I was selling employment testing material that was based on the teachings of a well-known sales trainer. The question that brought the most conversation was about closing. How do you ask for an order? When someone says I’ll think it over, do you become the nice customer service type that says “fine, call me when you’re ready” or do you go for the throat and say “what is there to think about?” You know the first response is totally wrong and the second, which is the suggested answer, will probably turn the customer off. You try to say it nicely but at this point it’s likely he’s not going to say much more. What did I do? I said gently and with a smile in my voice, “Mr. Customer, could you think out loud so I can hear you?”
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Customer Service Leads to Customer Loyalty
All customers want and expect superior customer service, and it is all too important that we give it to them. Otherwise, our competition will.
Your customer doesn’t want to be treated like another statistic along an assembly line. They want to be treated with respect. It is very important that your customer realizes just how important their business is to you.
Imagine if you were a daily customer at a bank, restaurant, or some other establishment. And every day that you walked in, a sales associate would take care of your business, than hurry you out the door, without so much as a hi, bye, or even making eye contact for that matter.
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Ever heard of the “80/20 Rule”? That’s the well-known principle that says that in every sales organization 20% of the salespeople win 80% of the sales (and money!) while the remaining 80% are all splitting up 20% of the revenue. So, which category do you want to be a part of – the Top 20%, or what I refer to as the Sales HEROES, right?
Where did this rule come from? In fact, the 80/20 rule is not a rule, it’s a “law.” It comes from the work of Vilfredo Pareto, an eighteenth-century Italian economist. His studies on economics and productivity led to the conclusion that in just about any endeavor, 80 percent of the productivity will come from only 20 percent of the efforts. Eighty percent of the profits are produced by 20 percent of the employees. In a police force, 80 percent of the arrests are made by 20 percent of the officers. It can be applied another way: 20 percent of a business’s customers create 80 percent of the problems. And so on.
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“Salespeople spend 79 percent of their time doing things other than selling or prospecting. The actual time spent selling averages 11 per cent.” Source: Sales and Marketing Management
I was blown away when I read this statistic. I love that saying and get to use it so infrequently.
How many people today, regardless of profession, can use 11 per cent of their capacity and survive? Perhaps this explains the high mortality rate in the sale arena where we do battle every day. This number screams complacency to me. Actually, I might give complacency higher credit, maybe 20 percent.
Anyone who has worked in a sales environment knows the challenges one faces in keeping the shoulder to the grindstone. Sales is a very tough profession, especially a commissioned environment. You don’t produce you don’t get paid. It is a black and white scorecard. You can not bank talk or laziness, and you certainly can’t buy groceries with either.
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