Management Blog

Talking about Price

Whether you’re working with a new customer or an existing one you’re going to have to talk about price at least once or twice. The problem, especially today, is that most people are incredibly concerned about their finances and most are looking for way to cut back instead of ways to spend more.

Your first instinct may be to lower your price but that course of action is really going to hurt you more than it will help. First, it tells your customer that your product isn’t really priced correctly to start with. After all, if it were you wouldn’t be able to give a discount. Second, it will leave your customer expecting discounts from you in the future – with every transaction. Learn More

What is Marketing?

A lot of people view marketing as the method of selling a product. Marketing, to them, means creating a print ad, television commercial, or radio segment and hoping it brings traffic so that they can make a few sales.

Marketing, in reality, is really much more than your ability to advertise your products, though. Marketing is your ability to brand yourself and make yourself known amongst members of your target audience, including your current client base. Marketing includes the way your organisation treats the public as a whole. It’s a culmination of your values, your philosophies, your team members, and their mindsets.

So when you next start to train a group of new employees, how will you explain your company’s marketing campaigns? The truth is that most of your employees don’t have all of the real skills necessary to develop a strong marketing campaign from A to Z but if you utilize the skills they do have and supplement them with outside resources you’ll do a bang-up job putting your company in the public spotlight.

These are a few things you should consider as you market your organisation:

• Develop a customer service agreement outlining your organision’s mission or goal with respects to customer service. How will you let your customers know what your standards are and how will you get your customer service team to live up to those standards?
• Set a procedure for complaints. Your customers should be allowed to complain if your customer service team doesn’t meet their goals or expectations. You should set a complete system, including who will take the initial complaint and how it will be handled up until it is resolved.
• Don’t ignore those complaints, either. The better you handle them, the less likely it is you’ll lose a customer later on down the line. Even handing a complaint well is a mark of good customer service.
• Constantly communicate with your customers. Let them know what’s going on within your organisation and how you are working to solve problems with your systems to make their experiences with you even better.

Keeping your customers happy IS a marketing method and its one you should take very, very seriously. After all, your current clients play a huge role in your marketing as well – and if they are spreading information about bad experiences you won’t receive as good a response from your traditional marketing campaigns either.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Training | Management Blog | Image courtesy of Big Stock Photo

The Buying Facilitation Method

Sharon Drew Morgen is perhaps one of the most well known advocates for selling techniques in today’s society. Her concepts have earned her wide recognition both in Europe and the United States and has done a lot to change the way salesmen think about buying and selling.

Morgen’s theory is known as Buying Facilitation (R). Her book talks, in short, about why buyers refuse to buy and why sellers aren’t good at selling. She then outlines what you need to do in order to manage the chaos associated with the buying and selling process.

A few examples include:

• A salesman helping the buyer understand their own systems and why they need to change.
• A salesman helping a buyer understand that not all change results in chaos.
• The seller has to help the buyer see the larger (macro) viewpoint instead of only the smaller, immediate picture. If he can do this, he’ll be able to show the buyer that the new system or product is worth using despite the initial hardship associated with implementing a change.
• The seller is able to act as an adviser to the buyer, helping him to meet his exact goals as they apply to buying.

These are just a few examples of the items detailed in Morgen’s Buying Facilitation(R) Method. Sadly, she doesn’t make much of her work available to the public so in this instance I’d have to recommend you take a look at her book, Buying Facilitation, or visit Sharon Drew Morgen’s website. If you’re in sales, or working as a sales manager, I’m pretty sure you’ll find it to be an easy and useful read.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Training | Management Blog | Image courtesy of Big Stock Photo

Selling with Confidence

As a manager you are responsible for not only overseeing your team but for ensuring they have the skills necessary to do their jobs. In some cases, this means making sure your sales associates have the confidence necessary to make a sale.

Seriously. Imagine walking into a store and asking a sales associate for help. You ask a question and he gives you a very short, minimal answer. One that begs you to ask a dozen additional questions. You won’t, however, because he seems anxious to get away from you or continues to give you short, simple answers.

Now imagine walking into a store and having a sales associate approach you before you can even ask for help. Every question you ask is met with a full answer and gives you the impression that the associate knows quite a bit about his product and his job. He shows you all of the product features and explains how they can work for you.

Which associate will you be making your purchase with? The second, I’m sure.

Why?

Because the second associate did two things. He acted confident about his knowledge and his product and he made you confident in his knowledge and product at the same time. He has gained your trust and you truly believe that the product you are preparing to purchase will do every single thing he claims it will.

Now – that’s a big deal.

Take some time out of your busy schedule and survey your sales team, whether you’re in retail or in some other sort of outside sales department. What do your sales associates say about your company and products, in their attitudes, when they open their mouths? Are they trustworthy or are they losing business because they’re unsure of themselves?

It may be time to have a refresher course when it comes to your company’s products or services – or to find a way to help those who seem to be struggling become more confident in themselves.

Good luck!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Training | Management Blog | Image courtesy of Big Stock Photo

Using the Holidays to Your Advantage

The holidays are a great time of year, especially if you are in sales.

Yes, you heard me correctly. I refuse to believe that the holiday season is an acceptable excuse for anyone – whether in customer service, management, or sales – to slack off. You should be just as productive as ever, even if that means changing your angle of attack. What do I mean? Learn More

Have You Fired a Customer Lately?

As a salesperson, or sales team leader, it is important that you recognize exactly when a customer has crossed the line from profitable to draining. While it is important, from a customer service aspect, for each customer to feel as though he’s your largest client, the truth is that you should be spending most of your time attempting to retain the clients who are the most likely to make repeat purchases. Otherwise, you’re simply spinning your wheels and your book of business will never grow. Learn More