Too Much Lost Business
Last week was an interesting week. Three sales people didn’t call
me back, and it was only Wednesday.
Monday I spoke with a hotel sales representative, a web services
company, and a bank Vice-President. They all said they would call
back that day. I must have moved, because I am still waiting for
their calls.
Guess what? I booked another hotel for one of my upcoming
seminars. We contracted a different hosting company for our new
web site. And, we formed a new banking relationship to handle all
of our on line merchant service needs.
All told it was a lot of business that was directed away from
companies not responsive to our needs.
Many times it’s easy to get away from what we really do. We focus
on the product or specific service we want to sell. We should be
focusing on the pain and the needs of our clients and prospects.
The reality is that they don’t care about us or our products or
our services. What they care about is being able to successfully
complete their daily tasks, enjoy life, or make a profit. They
only care about us to the degree that we can service them. It’s
all about the benefit they receive from our products and
services.
Not returning a call on a timely basis takes away from their
ability to achieve their goals.
So, what could be keeping someone from returning those calls on a
timely basis? Some people fear rejection and therefore put off
making the calls. Of course by not calling they are in fact
getting a “no” to their product or service by default
You are not going to sell everyone anyway. You will get some
“no’s,” but you have to work through the “no’s” to get to the
“yes’s.”
The other reason I see that many people don’t return calls on a
timely basis is that their work area is a mess. It’s hard to be
efficient when you have too many of those little pieces of paper
with phone numbers on them running around rampant.
Top producers have an efficient system of organizing their office
and maintaining contact with their relationships.
Now let’s look at where you should focus to give the best
possible service to your clients and prospects.
Return all calls within one hour of when they were received. With
cell phones and other office technology there’s no excuse for
being tardy.
When you tell someone you’re going to call on a certain day or at
a certain time, do it!
Use a good contact management software system to keep track of
all the commitments you make. “I’m not up on technology,” is not
an acceptable statement anymore.
Spend time looking for the true value you deliver. What is it
that your clients are really getting when they invest in your
products and services? The answers to this question can have an
incredible impact on your business.
Ask your clients what is important in their eyes and give it to
them.
Commit to making these things a habit. Practice them consistently
for 21 days and you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them
before.
Another important aspect about any client contact is the message
you leave them. It’s important to communicate clearly and
concisely when you call clients. You must be brief with new
clients and respectful of their time.
Can you communicate exactly the value you provide and who you
deliver it to in a few seconds? My memorable marketing message
takes 8.5 seconds to deliver, under 8 seconds on a good day! It’s
critical that you have an oral command of your service so that
you can leave your prospect with a memorable marketing message.
Customers and clients want to be treated great. There are too
many people out there who sell the same products and services.
We would like to think that what we offer is unique, but the
reality is that who we are and the way that we treat people
characterize our uniqueness.
Stop procrastinating. Return all calls promptly and watch your
sales soar It comes down to making a choice. Do you choose to
look for other’s needs and then serve them, or not? If you do, you
will be Building a Better Biz. If not, well you can figure that
out.
