December 15, 2011

Business Sales: 4 Clues to Intimacy

If I’m Cross, Everyone’s Cross
180 Degree Thinking
3 Steps to BE EaSY
You know that building deep trusted relationships with your business clients is critical to the long term success of your organization and you, personally. You have been working hard on it every day. It’s been a top priority.

The question is “How do you know if you are making any progress?”
Here are 4 clues to tell you:

1. You are always invited to your customers’s strategic planning meetings. They value your opinions. They know that you know their business. They trust your intentions. They honor your strategic skills and experience.
They view you as a friendly “Expert from afar”. You are a valuable member of their direction-setting team.

2. You have an “office” on their premises. A physical presence among them.They want you accessible. Close at hand. To bounce ideas off. Test some ideas. The ultimate expression of Trust and Value is real estate owned by the customer; given to you.

3. Your customer NEVER goes to an RFP. Why bother? They have so much trust and faith in you that going out to get others to submit a bid on what they want is seen as a waste of time. When your customer needs something, you are already on it. There is no need to involve other “suppliers”. You take action. You deal with it seamlessly.

4. Language. You are NEVER referred to as a salesperson from Acme (or whatever). Your currency in their organization places you among their Leadership Team. Labels are meaningless. You are their trusted colleague. Their partner. Their friend.

So, how did you do? Out of the 4 Clues, how many apply to you? 4/4 suggests you are in Sales Nirvana. 1/4 says you have some work to do.

The important thing is knowing where you are so you can take action to move on from there.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 12.15.11 at 05:06 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2011

Serve and Sell

Customer Appreciation Events Don’t Make Sense
Great Leaders are Awesome Translators
Thank You #2
Serve, Serve, Serve and Sell. The fact is, selling is NOT different from serving if done right. Sales = Serving. Period.
Serve someone well by taking time to truly understand their wants and desires, by showing you care about them and you will discover an opportunity to offer them something you provide that will make their life better. Simple.
The problem with Sales today is they are seen as a distinct entity with the responsibility to move what the business supplies to the market. Most Sales organizations are supply-centric and are compensated to flog as much product as they can. Under such a mandate it’s no wonder that the needs of the customer take second priority.
A right angled change is necessary. Sales Serves. The prime role is to Serve in such a way that the opportunities for the company are uncovered through caring engagement and conversation. Effective selling happens within a Serving dynamic not outside it.
And if you do a good enough job at it the customer will be compelled to buy. Compensate your sales people on Serving and trust that sales will result. You won’t be disappointed.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 8.29.11 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 27, 2011

BE DiFFERENT on the Threes - Sales Relationship Building

THREES - Sales Relationship Building
THREES - Dazzling Customer Service
THREES - Strategic Planning
BE DiFFERENT on the Threes
Effective Sales is related to building deep relationships with your customers. Intimate relationships. Trusting relationships. Long term relationships. Mutual benefit relationships. Cherished relationships. Memorable relationships. “Gaspworthy” relationships.

The objective is to establish such a strong bond with a customer they will never EVER think of doing business with someone else. Customer intimacy results in what I call Barriers to Customer Exit; a far more effective approach that worrying about what the competition may be up to and over which you have little control.

Try these three things to get you on your way:
1. Declare that Bonding is in; Flogging is out. Relationship building requires that a new strategic context be struck and communicated to the organization. Make relationship selling matter. If you don’t make relationships a priority and key success factor for the organization, nothing will change. Leaders listen up!.
2. Make Relationship Building a critical component of the Sales Performance and Compensation Plan. Lets face it unless Relationship building is a critical component of Sales performance planning they won’t pay much attention to it. AND it must be “baked” into the Sales Compensation Plan as well. In my experience Sales is THE most compensation-driven function in any organization. It must be that way.
Show a Salesperson the Compensation Plan and watch them go. No question what their priorities and focus will be. Their actions will be DIRECTLY aligned with what they are getting paid to do. Great news if the Compensation Plan mirrors the Strategy of the organization; a DISASTER if it is out of synch.
Introduce Relationship-Building Behaviors as the metric. Define no more than 6 that you feel are critical to your success. You could adopt proactive solution presentations, listening and engaging, follow-up, keeping promises and internal advocacy as behaviors you intend to hold Sales accountable for. Don’t make it complicated, BUT implement it.
Year 1 make Relationship-building 20% of Sales’ compensation and increase it every year thereafter at a pace and to a level you are comfortable with.
3. Engage customers in rating Sales performance. How do you measure Relationship-Building behavior? Introduce a Customer Report Card and get the customer to rate how the person is doing on each behavior. This approach will not only change Sales behavior, it will also bond you closer to your customer. Being open to customer input and actually caring about what they have to say will endear them more to you. Count on it.

Moving from a Product Flogging culture to a Relationship-Building one is a major change. Be patient. Stick to your guns. BUT get started.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 6.27.11 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2011

Lose The Sale and Gain a Fan

Shout the Change - Three 
The Magic Question 
How NOT to Have a Competitive Position
Bonding is In: Flogging is OUT
It always makes sense to lose a sale if it means preserving the relationship you have with your customer. You don’t have the product she wants; you don’t have the right color or size. The right thing to do is give her a recommendation where she can go to get what she wants. Be the most informed salesperson there can be in terms of knowing where to go to get her wants satisfied.
THAT will impress her. THAT will tell her she is important and you care about taking care of her. Don’t try and force a sale. Flogging stuff that she doesn’t want will only annoy her. Do you reward your salespeople for referring customers to others? Probably not. Consider it though as a critical loyalty building tactic.
It’s not the sale that you should be focusing on, it’s the Relationship. Do whatever it takes to deepen it and enrich it with undying trust.
P.S…. it also makes good business sense to refer your most precious Gift to others.
They just might return the gesture.

Cheers,
Roy


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Posted 5.19.11 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)