Tweet

ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON SALES THAT SHOULD BE YOURS?

Written by: Wayne Berry

Article Overview: * Moments of Truth * Lost Opportunities When Your Phone Rings * Quote Givers Don’t Add Any Value * Good Intentions Are Not Enough * The 5 Generations Of Sales People * Track Your Conversions * You Are The Weakest Link – Goodbye!

ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON SALES THAT SHOULD BE YOURS?

ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON SALES THAT SHOULD BE YOURS?
MOMENTS OF TRUTH


Every time a customer or a potential customer communicates with your company a "Moment of Truth" occurs. It's an opportunity for them to have either a positive experience or negative experience. It's also a "Moment of Opportunity to either build this relationship or sadly, destroy the relationship.


LOST OPPORTUNITIES WHEN YOUR PHONE RINGS


What makes the difference, are the skills and attitudes of all of your people who have customer contact.


One of the most neglected "Moments of Truth" for many organizations is that initial point of contact, when the telephone rings.


Some companies spend "mega-bucks" on advertising to get their telephone to ring, and then spend "micro-bucks" training their people to handle this first vital "Moment of Truth". A moment when an enquiry can either be turned into a sale or an appointment to discuss this inquirer's needs, or a moment when this enquiry will be lost to the "Twilight Zone". That "I'll-think-it -over-and-get-back-to-you" zone from which most enquiries will never return.


So how well are you and your support people handling this "Moment of
Truth"?


QUOTE GIVERS DON'T ADD ANY VALUE


One retail cellular telephone chain that we worked with a while back discovered that 86% of their sales people were great at giving out information and offering discounts over the telephone (actually a very dangerous practice) but very poor in gaining the enquirer's name and phone number, asking needs revealing questions, gaining agreement for the enquirer to visit in person, and gaining the business.


In excess of 67% of their enquiries exited into the "Twilight Zone" never to return. Clearly much of their massive advertising budget was being lost by handling this vital "Moment of Truth" badly.


How well do you and your team members handle telephone sales enquiries?


Do they answer the customer's question which is generally price oriented, give out lots of information which is often irrelevant to the customer's real needs, and then send out a brochure?


GOOD INTENTIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH


Don't get me wrong now, people who do this generally have good intentions.
However in reality, they aren't really all that helpful to the customer, and sadly these actions often lose sales every day in business. Perhaps even yours.


So why is it that some business operators are prepared to spend thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars on advertising every year, but don' bother to invest anything into training their people in how to professionally handle that critical "Moment of Truth" when the phone rings?


It's a mystery to me, but here's what 29 years of training sales people has taught me.


If people aren't trained how to convert telephone enquiries into telephone sales or face to face visitors, they'll make it up as they go along like everyone else does!


THE 5 GENERATIONS OF SALES PEOPLE


As a consequence opportunities will be lost as they become either...


1. The "Quote Givers" whose major focus is price.


2. The "Product Oriented Peddlers" who simply bombard callers with an avalanche of product information. Or if the customer absolutely insists, and asks to buy, they will then become...


3. The "Order Takers".


We do a great deal of training today with business operators who realise that to succeed today you really need to be different to your competitors, particularly at this critical "Moment of Truth".


These operators realise that today, customers are looking for a new breed of sales person. They are looking for...


4. The "Problem Solver" Sales Person who is equipped with the professional skills necessary to;


* Ask questions to identify needs
* Really listen and understand
* Build trust, confidence and rapport, and then...
* Solve each customer's "problem" with exactly the right solution to meet that client's needs.


Now this approach might seem obvious, but it doesn't come naturally.


In the last 12 months we've worked with travel agents, tyre retailers, insurance companies, and even one of Australia's most exclusive hotels training their people in how to do this. In less than 30 days these companies improved their conversions ratios anywhere from 100% to 400%.


5. The "Friend In The Business" Sales Person


This is the ultimate positioning for a sales person. To be seen by customers as their "Friend In The Business". The person they always call whenever they need expert advice from someone they trust and will ultimately do business with every time. To achieve this positioning takes skill.
How To Become A Top Gun In Sales - Learn how to dramatically increase your sales by becoming a 5th Generation consultative sales professional.


So how do you and your people measure up? Here's the first step to understanding and also to dramatically increasing your sales.


TRACK YOUR CONVERSIONS


If you are not doing so already, begin to measure your current results. By this I mean keep statistics. Keep an accurate count of just how many telephone enquiries you and your people process each day, week, month etc. Then track what happens to each enquiry. How many are converted to sales, how many are not? Work out your ratios.


By the way, when we ask most business operators what their conversion ratio is, they feel that it's not bad. They suggest it is somewhere between 60% -80%. However, when they measure it they discover it's more like 20% - 30%.


16 VITAL TELEPHONE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS


Introduce a set of mandatory "Telephone Performance Standards". Rules for everyone who answers the telephone in your business. A set procedure for handling this vital function.


Although it varies a little from business to business, we've identified 16 vital performance standards, which are universal and should be used in your organization. Space here prevents me from detailing them, but we are happy to provide details if you'd like to contact us. This training is available to you on line.


You Are The Weakest Link - Good bye!


If you believe that you and your organization are missing out on sales that should be yours, then resolve to do something about eliminating this Weak Link in your sales chain. Make it the strongest link, and one that will set you apart from your competitors, because you and your team add value immediately someone phones or walks into your business with a "problem" to be solved.


For details please visit my Sales Training page.


Have a great week. Make it a great week!


Wayne Berry

Related Articles
  Are You Saying This Magical Phrase To Your Customers
  No Business Card Simply Means No Business
  A Missing Link to Sales Improvement?
  Taking the High Road
  Bookkeeping and Good record keeping

Article Tags: attitudes, cellular telephone, dangerous practice, enquirer, enquiry, initial point, inquirer, moment of truth, moments of truth, negative experience, phone rings, point of contact, sales, sales person, sales training, team members, telephone sales, twilight zone, vital moment



Related Forum Posts
Where I want WSI to be in Dec 31 2007 - Here are my goals for end of 2007 Employees - SEO specialist - admin assistant - sales rep - designer/data entry - copy writer (may be outsourced) Target market (client base) manufacturers 10-50 million in revenue looking for integrated marketing solution ranging from 10k - 30k Systems - crm fully utilized - project management smooth process - sales and marketing to continuously generate leads SALES (My big Goal to focus on ) Last years sales revenue was $220K This year we want to hit $500K - approx 40k per month
label signs jackson thriller executive/seeks investor - ismael records has just signed one of the marketing and promotions executives of MICHAEL JACKSONS THRILLER, BAD and OFF THE WALL ALBUMS as its new president of marketing and promotions. we want to embark on an AMERICAN IDOL TYPE CROSS COUNTRY TALENT SEARCH. winners will have their own CD marketed, promoted , nationally distributed, with radio airplay. our venues will be PAID VENUES with TICKET SALES, along with any investor getting a percentage of all venue and ticket sales , any investor will also receive a percentage of all of our winners CD sales which will again, be distributed nationally, any investor will also receive a percentage of the ISMAEL RECORDS LABEL. PLEASE! NO OFFERS OF LOANS OR BANK LOANS OF ANY KIND!. we will also NOT! PAY ANY UPFRONT FEES. ONLY THE ABOVE PERCENTAGES WILL BE PLACED ON THE TABLE. ISMAEL RECORDS has been up for only 3 years, besides being a recording label it is also an entertainment label. working on the entertainment side the label has been doing a series of talent shows. tyrone ismael ceo/president of ismael records has been networking and steady building alliances for the label. until recently mr ismael has himself refused to take on any artist to the recording part of ismael records, simpley because the label did not really have the sources to push an artist the way a label should. we have seen so many labels with tons of artist but nothing to do with them, the artist are just sitting there. with the contracting of our new marketing and promotions president , ismael records now has sources of manufacturing ,radio airplay, national distribution plus over 25,000 storefronts in which we can now place our artist CDS into besides distributing to the top of the line internet retailers. besides MICHAEL JACKSONS, THRILLER, BAD and OFF THE WALL ALBUMS, our new marketing and promotions president has also marketed and promoted the CDS/ALBUMS of such other great recording stars as LUTHER VANDROSS, TYRESE, ALICIA KEYS, SANTANA, EARTH WIND AND FIRE, BIG MIKE, THE GHETTO BOYS, BOY GEORGE, SADE, THE OJAYS and this is only to name the few, he also has written refrences from such greats as MR QUINCY JONES, SADE, and mr POLLY ANTHONEY of SONY MUSIC, he himself is also former acting vice president of marketing and promotions for EPIC RECORDS. i can not bring myself to ask this executive to bring all that he is already bringing to the table as well as ask him to finance this venture, this is why i am now seeking investors. we are seeking no less than $25,000 in order to get this project out of the starting gate. the TV SHOW AMERICAN IDOL has been one of the top shows for years now, each year you can see the thousands and thousands of hopeful new artist trying to become the next star, there is no other entity out there right now besides AMERICAN IDOL that has the resume of our new executive thats doing what we are now trying to do. this project has LEGS and if pushed out of the starting gate with the proper advertising and promotions it will generate its own capital. any investor will also be receiving the above percentages well after they have received their original investment return, as long as we can keep this project running our investors will receive the above percentages.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What Is The Foundation for Your Vision?

Reverse Mentoring

Environment and productivity at the office

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.