Punctuation Free (For a Reason)

Punctuation Free ( For a Reason)

When you look closely, there is no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the title words “Sales Representative.” And that’s on purpose. You have to do both at the same time.

You have to sell but you have to represent the company simultaneously. It’s not one or the other. You can’t sell for selling sake and set unreal expectations or pound out fishy phone calls or phishy emails because then you are not “representing” the company well. Conversely, you can’t be all Kumbaya and go harvesting customers with super friendly experiences and never broach filling the unmet needs of the customer.

There is no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the title “Service Representative” either.

You have to give great service but you have to represent the company simultaneously time. It’s not one or the other. If you don’t take ownership (“I don’t know why they did that in shipping..”) or apologize for real (“sorry that happened to you…what’s your account number?” ) you are leaving an awful impression as a Rep of the company. Conversely, your reliance on policy or procedure or terms and conditions do little to evoke the “service” part of a service call.

There is also no comma, slash, semi-colon, parenthesis or period between the titles of “Sales Manager” or “Service Manager” so you best know sales and service at an expert level and likewise need to know how to expertly support your people at the same time.

Punctuation between words has its place – a means often to stop, pause, reposition and separate. But if it ain’t there it ain’t there – that means when the words go together; they belong together.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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7 Things Your Prospect Won’t Tell You

7 Things Your Prospect Won’t Tell You

Whether I, your prized business prospect, is calling you or picking up your phone call, there are things I just won’t tell you.

1) I used to be in sales too. You’d be surprised how many of us decision makers started out, or are still in, sales. And I can still smell a trial close, a rotating yes and min/max close from 50 feet away. Don’t use tricky closes on me.

2) Don’t make me feel stupid even for a second. I know my world very well – not your world and if you make me feel like I’m an idiot presuming I know or like your acronyms, buzzwords and fast talking pitches- I’m gone; I’ll just go to your competitors website and read and email- – that way no one has to talk to me.

3) Tell me what everyone else is doing. I hate to admit this sometimes even to myself but I do want to know what my competitors or even my industry is doing lately and haven’t had any time to dig in. But I’m not about to go ask you — yet I wouldn’t mind hearing it if you wanted to just shout it out. Am I missing out on something or some trend?

4) I know more way more about you than you think. I’ve been to your website; I’ve Googled your reviews. Heck I’ve Googled you and saw you on LinkedIn and Twitter (or didn’t- and what does that mean?) I may have seen a few opinions about your company on Twitter already. So don’t waste my time with the basics about yourself – I got it. I called you because I want something more than the internet can give me.

5) I don’t expect much from you. I just never know if you really work for this company I am calling or am getting called from. Are you a contractor, an outsourced support, brand new employee, who knows? I don’t have high hopes but if you can assure me quickly you know what the heck you are doing then maybe I’ll listen.

6) I’d rather do nothing. Seriously, I hate change. I wish everything I do today would just work better. Change is costly, risky, takes forever it seems and I am busy enough already. I won’t tell you that of course. I’d rather just flat our say no or compare you to someone else or put you off but honestly; doing what I do today is just easier. If you can’t make me do something “different” and get me to get off the dime and essentially hate what I am doing today- then don’t bother.

7) You’re 7^th on the list. I respect you dear supplier but my family, my boss, my colleagues, my customers, my pastor and my pets all come before you my trusted partner. Nothing personal- you can be very valuable to me but everyone else here is getting something for Christmas next year just so’s ya know.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Important Sells

Important Sells

Isn’t a meal more important when it is perceived to be a means towards losing weight or is it when it is consumed because you are hungry?

Isn’t a car more important when you plan on passing it on to your teenage kid or is it when you just need to get from A to B?

Isn’t a business card more important when it helps you rebrand yourself or your business or is it when you just need to leave something behind so they can reach you?

Isn’t a website more important when you need to stop the competition from stealing your customers or is it when everyone keeps saying you should have one?

It’s always the former, not that latter.

If you sell meals, cars, business cards, websites or anything else for that matter, you’ll sell more of them when you get at how those products can help a person achieve something bigger. When that happens, those products and you become more important.

Get at it. Most people and businesses are not shallow. There’s some dream, some pursuit they are after. Tie your products and services to that dream or a goal and your stuff becomes more important.

Important sells.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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No Fear in 2013

This is the year to quit being afraid. Let’s start with these 7.

Don’t fear having to memorize all your product specs and prices. What matters is you remember how the darn thing helps them do what they really want to do.
Don’t fear social media. Embrace it. More people, customers and employees talking to each other is way better than silence.
Don’t fear the so called demise of the offline marketing world. I don’t know any business that is moving totally away from it. Blend is always the key. In fact, that integrated offline/online mix might get a little more attention than it used to these days.
Don’t fear the board game. It’s OK to make eye contact with your kids now and then.
Don’t Fear the Reaper. Classic tune. Have a Listen. I heard they played at my High School way back in the early 70’s. Yup they did.

Don’t fear going back to school. In fact, everybody should be in school. If you are not dedicating to learning something new at least an hour a day at least (and I don’t mean watching or reading “news”, timelines or posts) you are behind your competitors tomorrow.
Don’t fear Neuroscience and Neuromarketing. Get into it. How you think, why you think the way you do. Why your clients and team react to things the way they do is important to know . As someone once said… “Just because it is your brain, doesn’t mean you know what it is doing”.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Up With Update, Updated, Updating

Up With Update. Updated, Updating

I heard about a company a while back that instructs its employees never to say that their computers are running slow. Instead the representatives say “Our systems are updating….” or “We’re in the midst of updating our systems, it will just taking a moment longer…”

Nice touch. Smart too.

We all have system issues at times. And usually yes, there’s some updating going on be it a new release or upgrades or what have you that slows things down.

The point is the caller on the other end of the line is feels less tension, more confidence and more patience when they hear systems or computers are being “updated” rather than being “slow”.

The use the word “update” even in the On Hold process:

“Let me put you on hold to get the most updated information.”

Way better than “Let me put you on hold to find out” or “to figure it out” or some other underwhelming phrase. “Updated” shows how bleeding edge you are keeping up with things and striving for that up-to-the-minute accuracy.

I suspect “update” has other uses in your world. It sounds fresh, smart and on top of things. Heck we live by the word with our smart phones and tablets as an incredibly necessary thing to be on top of those “updates”.

Have a look around. Update your language a bit. Don’t underestimate the value of your customers feeling a bit more comfortable and confident when working with you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Not Transforming? Might As Well Be Dying

So we decided to have contest among Learning & Development pros here focused on making a short, entertaining training video that sticks. So um… I though I would give it a go. What do you get when you get mix One minute of video, Halloween, an important business message and bad acting? This sad ( but funny – I think) video. Enjoy.

This movie was created with iMovie, an iOS application created by Apple. I do not own any rights to this video. Sound effects, and graphics were provided by iMovie and iTunes. The recorded video is of family, friends and myself.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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The Perfect I’m Sorry

The Perfect “I’m Sorry”

I was in awe and actually stunned last week. Like the cool, slow motion, jaw dropping kind of stunned. Really I was.

I had realized right then, while sitting there next to Eric and listening to both he and the upset customer, that I had never ever heard it like that before. And I have heard thousands and thousands of customer service calls over these last 25 years.

Until last Wednesday I don’t think I’ve ever heard those two words said just like that and in that way.

“I’m sorry”.

But alas, here is how he said it! He said “I’m sorry” and then said nothing. Nothing! You know, the dead air kind of nothing, the “you can hear a pin drop” kind of nothingness.

The two words “I’m sorry” weren’t rendered meaningless by adding moronic drivel like “…..that happened” or “…we did that” or ”…this happened to you” or “…we made a mistake” or “ …we won’t do it again” . None of those polluted words were suffixed to the most perfect “I’m sorry” I’ve ever heard.

That’s it. Two words. “I’m sorry”. And then, no more sounds. No clickety clack keyboard sounds of moving on. No blathering, babbling or god forbid – cross selling. Not even a cough. Nothing – just nothing.

Wait was important. Wait for it to sink in is what I realized he was doing. Wait for it to really mean something to the customer.

And then, on the other end of the line, the soft voice of the customer finally, agonizingly and mercifully said “OK”.

Perfect. That’s all Eric needed to hear.

Think about his choice of using those particular words. There is so much personal lasting ownership in the two words “I’m sorry” when they are left the heck alone. There is vulnerability and sincerity in just those two words and in exactly those two words.

I suspect he already knew what I also had just realized sitting next to him. That using an “I apologize” or any variation of that is just not the same when you compare. I’ve heard it a million times and truth be told, it antiseptically washes over people. “I apologize” rings emptily of what you did while “I’m sorry” rings importantly of how you feel.

You (and I) have two words to practice now with the 3^rd part being the perfect silence that follows. I never expected to get taught such a wonderful service lesson on a late Wednesday afternoon from a guy I never met before named Eric who has been on the phones for only 4 precious months. And over the years and maybe even in this blog, I’ve written inaccurately now it seems, about how to apologize and make amends with customers in need. For that I simply say

I’m sorry.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Bake Sale Confessions

Bake Sale Confessions

Last week at the Bake Sale I lied, cheated and deceived.

And while I kind of feel bad about it, I kinda don’t.

I did it all for charity.

And OK, I did it to prove a point too. One you need to remember.

Jeanie and I were in charge of the Bake Sale table for that hour. Sales needed a boost. It was all for a good cause – a charity that needed money to do good. Jeanie and I go way back in the sales world. We knew we needed to apply our skills. I winked, she smiled and knew what I was going to do.

One large plastic tray laying on the table had a single package of wrapped homemade cookies left in it. “$1.00 for 2 cookies” it said. A lady walked by, saw that it was the last one and ….poof!…. she bought it and it was gone. An empty tray now. A nice big empty tray. Perfect. I took 2 sorry looking single packages of other homemade cookies hadn’t sold at all and placed them along with their description and price tag in the newly emptied large tray and walked away.

Those unsold cookies looked so puny in that big tray but they also looked like the only two left in what must have been (perceptually anyway), a full spread of those cookies at one time.

What hadn’t sold at all; these 2 cookie packages – were gone in less than 5 minutes. Charity Cha – Ching!

That tray was gold. When it emptied, I placed other items ( many that were single sole items to begin with) and put them that tray tucked up against the corner looking like the last of the most popular product on the table. Disappeared they did.

On occasion, I admit I threw in a whispered “That’s the last one….” to the unsuspecting passerby while pointing to the giant tray of what must certainly look like the hottest selling treats in the Bake Sale. Folks stopped, then stared, then snagged the item and shelled out the cash.

The ultimate of course, was the single $10 raspberry pie that was always just a single pie made for the Bake Sale. I realize as I write this, that my local Priest reads this blog but I have to admit my white lies went eggshell on me and I shouted “This is THE last raspberry pie!” and placed it carefully in what had become the Solid Gold Tray of Charity. It sold right away along with my soul perhaps, to the Devil.

I’ll take my chances with the Devil because of the Cause (Rev. Paul, help me out here will ya? ). No one was hurt. And the event was something that totally outweighed the means I suspect.

It’s not rocket science; this Bake Sale behavior. It’s Psychology. We are simple, good people who act way more on emotion and peer pressure than logic. Way more than we’d like to admit. So if you mix popularity ( it must be good) with scarcity (there aren’t many left!) like the “last remaining” baked items put in that big tray – you create a recipe most people can’t avoid tasting.

It’s why we stand in line for IPhones, why we rearrange our lives in trying to get tickets for one of only two shows and why we pay high prices for the best seasonal seafood.

But it’s also why we look twice at the last products on a shelf amidst a sea of like products in a supermarket or club store. It’s also why QVC still tallies “how many left” on the bottom of the screen during a pitch. It’s why in the end, we respond so well to things that are popular and scarce. It makes us want.

I’m not advocating lying or cheating or deceiving. (OK, maybe a little for charity). But you all have products or services or even people that are truly popular and scarce. Shout it out! Find your Solid Gold Tray and place them there. Let your customers, prospects, colleagues or employer see what is so precious and rare.

From a Bake Sale, to your company’s Biggest Sale, to just Better Sales for you no matter what you sell – remember the power of the near irrestistable mix of popularity and scarcity; it’s an influence like nothing else.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Angela’s Assist

Angela’s Assist

“What are you buying it for?”

“Oh, that’s wonderful…”

“Let me do that for you…..”

“I think you should grab a couple more…”

“That looks beautiful on you…..”

“Oh, I don’t like that one on you so much, not conservative enough…”

“You know what would really make that look sharp…. is a belt..”

“A necklace will really tie it together and show your personality…”

“You may want to grab another blouse with the 50% off promotion and mix and match this.”

“Good luck, I know you’ll get the job”.

Yep. That’s pretty much verbatim what sales associate Angela said to my 23 year daughter 2 weeks ago as we shopped for her first real business suit as she was about to interview for a customer service role in one of the largest investment firms in the world.

It was a memorable almost “wow” service experience as her mother and I watched Angela guide her through the buying process. She wasn’t pushy; she wasn’t hovering as in fact, Angela was helping two other customers at the same time.

It was however, so smart. It started with the right question. Not just “What are you buying?” But, “What are you buying it for?”

The rest of her comments and questions make smart sense. They are honest. They are helpful. They are overtly credible and said with the tone and content that she has “totally been here before”. And it was in the end, not about the suit at all – but about the goal our daughter had in mind – landing that job.

She did land that job. [Today, in fact :)]

And while the business suit Angela helped pick out for our daughter probably wasn’t the reason she got the job, it sure didn’t hurt and better, what a great lesson in customer service Angela gave her to steal from for the interview. It works on a lot of levels.

You can steal shamelessly from Angela too. Read the comments she made and the questions she asked. Think about them. Apply accordingly.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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PS: If you’d like to see Angela in action, head to the clothing store Ann Taylor at Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, NH. I’m sure she won’t mind that I sent you there. 🙂

We Need More Boring Sales Stories

We Need More Boring Sales Stories

We need more of these. You know the boring Sales stories right?

Your Voicemail lights up. “Hi Mark, I’d like to place a new order”.
Your phone rings: “Hi John, I need to buy a car for my daughter.”
Your door opens: “Any way I can get a pool installed in 2 weeks?”
Your email pings: “Can you be the listing agent for my house?”

You never hear any of these sales stories around the water cooler or at the bar. No war stories there. Boring. Boring. Boring.

Yet these things do happen to great sales reps. You don’t hear about them though because as we’ve established, it’s um, boring – not much to see here.

Except that’s not really true.

You see, in these sales stories, someone else did the selling. Some customer was so moved by the experience with their sales rep, so amazed at the service, the follow up, the treatment, the wisdom and the sheer help, that he/she inspired friends to call, visit or ping this sales rep with their open minds and wallets.

No referral was asked for here – all the selling was done behind the scenes, unknowable to the sales rep. Hard to tell a story in which you have no idea what really happened. A real snoozer.

Best kind of sales though where the customers do the selling for you ain’t it? Bring on the boring! – Zero to close in 30 seconds!

How many of these calls, visits or emails are you getting? How many boring sales stories could you actually tell? Not enough?

Get cracking then – do what you need to do to get your customers to sell for you. Be boring all the way to the bank.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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