Continue Touching

There is an old saying in the editorial world about story writing.

First...You tell them what you are going to tell them.
Next...You tell them.
Last....You tell them what you told them.

Stay on message.

Good selling

Allow Your Customer to Buy

One of the members of the MHEDA group on LinkedIn, Barry Lauterwasser puts it this way;
"Forklifts & forklift services are not sold, they're purchased. If you are not near the top of the mind when the time comes for a purchase, well....the prospect just isn't going to call."

I absolutely agree and would broaden the product mentioned to any material handling product.

The next step in our action plan is to touch the customer. Touch the customer regularly. But we must take care how we touch or it can work against us. There are many studies about how many times a day that we are assaulted by TV ads, billboards, taxi-backs, direct mail and now "tweets"...all attempting to be "sticky" (something we remember). But the only messages that get thru are the ones that resonate with us for some reason. I start my morning with an email bringing me the daily Calvin & Hobbs cartoon. It makes me smile and gives the right start to my day. Now there are 13 other emails that are in the inbox, most are deleted. I read the ones from my grandchildren, airplane manufacturers and photography sites....because that is what I value.

I have always taught salespeople to touch their customers. Touch = personal visit, telephone call, written letter or postcard, email or any other one-on-one action initiated by them. But the addendum to that training is to make the touch in the area of interest for the customer. I am not talking about sending a birthday card...but you could. Remember, our customers job is important to them. Anything that we know that will help them or their company is of interest to them.

Our job is to make what we know fit what they need.

Good selling,

85% of All Stastics Are Just Made Up

He said with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. But really statistics are a two edge sword. You may have a 99.5% chance of living throughout the day. You have a 100% chance of dying ultimately.

This is a departure from our "action plan" but I suffer from "shiny object syndrome", and something sparked this line of thought. Now is a time in history when many displaced workers will relocate into a sales position. It is just fact that many other jobs have evaporated and some will decide to give sales a try. Thru hard work and luck or some help by others they may even reach some level of success. But does that make them a sales person.

I read a study that said that eight of ten people making their living from direct sales were mismatched to their job. They derived little or no satisfaction from the career and would never excel because they were struggling to just survive. It also said that of the two "true" sales people; one was selling the wrong product (tangible vs intangible; big ticket vs retail; etc). My own experience tells me this is close to accurate. I don't know the exact percentages but I have sat across from many a person who was as frustrated as I was. I could not understand why they could not seem to value their own efforts and they could not get anything to work.

So, if you find yourself as one of the 8, that's OK. But admit it, and when things change find a career that you value. Life is too short to be mediocre. Be great or be terrible but never mediocre. If you are the one who is selling the wrong product....change when you can. A step backwards at some point will be more than made up for with a lifetime of production and satisfaction.

If you are the one left....next post we will get back to the "action plan".

Who is Who

Lets see...so far in our little action series we have....
Know who you customer is...
Know what your customer values...

You are going to think I am out of my mind on the next one...
Know who your customer's customer is..

Some of the pressures coming at you from your customer could possibly be from his/her customer. Now if you can identify this situation; you can truly become a partner with them to satisfy the end user. We need to understand that one's customer can be from inside or outside of their own company. In the case of a reseller, the customer is the end user. But if the customer is an end user then his customer might be his boss...CEO...CFO or even department head.

Most of us have customers that are not apparent and satisfying them is important to our job, our career...our life. Identify your customer's customer, it might earn you an inside track.

Good selling,

Short Surveys Then Action

Last post I stated that you should always have a survey running. I don't mind filling out a survey that is two questions ....three at the most and answered by clicking a yes/no radio button. If you have an optional text area for me, I might use it but probably not. I'm busy. I answered your questions, now let me go. If I click and there is a page two. Goodbye.

If you have a three page 40 question study you had better have some good incentive for anyone to take that time. You are not going to get it for free. At some of the restaurants like Chili's they offer a discount on your next meal if you will call an 800 number. Have you done one yet? Not worth the $2 discount.

But really, if you had the answer to two questions about your business from your existing customer base; could you not make some changes that would be of benefit to you both. Too many times we run our business as if the customer was us.

• We use our terms...our slang, even if it is only used by people in our industry.
• We impose our idea of value on the customer.
• We assume the customer knows little and our competitors even less.
• We think we know how the customer wants to do business.

There was a time when I could not understand my customers using products that were, by my standards "cheap". The answer is "they worked for the customers application". So rather than guess....ask your customers. "What can I do for you." Then do it.

I am reading a book titled "Free - The Future of a Radical New Price". If you find there is something that you can do for your customer for free.... do it and publicize it. It will set you apart.

Who is Our Customer

Like the frog who sits in the cool water and when the water starts to heat does nothing; we sometimes continue with a strategy that has worked in the past when all around us is changing.

When you first take a job or start a business your very first consideration is "who is my customer". It may be an internal customer, a department head or a boss. But if you are in sales then it is someone outside of your company. Someone who can choose where they buy what you sell. The old model in our industry was to get a building; fill it with product; go out and find a customer who wanted to buy that product in our market area. Worked. It was based on limited availability of product, brand recognition and competition within a market space.

If the space included unlimited availability, brand parody and enormous competition ..... would you act differently? Wait a minute, that sounds familiar doesn't it?

Large companies perform market research that sometimes work and sometimes yield questionable results. Either way it is expensive and most dealers in our industry wouldn't spend that much if they had it. The DIY market research has as much chance of yielding good data as the expensive kind if it is done correctly. The good news is that it can be carried out while you are doing business daily, by the people you have.

It starts this way. Gather the brain trust .... in most companies that should include everyone that has any contact with the customer. The receptionist, the accounts receivable person, customer service, sales, shipping and yes even the delivery person. It is almost certain this is several separate conversations since you never have the luxury of being able to get everyone together without the phone ringing or a visit from ...... a customer. Everyone in your organization has an idea about the customers preferences. Mine that data.

From those conversations pick the top three things you could focus on to improve your relationship with your customer and increase the likelihood of repeat business. New customers are great but repeat buyers are gold. I am going to use a word that is misused and sends chills down my spine. Survey. A strategic survey should be in place at all times. A survey is a company's quest for information that will please their customer. Don't print a form, stick it in an envelope and expect any real insight into anything.

The best surveys are people to people.....because of the follow-up.

More next time...

Good selling

Kudos to MPIX

A break from my mini-series. We will continue that on the next post...I promise. But first a success story about customer service. We should all think about how we can be this good.

My wife Lee and I are hobby photographers, we have been for 30 years and have the photos to prove it. We decided to enter the State Fair of Texas photo contest this year and have spent the last few Saturday nights crusing downtown Dallas, drinking wine and shooting pictures. A little wine and a lot of pictures. We picked our best to have printed and did the photoshop work on them and were all ready for the deadline....except I misjudged the time and wound up with 4 days left and no prints. What follow here is amazing. First the standard service is set a an increadably high standard.

Wed - 3:30PM I sent an email to customer service asking for custom work with fast service.

Wed - 3:34PM Chevelle with MPIX answered with explaination as to what was possible within that time frame.

Wed - 4:36PM I ask for clarification

Wed - 4:40PM Chevelle tells me that is possible and if after I use the automated ordering system I will send the tracking number that they will shephard it and try to make sure it gets on a FedX truck the next afternoon.

Thurs - 9:36AM Chevelle writes to tell me it is in the mount department and things are looking good.

Thurs - 2:39PM I get an automated notice that my order has shipped and provides me with a tracking number.

Friday - 2:45PM The FedX guy is at my front door.

Here are photos of a happy customer and good packaging...it wouldn't have been a good story if the photos came damaged.

My sincere thanks to Chevell and all the folks at MPIX. If you need photos printed they are definately the real deal.

My Flickr stream can be seen at www.flicker.com/photos/yogiron