize that their teams need to use Sales 2.0 tools to outperform. My take on Jill’s prediction is that 2010 is the year when we need to train sales people to actually use the Sales 2.0 tools they have.

This call may be the killer illustration of the fact that tools and technology are useless if people don’t use them effectively –or don’t use them at all! Here we have a (supposed) leader in the Sales 2.0 space letting their sales people call prospects without even using their own tools. If this sales person had used one ounce of the information available to them through their own tool this would have been a warm call. They turned any easy call into a stone cold call.

We still have a long way to go with Sales 2.0. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll set my alarm clock a little earlier tomorrow!

Companies use Sales 2.0′s telesales and consulting services to take their sales to the next level, typically boosting results 3 – 10 times.

The company applies the latest Sales 2.0 tools and techniques in its telesales operation and shares resulting breakthroughs in sales methodology with clients through its consulting practice.

Before starting Sales 2.0, Nigel sold millions of dollars of technology solutions to major Fortune 500 firms for technology services companies in the New York area.

Web: www.sales2.com

 The JF Guest Author Spot

Dave Brock

We are deluged with SPAM and direct mail pieces daily. Market researchers claim each of us is exposed to 100′s of advertising and related messages daily. My skin has gotten pretty thick, I have become very effective in filtering out 99% of what I receive, much to the chagrin of marketing professionals and agencies.

It seems, however, rather than getting smarter about marketing programs, companies are “dumbing down” their marketing, substituting volume, gimmickry, and noise for clear and compelling messages. They lose impact through shoddy and unfocused execution. They adversely impact their brand equity through poor fulfillment.

Over the years, I have kept files of some of the worst examples of marketing I have been the victim of.

Example 1: There is the German automotive company, focused on creating the Ultimate Driving Experience, and excelling in serving their customers. Actually, they do excel in serving customers, but every time I have my car serviced, I am instructed on how to complete their customer satisfaction survey. They actually provide a copy of the survey with every answer filled out, indicating the best service experience.

If an organization is serious about getting feedback on customer service, it should seek the real views on customer experience. Without these unprompted responses, organizations cannot understand what their customers want and how to respond.

Recently, in the space of 24 hours, I received four emails from a very good software company. While each message was different, the intent was the same: “Thank you for your interest in our products. Buy them now at…..” There was no attempt to communicate the value I would get from their software, no attempt to tell me anything about their features or why I would want to use their software, and no offer to motivate me to buy it now.

Example 2: Even the junk mails that offer products to improve my sexual performance offer a value proposition. The mail was simply a directory of the outlets (direct and retail) where I could buy the software. This was a lost opportunity to communicate something meaningful about this company and its products. It could have separated the company with a very good product from its competition. Instead, it was simply an attempt to “peddle” software products.

However, it got worse. I simply deleted the first message, shrugging off the bad attempt at email marketing. With the second through fourth messages, I clicked the “Unsubscribe” button. It didn’t work, there was no site that enabled me to unsubscribe. I was on a mission, I went to their website, eventually found their privacy page, waded through all sorts of legalese, and finally found a statement saying I could Opt-out by sending an email to support@companyname.com. I sent the email, getting a response that it was undeliverable. The final insult; each email was sent from “U-r-valued@companyname.com (I’ll disguise the company name.). Clearly, I wasn’t valued.

This is a massive failure in execution! Not only was the marketing program meaningless, but none of their support mechanisms worked! If this is the quality of their performance with prospective customers, can real customers expect anything better? This CRM company offers its customers the promise to mine gold—perhaps they really mean fool’s gold. Opt-in email marketing can be a powerful tool. It is easy, fast, and inexpensive to send a strong offers to your customers. However, the ease of doing email marketing is causing many marketers to become lazy. Sloppy, poorly thought out programs, executed at the speed of the Internet will produce negative results. There has been strong backlash from businesses and consumers on this type of stupid messaging. Not only will customers not buy, they will withdraw from future relationships, eliminating the opportunity for the company to reach out in future marketing efforts.

Example 3: Another software company, a giant in its industry, offered a “webinars” on its products. The subject of the webinar was interesting. I responded to the link to register for the webinars. Guess what, the link did not work. After trying several times, I ended up going to the company’s website. I eventually found the webinars and registered.

How many prospective customers are going to spend 20 minutes trying to sign up for a webinars where the objective is to sell something? For any email or direct marketing piece, make sure the fulfillment channel you have chosen works! If you ask people to click on a link to respond to an email campaign, test it and make sure it works.

Response rates on many direct marketing programs are dropping. Don’t lose valuable leads by not being able to fulfill the response.

Example 4: Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, I was visiting the sales executives of a good client. They were frustrated trying to manage an initiative the marketing people had thought of in the last two weeks of the year. They were calling customers who had made purchases at a certain level, offering a discount on 2004 purchases if an agreement would be signed by year end.

It was a great offer! It could save regular customers a good amount of money and created commitments for 2004 that would drive good sales growth. The problem in implementation was the timing. Customers were being asked to make a decision committing them to certain purchase volumes in the coming year. The problem was, they had to make the commitment within about 36 hours—yes, the offer was being made in the last few days of the year. Even customers who wanted to take advantage of the offer could not get the approvals in time to meet the deadline.

This program could have been a very strong program. It presented clear value to the customer. However, the implementation made it impossible for most of the customers to take advantage of it. In some cases, the offer created a negative impact. Frustrated customers wanting to take advantage of the offer but could not became upset with the company. The sales people were frustrated because they knew this would create additional hurdles in working with these customers in the future.

In any marketing program or offer, make sure that you understand the customer decisionmaking processes required to accept the offer. Your offer needs to accommodate the timing required for the customer to act on the offer. Anything else is, at best, a wasted opportunity, or, at worst, creates negative customer feelings.

Example 5: Recently, we were involved with a client considering purchasing a reasonably expensive software tool ($25K/seat). The software company arranged a web conference, demonstrated the program and answered all our questions. We asked for follow up to go the next step in the buying process, tossing the ball into the software vendor’s court for the next step. Several days went by and nothing happened. We sent an email for follow-up and received a nice response. More time passed, but we still haven’t gotten the response. In the meantime, our client is now considering other alternatives.

While this is not a stupid marketing trick, failure to jump on “hot” opportunities on a timely basis results in lost sales. When customers are in a “buying cycle,” your selling cycle needs to be synchronized with the customer. When these cycles are out of sync, the likelihood of winning business declines dramatically.

Example 6: I am amazed at how poorly professional marketers market themselves. Every day, I am deluged with resumes from various services. The latest techniques are sending them through email, with a nice note like: “I enjoyed our phone discussion, thanks for asking me to send you my resume.” The problem is, they are always addressed to info@ourwebsite.com. Last I checked, we don’t have anyone named Info in our company who had a conversation with a job applicant. Our phone records don’t indicate anyone at our offices having conversations with these people. Pretty soon, I expect to be getting resumes from deposed Nigerian government employees who are willing to give me some percentage of the $75 million they have gotten if only I would give them a job……

For those searching for jobs, marketing yourself in the most professional manner possible is critical. It is the only way to make yourself stand out for the few jobs that are available. Don’t let the lure of the internet and the ability to deluge thousands of people with resumes adversely impact the most important brand you have to market—You!

Final Thoughts:

Professional marketing is tough. Creating and implementing programs that resonate with customers requires strong thinking and disciplined and flawless execution.

The spammers and junk mail marketers make it more difficult for professional marketers. All customers are filtering the messages they receive through all channels. They are less responsive to advertising, direct marketing, email marketing, and other programs. Only the strongest and most compelling messages will be effective.

Some of the newer marketing channels are seductive in their speed and low cost. There is a temptation to be sloppy since the financial cost of poor results is low. However, the long term cost of bad programs on the value of the brand is very high. Don’t let the speed of the internet and related channels adversely impact the quality of your messages and brand.

Good marketing communicates a message that resonates with the target audience. Strong and compelling messages that address real needs and communicate meaningful value to the target customers will produce results.

Professional marketing can be simple, though not necessarily easy. In your programs, make sure:

• You have a well defined audience that you want to reach.
• You understand the needs of the audience and have a compelling message that addresses those needs directly.
• Your message is simple and to the point. Clear messages do not require tricks or gimmickry.
• Your offer is compelling, motivating your audience to act on the message.
• You can fulfill their response in quickly and professionally.
• If you approach your customers as “idiots,” with dumb messages and tricks, the only customers you will attract are “idiots.” Treat you customers and prospective customers respectfully and professionally.
• Throughout the process, you create value for your customer and your brand.
It’s a shame that so many so-called marketing professionals think so poorly of their intended audience. It’s also a shame that so many business executives let these “marketers” foist these terrible ideas on them.

Let’s stop the stupid marketing tricks, they don’t produce business, they create customer dissatisfaction, and they waste money and brand equity. Raise the bar on your marketing programs to improve the results produced.

Dave Brock has spent his career developing high performance organizations. He worked in sales, marketing, and executive management capacities with IBM, Tektronix and Keithley Instruments. His consulting clients include companies in the semiconductor, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, retailing, internet, software, professional and financial services industries. www.partnersinexcellenc.com

It is true that during the earliest part of my sales career, I was fortunate enough to work for companies who took sales team development very seriously. They understood that if I were to develop into the valuable asset they expected me to become, they would need to invest in me, and polish me, rather like a diamond producer cultivates their gem.

It will therefore not surprise you to learn that one of the first guiding principles I was taught, was the absolute necessity to always work to “win-win” principles, not only within the sometimes hostile negotiating environment, but also in any commercial interaction that I may be involved with.

That first principle has stayed with me throughout my career, and I have even adopted it into my whole life, not just my commercial practices – I also taught my children to truly understand its value at a very early age!

But in order to fully comprehend the significance of “win-win” we must also appreciate why “lose-win” and “win-lose” are rarely, if ever, acceptable outcomes. Here is my interpretation.

“Lose-win” means we have accepted terms or reached an agreement that has insufficient value for us; it has produced an inappropriate level of profit, and it may have no strategic value – that is to say, there is no long-term value either. No matter how much ground bait you throw in, it is not going create a proper return on your investment.

With “win-lose” we appear to gain a financial advantage at the expense of the buyer. This approach may be acceptable in some commodity sales environments, where you are totally driven by top-line revenue, and the opportunity for repeat business is negligible, but even then, most companies are waking up to the value of repeat business – even your local restaurant.

You see, your customer will find out that they have paid over the odds, or they have been treated unfairly, and they will vote with their feet, and may never return.

That leaves us with just one final possible outcome, “lose-lose”

I suspect that as many as 80% of frontline sales professionals will shudder at the thought of “lose-lose” No deal, no commission, angry boss for losing the order. This is a very short-sighted and commercially naive viewpoint.

The scenario often plays out something like this: We work conscientiously throughout the sales/buying cycle; we understand the rules; we are totally aware of the steps our prospective buyer intends to take, and we accept them. Then at the death, the rules are changed. Typically price becomes a far more critical issue, and we discover that we are being rapidly pushed towards a “lose-win” outcome.

So now we have two choices. We can agree to the revised terms; drop our pants and cave in just to save the order, and earn a reduced commission – and of course much less profit for our company. Alternatively, we can accept “lose-lose”

There are, you may be surprised to learn, benefits from opting for “lose-lose”

You walk away with dignity. You send out a message that you fully appreciate the value of your products/solutions, your company and yourself. You are letting your prospective purchaser know that your company is also in business to make a profit.

By standing your ground, you will, in all probability, gain an even higher level of respect from the other side – and you will have the opportunity to do business together in the future – no, does not mean never.

News: Do look out for my next Masterclass – “The Dirty Secrets of the World’s Best Negotiators Part 2” which follows on from this week’s presentation.

Do also look out for two excellent guest posts this w/e.

I’ll be back with you on Monday – JF

PS: Please don’t forget that the World changes every day!

The “Book of Lists” published every year in America has accumulated and ranked a dazzling assortment of fascinating topics. Amongst them is the list of ‘mankind’s worst fears’ Here is what I discovered when I last looked a few years ago:
 
Do you think that ‘death’ is our greatest fear? – No, that’s tied for sixth place with ‘sickness’.
 
In fifth place is our fear of ‘deep water’.
 
In fourth place comes our fear of ‘financial problems’.
 
In third place, our fear of ‘insects and bugs’.
 
In second place is our fear of ‘heights’.
 
So what do you think ranks as our worst fear?
 
It is in fact, the prospect of having to stand up in front of an audience and make a speech or give a presentation.
 
Interestingly, the most common problem among inexperienced presenters is the ‘fear of fear’ the feeling that they will be unable to overcome this nervousness. This fear is normally multiplied by the number of people they are talking to.

The Value of Nerves
 
However, the adoption of certain basic principles will help to control nerves.

You will note that I say control, rather than eradicate, which leads to the first of these principles.
 
• Feeling nervous before and at the start of any presentation is not only natural – it is necessary. Without that keyed-up feeling, the adrenaline will not flow in the presenter and therefore the presentation will be flat and unexciting.

• Remember that of the three key elements in any presentation – i.e. the audience, the content and the presenter – the presenter is the least important.

• Also remember that you are not alone. Nearly every great orator, whether they are a politician, an actor, an evangelist or a great sales person, feels the same nervousness that you feel (indeed many of them feel it worse).

In nearly every case, the audience is on you side.

In Summary
 
The biggest fear is probably of ‘drying-up’. You will not do this if you are properly prepared with a good set of notes. If you are lost for a word, don’t worry, it will either come to you or the audience will supply it.

• Just before you are due to start, sit down in a chair and take two or three deep breaths

• Make sure you have ‘warmed-up’ your voice before rising to speak

• Be appropriately dressed for the occasion – smart attire adds to you confidence

• When you stand up, ‘stand-tall’ with feet slightly apart and well grounded on the floor

• Don’t fidget – relax
 
Remember, the only way to learn how to have full control of nerves is to practice making presentations whenever and however possible. Be a “Seeker”
 
There are of course, a number of key elements within a professional presentation, for example: planning and preparation; structure, verbal delivery; physical delivery; the use of visual aids and of course, the management of the question and answer session. I deal with all of these in separate articles, some of which you can find HERE
 
 

News: Ok, so you got the lighter stuff today: Tomorrow, following on from Tuesday’s highly successful Masterclass, I ask the question – “Is lose-lose ever an acceptable outcome in negotiation” – and not only do I ask the question, but you will not be surprised to learn that I also supply the answer!

The stereotype of the inspirational leader as someone extrovert and charismatic is the exception rather than the rule. Looking at best practice across business, though some inspirational leaders certainly do fit this mould, a large number do not. Many are quiet, almost introverted. The following are some of the most commonly observed characteristics of inspiring leaders:

Strong Strategic Focus

They are very good at ensuring that the business only does those things where it has the resources to do a good job and where it can add real value.

Lateral Thinkers

They are particularly adept at drawing on experiences, outside their own sectors, and taking a much broader view than the norm. They look at things very laterally and encourage their people to do the same.

Vision and Communication

An inspirational leader has a very strong, customer-focused vision of where the business should be going. Importantly, they are also able to communicate their vision so that their people feel they own it and know where they fit into it. The best leaders are great communicators who prefer plain speaking to jargon.

Principled

They are deeply committed, courageous, demanding of themselves and their people and confident – albeit often in a quiet and under-stated way. What singles them out is an exceptionally strong set of values built on honesty, openness and true respect for their people.

What makes an inspiring leader?

Reflective

What distinguishes them is genuine humility and not being afraid to show vulnerability on occasions. This comes from regular periods of reflection and an unquenchable thirst for learning.

Risk Takers

They have a marked tendency to ‘bend the rules’, take calculated risks and, on occasions, be guided by their gut-feelings. They also tolerate this in other people, recognizing that a certain amount of flexibility is essential to adapt to circumstances and make real strides forward.

Accessible

They make time to get out and speak to people. This informal and personal contact is a very powerful motivator. Equally, when they are at their own desk, they aren’t cosseted behind a wall of PAs.

Value Attitude

They value skills and training very highly, but they also focus heavily on attitude, believing that, without the right attitude and motivation, nothing will be achieved.
 
I have frequently considered the qualities of inspiring leaders. The question is, why do these traits produce results?

Pay is only one component of job satisfaction. Other factors, like respect and prestige can be tremendously important in making staff feel good about their jobs. The reason that inspiring leadership produces results is that it contributes directly to fulfilling many of people’s emotional needs.

The following are some of the ways that best practice in leadership contributes to improved job satisfaction, motivation and productivity: Why people respond to real leaders ……

Being Listened To

A business, where only senior managers are allowed to ‘have ideas’, rarely achieves great staff satisfaction. Inspirational leaders ask for, and respect, what their people tell them about how to do things better – and they provide the resources to ensure that the solutions are delivered.

Being Involved

Inspirational leaders involve their people in changes for them to be a success. They give their people the freedom and support to get on with the job. When you walk around these companies, there is electricity in the air – you can feel the energy and buzz.

Having Fun

In successful companies, people work hard but enjoy themselves in the process. Fun is a great indicator that an organisation is innovative and is also a key innovation driver.

Being Trusted

It’s no coincidence that, when you ask people what it is like to work in an organisation run by an inspirational leader, they talk about openness, honesty, respect and trust. These firms can boast highly committed staff that has a great sense of responsibility to their work.

Being Appreciated

Recognition is an absolutely crucial element of inspiration, and few things are more powerful, or simple, than a genuine ‘thank you’. Inspirational leaders know that it’s vital that people feel appreciated and valued, so they show their appreciation through extensive celebration of success – both formally and informally.

Summary

The best leaders promote a culture where their people value themselves, each other, the company and the customers. Everyone understands how their work makes a difference. This helps to build a commitment to higher standards where everybody is always looking to do things better.

So, are you reporting to a “numbers orientated manager” or an “inspiring leader?”

We do need both:

“There is a difference between leadership and management. Leadership is of the spirit management is of the mind. Managers are necessary, but leaders are essential. We must find managers who are not only skilled organisers, but inspired and inspiring leaders” – Field Marshall Slim.

If you are not serving the customer, you should be serving someone who is – it’s as simple as that.

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 practiced 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. When was the last time a customer told you that you had exceeded their expectations? Last week? Last month? Last year? Ever?

The reality is that most companies, in most industries, do what they need to do, they don’t do what they are capable of doing. Rather like those high jumpers and pole-vaulters – ever see them clear the bar by more they need to?

The other problem is that most companies benchmark themselves against their competitors – they don’t think to measure themselves against the very best companies in all industries, and create new standards in their sector.

How to Delight Customers
• Be enthusiastic – Enthusiasm is the driving force of quality service. Customers do not just want products – they want products + enthusiasm. If you cannot be enthusiastic about your products, why are you working for your company?

• Be professional – The word ‘professional’ does not go with the job, it goes with the person. Being professional is not one thing, it is three: It is what you say; what you do; how you do it.
 
Be the Best – Think ….
• Someone, somewhere has to be the best at this job – why not me?

• Decide to be outstanding – and you will be.
 
How to Be the Best
• Use positive self talk – e.g. tell yourself ‘Everyday, in every way, I can/we can get better and better’

• Don’t be ordinary

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

• Don’t entertain the “If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it” school – everything can be improved

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.

PS: It is a total fallacy to think that outstanding customer service requires considerable investment – but it does require considerable commitment, which believe me, can result in quite extraordinary bottom line profit improvements.

Latest News: Do look for my review of introMojo tomorrow - possibly the most exciting sales tool launched this year.

In the meantime, please do remember that the “World” changes every single day!

People negotiate differently – and behave differently – during the negotiation process. We can observe different styles of negotiation and how different types of behavior can affect the outcome of negotiations.

In commercial negotiations, some people negotiate quickly and take risks; others take their time and try to avoid risk. Some buyers are very loyal, others will automatically shop around. Some negotiators can be quite intimidating – to the point of being rude; others are quite passive and easily manipulated.

This makes selling and negotiating a real challenge. To negotiate with all these different buyer types, we need to be able to adapt our behavior and be flexible in our approach.

To begin this process, we can look at two aspects of buyer behavior – assertiveness and responsiveness.

People who are assertive are confident and know what they want. They are not afraid to put forward opinions and are willing to listen to the opinions of others. They are not afraid of conflict and will be more than happy to argue their case.

People who are highly assertive can be seen as being aggressive, while people who lack assertiveness are often passive and get taken advantage of. There are times when it is appropriate to be more or less assertive and we need to recognize when these times are.

Responsiveness means the extent to which people are willing to respond to us and our questions. Some people are highly responsive and will give lots of information about themselves, their problems and needs. Others are unwilling or unable to respond in this way and we see these people often as being negative or difficult.

We are all different – some of us are naturally assertive and some of us are not. Salespeople tend to be quite responsive, but sometimes we lack assertion. An example of this is during negotiations.

When customers put us under pressure to reduce prices or give discounts, we find it difficult and uncomfortable and worry about damaging the relationship with the buyer.

There are four basic styles of behavior and these are determined by the way in which people relate to one another.

How can you ensure that you approach people in the correct way?

“Knowing About Social Styles” developed by Merrill and Reid, is a theory which I have discussed in several of my articles and it is very useful to have a thorough understanding of it when negotiating. In the Social Styles Model there are four basic “styles”, or preferred ways of interacting with others.

Merrill and Reid believe that a person’s social style is a way of coping with others. People become most comfortable with that style, in themselves and others.

A person’s social style is measured in relation to three behavioral dimensions:

• Assertiveness

• Responsiveness

• Versatility

The Assertiveness Scale

Measures the degree to which a person is seen as attempting to influence the thoughts, decisions or actions of others, either directly by tell behavior or by questioning – i.e. ask behavior.

‘Tell’ behavior: Is risk-taking, fast-paced, challenging.

‘Ask’ behavior: Is co-operative, deliberate actions, minimizing risks.

The Responsiveness Scale

Measures the degree to which a person either openly expresses their feelings or controls their feelings. The ends of the scale are “control” and “emote”.

‘Control’ behavior: Is disciplined, serious and cool.

‘Emote’ behavior: Is relationship oriented, open and warm.

The two scales combine to give a two-dimensional model of behavior, which will help you to understand how others perceive you. The dimensions of behavior will also help you to plan how you can deal more effectively with people of different social styles.

The Four Social Styles And How You Should Negotiate With Them

Driver: The Director.

• Assertive, but not responsive

• Task, rather than people oriented

• Decisive and determined

• Controlled emotions

• Set on efficiency and effectiveness

• Likes control, often in a hurry

• Firm, stable relationships

• Stubborn, tough

• Impatient

• Inflexible, poor listener

To Negotiate With Drivers:

•   Plan to ask questions about and discuss specifics, actions and results

•   Use facts and logic

•   When necessary, disagree with facts rather than opinions, be assertive

•   Keep it business-like, efficient and to the point

•   Personal guarantees and testimonials are least effective – better to
 provide options and facts

•   Do not invade personal space

Expressive: The Socializer

• Assertive and responsive

• Reactive, impulsive, decisions spontaneous, intuitive

• Placing more importance on relationships than tasks

• Emotionally expressive, sometimes dramatic

• Flexible agenda, short attention span, easily loved

• Enthusiastic

• Strong persuasive skills, talkative and gregarious

• Optimistic, takes risks

• Creative

 
To Negotiate With Expressives:

•  Seek opinions in an area you wish to develop to achieve mutual  understanding

•  Discussion should be people, as well as fact, oriented

•  Keep summarizing, work out specifics on points of agreement

•  Try short, fast moving experience stories

•  Make sure to pin them down in a friendly way

•  Remember to discuss the future, as well as the present

•  Look out for the impulse buy

Amiable: The Supporter

• Not assertive but responsive

• Dependent on others

• Respectful, willing and agreeable

• Emotionally expressive

• Everyone’s friend, supportive, soft-hearted

• Low risk taker, likes security

• Group builder

• Over-sensitive

• Not goal orientated

To Negotiate With Amiables:

•  Work, jointly, seek common ground

•  Find out about personal interests and family

•  Be patient and avoid going for what looks like an easy pushover

•  Use personal assurance and specific guarantees and avoid options  and probabilities

•  Take time to be agreeable

•  Focus discussion on how

•  Demonstrate low risk solutions

•  Don’t take advantage of their good nature

Analytical: The Clinician

• Not assertive, not responsive

• Precise, orderly and business-like

• Rational and co-operative

• Self-controlled and serious

• Motivated by logic and facts

• Not quick to make decisions

• Distrusts persuasive people

• Like things in writing and detail

• Security conscious

• Critical, aloof, skeptical

• Excellent problem solver

• Likes rigid timetables

To Negotiate With Analyticals:

•  Take action rather than words to demonstrate helpfulness and  willingness

•  Stick to specifics. Analyticals expect salesmen to overstate

•  Their decisions are based on facts and logic and they avoid risk

•  They can often be very co-operative, but established relationships take  time

•  Consider telling them what the product won’t do. they will respect you  for it and they will have spotted the deficiencies anyway

•  Discuss reasons and ask ‘why’ questions

•  Become less responsive and less assertive yourself

If you are serious about developing not just your negotiation skills, but also your all-round communication skills, I do advise you to familiarize yourself with the “Social Styles” model.

News: I am presenting a FREE Masterclass tomorrow “The Dirty Secrets of the World’s Best Negotiators” and I would be delighted if you can join me.

Please reigister HERE

The JF Guest Author Spot

 Mark Hunter

1. If your goal is to get the phone call returned, don’t leave information that would allow the person to make up their mind. Add a call-to-action to your message by providing a key date or something of interest that will encourage the person to return the call. You have to create a reason for them to call you back.

2. Repeat your phone number twice. If the person can’t quickly write your number down, you’ve given them a perfect reason to not call back.

3. Avoid asking ask the person to call you back at a certain time. This provides them with an excuse not to call you.

4. Never state in the message that you will plan to call them back. Again, this only gives the person an excuse to ignore your message.

5. Messages left on a Friday afternoon are the least likely to be returned. For most people, Monday mornings are very busy and, as a result, only high–priority activities will get their immediate attention.

6. Do not leave voicemail messages at odd hours of the night. Most voicemail systems offer a time stamp and the person hearing the message will immediately suspect you really did not want to talk to them.

7. The best hours to leave voicemail messages are from 6:45 AM to 8:00 AM and from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM. Aggressive people are usually working during these time periods, and the person receiving your message could potentially view you as one.

8. Wisely use time zone changes to make as many calls as possible during the optimal voicemail periods listed in the previous tip.

9. Voicemail messages are an excellent way to introduce yourself to a person. Be personable, yet professional, and link your message to something of interest to the person you are calling (such as another person or event). The recipient may view your message as a waste of time if you have no purpose other than getting your name in front of them.

10. When leaving a message with multiple points, be sure to immediately disclose how many you will be making. This will prevent the recipient from accidentally fast-forwarding or deleting it before it is completely heard.

11. If you can’t say it briefly, don’t say it at all. Voicemail is not “story time”. Leaving a long message is an invitation to have the entire message skipped. The optimal voicemail message is between 8 and 14 seconds.

12. When leaving your phone number, do not leave your website address as well. This will give the person an opportunity to make a decision about you without calling you back.

13. Leave a “PS” at the end of your message. A “PS” is a very quick, additional piece of information that will connect with the person.

14. Mention the person’s first name at least twice in the message, but don’t use their last name. Doing so comes across as very impersonal.

15. Refer to a mutual acquaintance in your message as a way of connecting with the recipient. (Caution: Make sure they think positively of that person!).

Mark Hunter – “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships. As a keynote speaker, he is best known for his ability to motivate and move an organization through his high-energy presentations His free, weekly Sales Hunting Tip email is received by thousands of salespeople across the globe. Additionally, many of his articles on Sales have been reprinted in some of the industry’s leading magazines and business websites. To find out more about Mark’s selling philosophy, you can visit his blog at www.TheSalesHunter.com/blog. In addition, his numerous articles on Sales can be found on the website (http://www.thesaleshunter.com/) in the “Resources” section. Web: http://www.thesaleshunter.com/

The JF Guest Author Spot

 Nancy Bleeke

Collaborative or consultative selling. What’s the difference? Aren’t they interchangeable terms? Not really, collaboration is a step beyond traditional consultative selling. And an opportunity to sell more WITH your buyers.

Consultative selling is a term in use around the globe. And it is effective – a selling methodology and mindset where the seller, acting as a trusted advisor, assists the buyer in identifying needs and offering solutions within their relationship. (This definition is from the glossary at Salesopedia). And we know consultative selling works – we’ve trained consultative selling skills for over a decade with 5-25% increases in sales!

But is a consultative approach enough today? Are the buyers in today’s economy and demographics wanting more? I think yes. They want to be a PART of the process and the solution and selling collaboratively allows for that.

The definition of collaboration is: Noun: The act of working jointly. Collaborative selling is working WITH your buyers in a joint process to identify needs, identify how the solution you provides benefits them and then navigate through the decision making process. It’s a side-by-side process instead of a head-on process.

This quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes speaks to this:

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.”

Who knows how much more our buyer can add to the depth of how they use our product/service? They may have ideas for application, usage and implementation that we had never thought of! Our buyers are so much more informed than they ever were with so much information accessible in a moment.

They have some sort of background, experience or information to bring to the discussion on most topics. And when we can collaborate WITH them and jointly discover needs, wants, challenges and solutions to help them, we build a deeper relationship and more loyal customer.

Who wants to be “told” or “pitched” information? Not many people, though I may be clouded by the fact I live with teens Most people want to be next to you exploring a topic and adding their input to the discussion.

Does this mean we don’t need to be the experts? Not at all! It means that we need to be more of an expert and prepared to:
• Ask questions that engage and involve
• Allow time for more discussion
• Explore with them how what we offer will work for them
• Adapt our communication to their style (including verbal style, decision making style and level of involvement style)
• Share expertise and information without sales pressure.

A recent sales meeting illustrates the point. Two educated, experienced professionals who have used our training solutions for many years wanted to review our curriculum. Within the first 10 minutes I could tell this wasn’t just a review, there was something more they wanted from the discussion. In asking some open questions like “what is working well?” “How is the current economy affecting the types of skills you need to strengthen in your organization?” “What type of changes need to be incorporated to address your audience?” I found that they had some DEFINITE ideas on what they wanted to do. They wanted to continue to use our platform but to tweak it to fit into some specific initiatives they have. AND they wanted to lead the charge in identifying what is needed and how they want it addressed. After all, they do know their business from the inside.

At first I thought “they are replacing me.” But then found that they still want me involved and bringing expertise but they want to be a bigger part of what and how the work is done.
Will we continue to work with them? Absolutely! But not only as a solutions provider…as a collaborator on implementation of their ideas and bringing outside credibility for an internal initiative. And this makes the value of the solution even stronger.

Collaborative selling IS a step beyond consultative selling. And it’s a step in the right direction for long-term sales success.

Sales expert Nancy Bleeke, The SalesProInsider helps organizations achieve higher sales them while boosting profitability by hiring, training and retaining the best employees.
Companies can increase sales 5-25% in six weeks using Nancy’s tools and skill training for sales and coaching. Ready-to-go sales training kits for 30 minute sales boosts are available through Nancy’s Sharpenz.com. Visit to download a free sales booster.

She shares her expertise with the Timely Tips ezine and her blog. For information on sales training, contact Nancy at 414.235.3064 or Nancy@salesproinsider.com
Web: http://www.salesproductivityinsider.com/