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Sales Coach: How Do You Celebrate Success?

November 7, 2009 By

Joe Knows How to CelebrateFew have tasted sweet success as Joe Girardi and the  New York Yankees did this past week, topping off arguably the greatest baseball season ever with another MLB World Series Championship (OK… We’ll be the first to admit that we’re a little biased here at Pathos, but just a little!)

So after celebrating the victory “clubhouse style” with champagne flowing and all, Girardi did the improbable on the way home at 2:25am… As the report goes, he was on a “curvy stretch of highway on the outskirts of New Rochelle. He came upon a car wreck and stopped to help a girl involved in it.” (You can read the report from CNN here.)  He apparently sprinted across three lanes of traffic to come to the aid of the motorist.  As if winning the World Series wasn’t enough?

So it made us ponder the question… How do you celebrate success? For many this year, as we wind down 2009 some will celebrate their “best ever” year and probably more will say “sayonara” in hopes that 2010 can be different.  As sales coaching goes, we often see leaders hoping that results are different.  Unfortunately, hope does not translate very easily to financial success.  The last time we checked, in business and in sales, financial success is all that matters!

So what will you do when you achieve that success?  Here is our list of the “Top 7 Sales Success Celebrations” we’ve seen that you may want to consider:

  1. Bonus - Few things say “I value you” like cash!
  2. Time Off - A well deserved break allow for drained energy levels to be restored.
  3. Recognition Event - Be it a dinner, a weekend trip, or better performers love recognition.
  4. Organization Ambassador - Being allowed to be the “face” of the organization at an industry event shows they’ve arrived!
  5. Training - They’ve already proven that they’ve got sharp skills, how about making them even sharper!  The best never rest on their laurels…
  6. Promotions - What if we could replicate one person’s performance tenfold?  Would the organization or platform grow?
  7. Get them an External Coach - Show them that you’re interesting in keeping their performance rolling.

In order to celebrate sales success, you’ve got to sell.  If you or your organization have struggled, why not make struggling a thing of the past and participate in the Pathos Leadership Group’s upcoming Influential Sales Summit?  To find out more information, contact us by phone at 877.455.3133 or by email at info@pathosleadershipgroup.com today.

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Sales Coach: Customer Retention at DirecTV

October 21, 2009 By

DirectTV Sucks!

We do a lot of sales coaching surrounding the topic of Customer Retention.  Our clients realized long ago that plain-old Customer Service was too short-termed to lead to significant success.  A study we performed for one client showed that while customer satisfaction could be upwards of 84%, a customer’s willingness to return was significantly lower (28%).  So what was the reason?  From our focus groups performed we realized that there were enough operational processes going “right” that would lead to customer satisfaction, however in the “big picture” there were few that often lead to customer retention.  In other words, regardless of how pleasant a sales consultant was, this couldn’t make up for not having sufficient inventory!

We often end up implementing a Customer Retention strategy that involves the following:

  • Make certain that the foundation for Customer Retention is in place (Customer Service has taken place)
  • Make it convenient/easy for customers to repeat their purchase experience
  • Reward those customers who share their experience with others through referrals making purchases.

So all of this begs the simple question… What happens when a customer cancels their service and potentially may never return?  We had just such an experience involving DirecTV.  One of our staff members was a long time DirecTV subscriber (8 years).  However, Verizon FIOS just moved into their neighborhood and was offering some incredible deals for new subscribers.  As such, our loyal DirecTV subscriber jumped ship and headed to the red check-mark of Verizon!  That’s when it started to get ugly…

It turns out that most who call in to DirecTV to cancel their subscription are harassed to not only keep their service, but often at a lower price than they’ve previously been paying.  This opportunity to receive the same service for far less money infuriated our loyal customer.  Remember, they had been with DirecTV for eight years, and as they recalled their relationship each year the price seemed to go up!  However, our ship-jumper decided to move on to Verizon, so regardless of the begging or deal-making that was being offered it appeared as though DirecTV was losing yet another customer.

And then the final bill came… It reflected that the loyal DirecTV customer had apparently not been billed for two pay-per-view movies.  However, upon further review, the two movies were watched six months prior to them canceling the DirecTV service! Their records indicated that the movies were indeed watched six months earlier, and paid five months earlier as a result.

And this is where sales people get a bad name… Our now loyal Verizon FIOS customer called in to DirecTV to see what was going on?  The first person they spoke with tried to get them to reactivate their account.  The second person reviewed their records and said that because they were such a loyal customer they qualified for upgraded equipment.  The third person asked is there anything we can do to get you back?  The fourth person verified that there was no way they were coming back, and then said that the $8.48 bill would be “written off” because of the inconvenience!

So we started thinking, in what ways are you attempting to keep your defecting customers?  Our conclusion was that this DirecTV deceptive practice of Customer Retention should not be implemented.  Besides the ethical dilemma it poses, sending out a bill from services rendered and paid for is never a good sales course to follow!

Sam Palazzolo

Pathos Leadership Group

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Sales Coach: Lessons from Kanye West and Taylor Swift

September 16, 2009 By
'Jackass' Kanye West in action at the MTV-VMAs. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

By now you’ve probably seen/heard/read all about the Kanye West interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV-VMA Award show… Even President Barack Obama when asked to comment on the situation called Kanye West a “jackass”!  Regardless of where you weigh in on the situation, there are some great Sales Coaching lessons to be learned from the incident.

Here are the Top 5 Sales Coaching lessons from the incident:

  1. See Your Opportunity – How many times during the day, week, month, and so on do you have the opportunity present itself right in front of your eyes, only to do NOTHING?  While Kanye’s actions might be termed “implausible” and without manners, you’ve got to give him credit for seizing the moment when he saw the opportunity present itself.  The sales coaching lesson here is to recognize those opportunities where the opportunity door has opened and for you to move in.
  2. Get to the Point – Remember the “good old days” when Derek Jeter broke Lou Gehrig’s hit record last week?  There was a game prior to that when Derek Jeter tied the record, and afterward said that he was almost embarrassed to celebrate during the game for two reasons.  First, the New York Yankees were losing the game.  Second, he didn’t want to show the other team up!  Perhaps if Taylor Swift had been as gracious as Derek Jeter and accepted the award with a quick “Thank You” instead of the diarrhea recognition speeches that most award recipients regurgitate Kanye wouldn’t have had the time to jump in.  The sales coaching lesson here is get to the point with your prospects, don’t dilly-dally.
  3. Have a Point – I guess if you are to “Get to the Point” as mentioned above, it’s important to know what your point is.  Taylor Swift did have a “cheat sheet” set of notes that she was going to refer to for her acceptance speech.  The sales coaching lesson here is to know what you are going to say when the opportunity door opens itself to you.
  4. Bring Passion – Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Kanye West thought that Beyonce should have won the award instead of Taylor Swift?  Even my eight year old exclaimed “Damn… What’s with that guy?” after seeing Kanye’s rant!  The sales coaching lesson here is you’ve got to believe first and foremost in your product/service.  If you don’t, you won’t be able to fake it and your prospects will see it.  They won’t buy from you as a result.  One of our clients loves to say “Love Thy Product” and you should do the same.
  5. Don’t Apologize to Oprah – Time for a confession… I love Oprah Winfrey.  I’ve loved Oprah since she was on TV in Nashville way back when and I love her today.  However, I don’t know why Kanye apologized to her and the rest of America before he did so to Taylor Swift.  Sales coaching lesson is to own up to your mistakes to the people they directly effect.  Let’s face it; you’re going to have an issue every now and then delivering your product/service to a customer.  When it happens, and it will, call them up and apologize.  Also set a proactive course for “next time” both for them, and for you!  You’ll go further in your relationships as a result.

So there you have the Pathos Coaching “slant” on the Kanye West versus Taylor Swift saga.

Sam Palazzolo

Pathos Leadership Group

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Pathos Coaching

August 14, 2009 By

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  • Identify Your “Mission Critical” Goal
  • Test Drive the Pathos Coaching Process
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Sales Coach: What Do You Do When They Don’t Buy From You?

August 12, 2009 By

You work hard to sell your product or service, right?  Nothing is handed to you… Sometimes your sales cycle is short, other times it’s long.  Regardless, as a sales professional you are out there pounding the pavement (or email system “virtually” pounding the internet superhighway) every day.  Just when you think you’ve got the sale, the prospect puts the brakes on and calls a halt to the sales action.  You hit the “pause” button as well and move on to another prospect.  When you ultimately do buckle-back with the prospect, you find out that they’ve bought your product or service, just not from you! What went wrong?  What will you do now?  The following “Seven Tips to Offset Lost Sales” are for you if this scenario happens to you far too often (In our sales coaching practice, our clients learn that once is often enough!)

Tip #1 – Qualify the Prospect
One of our coaching clients is in the real estate industry.  They successfully run one of the leading, and largest, real estate agencies in the country.  During our initial meetings, I asked what made them different from the many other real estate agencies out there.  Now I’ve asked that question before and I’m always excited to hear what the answer is.  This time, I have to admit that I was a little surprised!  The answer that I received back was that they do a better job of qualifying the prospect than other agencies.  This allows them to fully serve those clients in their best interest.  In order to avoid losing the sale and sell more, you’ve got to qualify your customer.  Does your offering serve them better than anyone else?  Do they have the budget?  How long will your solution be the answer?  These questions may seem to be way upstream regarding the lost sales conversation, but if you do a better job at qualifying your customers initially you’ll gain more sales!

Tip #2 – Stay in Touch
Ok, let’s get real here.  If you’re like most salespeople you enjoy the hunt, sometimes you enjoy it more than the actual reaping of the rewards from the sale.  So when you have a prospect that says “I need to think about it…” or “Follow-up with me in a few…” you fall for it and move on to the next hunting ground.  When you buckle-back, they’ve bought somewhere else (Just like in the opening example!)  What happened?  You lost the sale because you got greedy and moved on to the next pond to fish when you should have left a line in the water, or at the minimum come back to the pond and fish more frequently.  There’s a reason why people aren’t buying from you right here, right now.  Do you know what they are?  These are the “3 P’s” we discovered regarding why customers don’t buy from you.  Send us an email (info@pathosleadershipgroup.com) requesting them and we’ll send you a special report so you stay in touch better!

Tip #3 – Polish Your Presentation
When was the last time you practiced your presentation?  If you’re like one of our clients, they practice every day on their way in to the office.  Unfortunately, they used to lose sales even with all that practice!  So what was going wrong?  Practice is good, but “Perfect Practice” is better!  Also, if you’re presentation is taking place in a different “realm” (i.e., virtually like on the internet through a web-meeting or on the phone through a conference call) you’d better be practicing in that realm.  No amount of “windshield” practice can prepare you for the challenges of these new presentation realms.  We are convinced that Murphy’s Law is in full-force in these new spaces, so you better practice up!

Tip #4 – Serve the Prospect
Just because you didn’t make the sale on your first conversation doesn’t mean that you’ve lost it for good.  So what do you do with your prospect during the sales process?  In the New Economy sales-cycles have almost doubled.  What could be accomplished leading prospects from introduction to successful sale over seven touches now takes fourteen!  The time period associated with these additional touches gives you the opportunity to outshine your competition and deliver in other realms for your prospect.  What else do they need, that you offer, that you could deliver while they’re in decision mode?  Could you deliver them and help swing the decision making process in your favor?  Stop serving only your current customers and start delivering to prospects.

Tip #5 – Survey the Lost Customer
Sometimes in defeat you can determine your next victory strategies!  Survey your lost customers to determine what went wrong.  Perhaps it was your presentation or follow-up efforts, perhaps you didn’t provide enough detail or perhaps too much detail, maybe you don’t have the right technology, etc.  You’ll never know if you don’t ask, so ask!  The feedback could be humbling, but beneficial in discovering what you won’t do the next time.  Want even better feedback?  Have us interview your prospects after they’ve bought somewhere else. What customers won’t tell you because they’re afraid they’ll “hurt your feelings” they will tell us!

Tip #6 – Know Thy Competitor
So who did you lose out to?  Better yet, why did you lose out to them?  These are common questions that we ask of our sales coaching clients.  I continue to be dumbfounded when I hear “I don’t know!”  You don’t know?  You don’t know? Find out and more importantly find out what they are delivering that you aren’t.  Then figure out how you can deliver it better!  New competitors are everywhere all the time, even if you’re like one of our pharmaceutical clients!  Keep your competitors closer to you and you’ll be more successful.

Tip #7 – Know Thyself
Time to get real again… You know why you lost the sale, so stop BS’ing yourself! Look yourself in the mirror and hold yourself accountable.  If after reading the previous six tips you still don’t know why you are losing sales, perhaps sales is not for you!  Bad news, you’re always selling something.  One of the seminar companies that we did some work for a few years ago coined the term “lifelong learner” in their workshop presentations.  They brought up the term right around the time they’d offer their products for sale.  Guess what happened, people realized that they were not lifelong learners.  However, they wanted to be so they bought!  If you’re not investing 20% of your annual income in lifelong learning activities you’re falling behind your competition.
By following the preceding seven tips, you won’t win 100% of your sales proposals.  However, you will greatly increase your percentage from where you are today by being aware of them, working on them, and implementing them into your sales game plan.

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Sales Coach: Influential Sales – Are You Hungry for More?

August 11, 2009 By

Influential Sales – Are You Hungry for More?
5 Techniques You Can Implement Today to Increase Sales Tomorrow

In business, nothing matters more than selling your products or services.   It doesn’t matter how educated your recent hires are, or how cool your Web site is or how great your products or services are if your company doesn’t have the ability to sell.  And then when sales do occur, it’s as if they are an unquenchable thirst or an insatiable appetite – you constantly want more; your achievements never seem to be enough!  So if you’ve got sales “hunger pains” (and who doesn’t?) here are five techniques you can implement to get more sales today!

Technique #1 – Give It Away! – Yeah, that’s right, give it away!  No, not the farm … your experience.  Right now your customers are concerned about where they are and how they’re going to get back to level ground!  And your products or services can perform better than others in the current economy, right?  Well let your customers know, and let them know right now!  Offer your experience as the differentiator amongst your competition and you’ll rise to the top.  Your current customers will love you more (they do love you, right?) and they’ll receive even more value from the product or service you provide.  Information is like fish: If you sit on it for a few days, it will not get better with age!  This leads us to our next technique…

Technique #2 – Get Referrals – Nothing is such sweet music to a salesperson’s ears as is the soothing sound of a phone ringing from a referral.  Why?  Because referred customers are nearly 80 percent sold on you already, thanks to your current customer base.  Converting them the remaining 20 percent of the way is a no-brainer.  However, most salespeople rarely get this opportunity because they never take the time to buckle-back to their current customer base and ask for the referral.  Now, there is something inherently exciting about the hunt and chase associated with going after new clients, but it’s way too hard!  Contact those people you’re already doing business with (technique #1 provides a golden opportunity) and up your level of service to them.  Once you have, ask them who you might be able to contact that would enjoy a similar level of service!  Done…simple!  Which leads us to Technique #3…

Technique #3 – Introduce Yourself with Influence – The first step to meeting a new client, either face-to-face or over the phone, is an introduction.  The way you’ve introduced yourself in the past won’t work anymore!  It just won’t.  Can you imagine your prospective client answering their phone and hearing “Hello, Ms. Jones, this is John Doe calling from Company XYZ, how are you today?  Did I catch you at a great time?” First of all, they probably have gatekeepers answering the phone!  But if they do answer the phone, you’re going to have to be a lot stronger than the typical, “How are you…Great time?” salesperson.  You’re going to have to introduce yourself as an expert.  How?  You don’t have 30 seconds to rattle off your resume and talk about all the degrees and certifications you’ve got plastered on the walls in your office!  You’ve actually got just two seconds!  Immediately introduce yourself and say who referred you:“Hello, Ms. Jones, this is Sam Palazzolo.  Jane Doe recommended that I give you a call and here’s why.” This is much better, and straight to the point of why you are calling.  Whether your prospect woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, or happened to be late to an important meeting, he or she is going to want to know why Jane suggested you to call them.  Notice you should not say your company name or title …Why not?  Simple answer … they don’t care!  It just gets in the way right now.  There will be plenty of time to tell them where you work later.  Which leads us to Technique #4…

Technique #4 – Know Thy Stuff – If you are going to tee yourself up with the line “…referred me and here’s why…” the next information out of your mouth had better be the good stuff!  What’s the good stuff?  It’s the merits of why this person would want to do business with you: “Our service drives 500 percent improvement in productivity … You’ll decrease your turnover rate by 300 percent … One of our clients attained a 3x revenue improvement …” Rank order your merits regarding why the customer should do business with you versus your competition and know each one in order of “important” to “majorly important!”  Which leads us to Technique #5…

Technique #5 – Perfect Practice Makes Perfect – There’s that romantic notion that you can get in front of a customer and “fake it ‘til you make it” … wrong!  There’s a simple recipe as to why people succeed; work hard + work smart!  Here’s your opportunity to do both.  As discussed above, practice the merits of your argument both backwards and forwards, and know them inside and out!  When you present them to a prospective client, start with the “important” items and work towards the “majorly important” ones.  But before you communicate the most important merit that drives the most return on investment (ROI) for your prospect, do something that no one else will do.  You know the negatives of doing business with your company, right?  Maybe you’re very expense, have slow production cycles or shipping cycles, or perhaps it’s the cost of your product or service.  If it has lost you a sale in the past, it’s a negative.  Now, right before you give your customers the biggest merit for doing business with you, tell them that negative.  What?!?  That’s right, rattle off the positive merits of doing business with you versus someone else and then right before you tell them the biggest advantage of all, tell them a negative merit!  This is something advertisers discovered years ago which will make you an instant authority.  You will gain incredible ground in the “trustworthy and credibility” areas.  In a matter of seconds you can accomplish what would otherwise take you weeks, months or years!

Regardless of how you’ve performed when  “selling” in past, these five sales techniques will provide you with more influence to achieve more success and feed that sales hunger.  After all, nothing else matters!

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