Archive for Sales

Why Customers/Clients Leave

February 6, 2013 / / 2,365 comments

Do you have clients/customers that can buy from you more than once?

How many don’t? They buy one time, that’s it.

Have you ever lost a customer?

Do you know a business that has lost a customer?

Why do customers leave?

When it is estimated to cost six times more to get a new customer than it costs to keep an existing customer, these are important questions to ask when looking at building customer loyalty in your business.

Here are some figures to consider;

People leave because…                    How much control do you have?

  • 1%           Death                                        none
  • 3%           Move / Location change            none
  • 5%           Buy from a Friend                      little
  • 9%           Sold by a Competitor                 some
  • 14%         Product/Price                             some
  • 68%         Perceived Indifference               total – 100%

That last figure, Perceived Indifference, is what I want to put a spotlight on today.

Customers leave because they think… You just don’t Care…

That’s probably not true is it? You do care about your customers don’t you? And with 100% control over the perception your business projects to its customers, this is a key area that must be a daily focus for every member of your team.

What might you be doing or not be doing that would indicate to your customers – indifference?

What are you doing or could be doing that shows them you do care? Is it enough? (A note of caution before you look at answering this question: This is where you want to inject some perspective before swinging the pendulum too far the other way and begin incurring unnecessary costs to your business… It’s not always the big things, it’s often the little things that really make the difference in the eye of the customer.)

Survey your customers/clients, and find out why they are leaving. If they are leaving because of perceived indifference, you can change that perception, and turn them into Raving Fans who would be happy to tell others about you.

Category: Business Coaching, Customer Service, Sales / Tags: , , , , , ,

Asking The Tough Questions

January 14, 2013 / / 745 comments

One of the more difficult aspects of sales is letting go of our natural need for approval and asking the tough questions that lead prospects to make a decision. The conflict between our “need to be liked” and our “need to get the sale” is often at the core of our resistance to asking the tough questions. You can’t always have both, and that’s why it’s hard. But letting your need to be liked get in the way of productive sales conversations will cost you time and money.

How can you overcome this natural conflict?

First, separate your role as a sales person from your identity as a person. Don’t take the resistance you encounter or the discomfort generated by asking tough questions personally.

Second, understand that asking tough questions – questions that challenge your prospect to look at something they do not want to consider, questions that move them out of their comfort zone, questions that force them to look at their business and their current situation from a new vantage point – will create urgency and compel them to make a decision.

Third, remember that a “fast no” is better than a “long maybe.” We work so hard to get an appointment and earn the opportunity to make our pitch. It’s natural to want to keep the conversation going, even if we’re getting strung along with a long maybe (“…this looks interesting, let me think about it.”). You’ll save yourself and your prospective client a lot of time by asking a few pointed questions that compel them to make a decision – even if that decision is a NO for now.

How much more productive will your sales process be if you ask questions that create “decision urgency” and enable you to focus your valuable time on prospects where you quickly discover a compelling reason to move forward? What are the tough questions you can ask for your solution and what do you need to do to ask them earlier in the conversation? Do your questions hit the key business issues that business owners worry about (increasing revenue, decreasing costs, improving efficiency, etc.)? Can you personalize these questions with a simple follow up such as “What is it costing your company to NOT address this issue? What does this mean to you personally?”

Develop your arsenal of questions and use them. You will be a more effective sales person, and you will see your sales cycle shorten because you will be helping those prospects who just can’t say “No,” to make that decision quicker. This, in turn, will allow you to spend time with prospective clients who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

Category: Business Coaching, Sales / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Developing Strategic Alliances

November 1, 2012 / / 102 comments

The first step in the sales process is prospecting. A great strategy for both prospecting and for moving prospects through the sales process is developing Strategic Alliances. Here are some tips to help you form and leverage Strategic Alliances:

1. Identify potential Strategic Alliance partners

The best partners for a successful strategic alliance are businesses with related specialties that sell to the same decision makers (target market). Any size business can form a strategic alliance. For example, an ergonomic specialist and a designer can have a great strategic alliance. By seeing how design is affecting functionality, the ergonomic specialist can recommend some design solutions based on education that the designer has provided. To act on the recommendation, they have to bring in the designer. Similarly, the designer, when doing a design, can bring in the ergonomic specialist to review how these people live and use the space to ensure the design incorporates functionality consistently with their behaviours.

How do you find these partners? First of all, ask yourself, “Who do I know today that’s in a contingent business to mine,” and, “Who else has the same target market as I do and sells to my primary decision maker?”

If no names come to mind right now, then consider these options for finding strategic alliance partners:

  • Attend networking functions to find related businesses
  • Read your local business paper to identify people in adjoining businesses
  • Ask your customers about other suppliers they work with and respect

Remember, all you need to get started is just one other business to partner with. You can add more strategic partners over time.

2. Get to know each other

You need to invest time upfront to really understand each other’s product/service offering. Also, since your reputation is at stake, when you bring in someone else, you need to be confident in that person’s ability to do the work, take care of the account, act ethically, and so on.

Don’t rush this process or you may be sorry.

3. Pick an initial project to work on together

Do something low risk, like put on a joint seminar. It is also a good chance for you to see each other in action. In doing this type of project, divide up the work according to your expertise.

4. Expand the relationship

Once you become comfortable, you can begin to do more together. For example:

  • You can begin to confidently bring each other into meetings with clients. You know that your work only covers certain aspects of your customers’ needs and that you now have trusted resources to help out with other areas.
  • You can co-market in other ways. One way is called Host Beneficiary. In this relationship, the host invites their clients to receive some service or product or information from the strategic alliance partner (the beneficiary), who then has the opportunity to be introduced to a new population of prospects.
  • You can feature each other in your e-newsletters, websites and blogs, etc.

If you’re still trying to go it alone out there, consider forming a Strategic Alliance with other companies. If you choose the right partners, it will make a huge difference in your business.

Category: Marketing, Sales /
 
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