You have to make more sales! This is the message that is
drilled into every salesperson's mind on a daily basis.
Usually they're expected to achieve this through cold
calling and other age-old techniques in a hope that they
will be able to make a sale. However, this single-minded
focus on sales figures tends to leave the customer unhappy
and unwilling to buy from the salesperson a second time.
How is this possible since they successfully sold the first
time?
The answer is not, as you may think, in the product or
service. The reason for this customer dissatisfaction is
that many salespeople are excellent at selling, promising
unparalleled service but are unable to meet customer
expectations. There is such a single-minded focus on making
a minimum of 50+ calls per day, but how much time does that
really leave for a salesperson to deliver? The need to make
so many calls in a day leads to an ineffective use of a
salespersons time. Yes, they may make a sale but it is
vital for salespeople to adapt their methods to focus on
long term client relationships.
Put yourself in the position of a decision maker. With such
a huge amount of choice when it comes to service providers,
each selling the same service, what will make you stand
out? Very simply it's the level of customer service that
you provide. This may seem obvious but very few salespeople
provide effective service to their customers. There are a
number of simple techniques which will allow you to not
only improve the service that you provide, but also
increase the number of sales you will make with your
clients.
Firstly, understand exactly what it is that your client
does and where your services would best work in conjunction
with that. Move the focus away from the quick sale and
towards working with the client as a partner. By doing this
you will be working as an extension of the client's
business and with your unique and in-depth understanding of
that business, you will be able to tailor your solutions
and make more sales by providing services that your clients
really needs. By being able to tailor your solutions to the
client it will increase the opportunities you will have to
make a sale. This is because you will stop wasting you and
your client's time trying to sell products and services
which are inappropriate or unnecessary.
Make yourself the single point of contact. Whatever it is
that you are selling, clients will quickly become
dissatisfied if after a sale they are constantly speaking
to other salespeople for information. By taking
responsibility for the service and by being the single
point of contact, not only are you helping to build the
relationship and improving your sales opportunities, you
are providing the client with a better service because they
can always speak to the same person who understands their
business and will be able to provide quick information on
the services being provided.
Be honest about the services that you can provide. Taking
on work that you are not in a position to complete will be
detrimental to the relationship. By being upfront and
honest about your capabilities to provide services to the
client, your level of service will improve because it will
create trust. If the client trusts you, they are more
likely to buy from you as they will believe that you are
working to their benefit as well, rather than just your own.
With this in mind, consider what Value Added Services you
can provide to your clients. It can be anything from simple
notifications about changes to legislation or technologies
which impacts your services or industry to new services
which may provide solutions to your client that they were
unaware of. Simple things like this cost you nothing as a
salesperson but opens up a large number of opportunities
that simple cold calling will not accomplish.
By improving the level of customer service that is
provided, you can move away from one-off sales and the
constant need for new clients and focus on developing
accounts and having clients continuously return to you for
the products and services. This will make you a more
successful salesperson who is able to adapt to the changing
business environment.
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Mandy Leonard is a co-founder of Enabled IT, which
specializes in working in partnership with clients to
provide a customer centric recruitment solution. With
experience in both the recruitment and technical sector,
she has specialized in sales and management training to
optimize the abilities of sales forces.
For more information please visit
http://www.mandyleonard.com or e-mail
contact@mandyleonard.com
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