Do You have a "Sales Prevention Department?"
Do You have a "Sales Prevention Department?"
Here’s an example how sales prevention can spread throughout your business. I approached my bank of 20 plus years for a loan to buy some land I planned to build a house on in the future. No problem with my credit scores or debt ratios. I was called by the underwriter a few days before closing and was questioned about a credit card that I failed to list on my credit application. They said that my omission was jeopardizing the loan approval. The account was with a small department store that I rarely did business with. In fact it had been so long that I had forgotten I had the card. A little research on my part turned up that I actually had a “credit balance” of $7.00 on the account. They actually owed me money! Apparently I overpaid the last bill I got from them and probably returned some merchandise at the same time. This was a road block to my approval? My response to the underwriter was that in fact this was NOT a LIABILITY but an ASSET that I neglected to itemize on my application. This was an accounts receivable item. I was ultimately approved by the bank’s Sales Prevention Department. Another true example occurred in the accounting department of a business I managed. One of our larger accounts, a worldwide theme park operator who shall be nameless, had a $9.00 receivable that had aged over 120 days. This account generated over $100,000 per month in revenue for our business. Their payment history was spotless, except for the $9.00 which was actually a truck part that they had returned and the credit didn’t go through. Accounting was about to cut them off. I caught it just in time. The Sales Prevention department must have been on “Spaced Out Mountain”.
Here are a few comments that I’ve heard through the years. Purge these from your sales vocabulary.
I can’t help you
They’re at lunch
I’ve heard that complaint before
There’s nothing I can do about it
The person you need to speak with isn’t here right now
We’ve had this problem for a long time
Everybody complains about him/her
Take it somewhere else to be repaired
That’s just the way it is
You’re imagining things
No problem found
Did you read the owner’s manual?
It’s supposed to do that
If we try to fix it we’ll just make it worse
Come back later
We’ll be closing in a few minutes
Our insurance company won’t allow it
That’s our policy
Talk with our legal department
He/she never returns calls
I feel bad for you
The manufacturer will not cover it
Why should we have to pay for it?
It’s not my responsibility
I don’t have the authority
It took me about a minute to write those down. I’m sure you can think of a few of your own. These words do not offer a solution, but instead are “amplifiers”. An “amplifier” makes the situation worse. When you stack a few amplifiers on top of each other the result is deafening. By the time the customer reaches top management, which they eventually will, the cost to the company increases exponentially. Not only monetarily but in lost customers and negative word of mouth.
If the first contact provided a solution because the employee had the authority and took ownership of the problem, the cost is minimal. Empower your people to solve customer problems regardless of their level of authority or responsibility. They must be trained properly to handle these situations and not “chastised” for doing “too much” to help the customer. Most of the time they don’t need to “give away the farm’, that’s your job. If you allow the problems to float upstream you will have to spend more money to calm down a very irate customer. Some customers may need to be fired, do that yourself.
Do You have a Sales Prevention Department - To learn more about this author, visit Gary Silverman's Website.
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Do you remember “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign? As a result, Oldsmobile became “It’s not ANYBODY’s Oldsmobile and subsequently a 100 year old brand became extinct. There are many reasons behind their collapse but the tipping point for Oldsmobile came when some large, Madison Avenue ad agency (who ironically is still in business) decided, with General Motors blessing, it would be a good idea to reposition Oldsmobile to a younger demographic. In the mid 1980’s Oldsmobile was the third largest brand of automobiles, behind Chevrolet and Ford, sold in the U.S with yearly sales in excess of 1,000,000 units. The process went like this: First, alienate your existing owner base forcing them to other G.M divisions and non G.M competition. Second, don’t change the actual product to attract the “new” demographic. Third, adopt a “one price selling” strategy never embraced by the buying public in an environment of negotiation. Then repeat the process until you can’t reverse the downward spiral. Not only did the right hand not know what the left hand was doing but both hands were amputated in the process. Oldsmobile’s product continued to be introduced too late and the competition always had the upper hand. You cannot hang a sign over your father’s Oldsmobile proclaiming it to not be “Your Father’s Oldsmobile” . This was the home run where the runner went around the bases backwards. Truly a GOLD MEDAL for the Sales Prevention Department. Keep an eye on your SPD. There are times when continuous improvement can lead to continuous decline. Remember when Starbucks didn’t smell like coffee anymore? They stopped grinding beans and went to computer operated espresso machines. Actually, if you arrived in the morning when they first opened Starbucks smelled like disinfectant. I am currently sitting in one while I am writing this and it smells like chinese food. The guy sitting across from me brought his laptop in for the free WiFi as well as his take out chinese lunch...sweet and sour chicken latte? This is Starbuck’s non pay-rolled, visiting Sales Prevention Department.
Here’s an example how sales prevention can spread throughout your business. I approached my bank of 20 plus years for a loan to buy some land I planned to build a house on in the future. No problem with my credit scores or debt ratios. I was called by the underwriter a few days before closing and was questioned about a credit card that I failed to list on my credit application. They said that my omission was jeopardizing the loan approval. The account was with a small department store that I rarely did business with. In fact it had been so long that I had forgotten I had the card. A little research on my part turned up that I actually had a “credit balance” of $7.00 on the account. They actually owed me money! Apparently I overpaid the last bill I got from them and probably returned some merchandise at the same time. This was a road block to my approval? My response to the underwriter was that in fact this was NOT a LIABILITY but an ASSET that I neglected to itemize on my application. This was an accounts receivable item. I was ultimately approved by the bank’s Sales Prevention Department. Another true example occurred in the accounting department of a business I managed. One of our larger accounts, a worldwide theme park operator who shall be nameless, had a $9.00 receivable that had aged over 120 days. This account generated over $100,000 per month in revenue for our business. Their payment history was spotless, except for the $9.00 which was actually a truck part that they had returned and the credit didn’t go through. Accounting was about to cut them off. I caught it just in time. The Sales Prevention department must have been on “Spaced Out Mountain”.
Here are a few comments that I’ve heard through the years. Purge these from your sales vocabulary.
I can’t help you
They’re at lunch
I’ve heard that complaint before
There’s nothing I can do about it
The person you need to speak with isn’t here right now
We’ve had this problem for a long time
Everybody complains about him/her
Take it somewhere else to be repaired
That’s just the way it is
You’re imagining things
No problem found
Did you read the owner’s manual?
It’s supposed to do that
If we try to fix it we’ll just make it worse
Come back later
We’ll be closing in a few minutes
Our insurance company won’t allow it
That’s our policy
Talk with our legal department
He/she never returns calls
I feel bad for you
The manufacturer will not cover it
Why should we have to pay for it?
It’s not my responsibility
I don’t have the authority
It took me about a minute to write those down. I’m sure you can think of a few of your own. These words do not offer a solution, but instead are “amplifiers”. An “amplifier” makes the situation worse. When you stack a few amplifiers on top of each other the result is deafening. By the time the customer reaches top management, which they eventually will, the cost to the company increases exponentially. Not only monetarily but in lost customers and negative word of mouth.
If the first contact provided a solution because the employee had the authority and took ownership of the problem, the cost is minimal. Empower your people to solve customer problems regardless of their level of authority or responsibility. They must be trained properly to handle these situations and not “chastised” for doing “too much” to help the customer. Most of the time they don’t need to “give away the farm’, that’s your job. If you allow the problems to float upstream you will have to spend more money to calm down a very irate customer. Some customers may need to be fired, do that yourself.
Do You have a Sales Prevention Department - To learn more about this author, visit Gary Silverman's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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