The answer to this question is simple: what customers want is a product or service. It’s inherent in the very nature of the definition of “customer”—“one that purchases a commodity or service.” So it’s a perfect set-up, right? You have a product, so you must have customers. No? You say you don’t have customers? Well, maybe what customers want is more than just a product or service. In addition to these, what customers want is effective customer service skills.

When it comes to customer service, show genuine appreciation toward the people who pay your salary. Go the extra mile to learn their name and listen to them. Take their concerns to heart. Treat customers like a friend, or at least a very good acquaintance.

Above all, what customers want is to interact with someone who is genuine, professional, real, informed, and not only looking out for their best interests. Customers really do matter to the success of your company, so treat them right. Don’t gloss over their requests or insult their intelligence—after all, you should be more knowledgeable than them when it comes to your product or service. Choose the words you use wisely: customers in a hotel or restaurant, for example, are “guests,” whereas customers in a retail store are “business partners” and should be treated as such. What customers want is a product, not a pitch. They understand that you’re human, too, and if you treat them with respect, they’ll understand occasional imperfections. Just be real with them. Be humble and gracious with them, and you’ll ultimately provide customers with what they want.

We provide the following services:

• 1:1 Training and Mentoring Sessions
• Marketing Review and Strategy Support
• Strategic Planning for Growth
• Personal Development Support
• Team Development Support
•  Profile XT Support

We can also help you cover the costs of your coaching and training requirements with a special non-repayable grant.

To find out more about our services and how we can help you, get in touch using My Online Scheduling system to choose a convenient time for a call.

The Rule of 1% is simply defined as adding to your customer service one percent at a time. Before you can do this you must have your consistency perfected or it will never work. This one percent may seem small, but if you approach the vision for your company with baby steps, you will find a huge increase over a solid chunk of time. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Avoid doing too much at once or you’ll set yourself up for failure. Think of the confidence you and your employees will have when you improve one percent each week. By the end of a year, you’ll have improved more than 50%!

While, rules and standards are necessary for growth, always be flexible with your best customers. Most retailers only allow a set number of items into a dressing room to reduce the risk of shoplifting, but it generally restricts the large percentage of people who are not stealing from you. Flexibility is the key to what you deliver to your customers and consistency is the key to how you deliver it.

The bottom line is customers rely on you to deliver what you promise. If you spend too much on bulky advertising that promises more than you can deliver, even your best intentions will unravel quickly and you will fail.

Focus on your vision and baby steps to turn your satisfied customers into Raving Fans.

I hope you’ve learned a lot out good customer service and how it’s essential to your overall success.

In upcoming posts we’re going to explore strategies of bagging the big clients and keeping them.

Organisations and sales managers often face challenges when trying to develop their sales force.

Sales representatives are the people who represent a company and sell the products or services that the organisation offers. The job of a sales rep can vary greatly depending on the organisation and types of products and services they sell; however, sales reps are often considered some of the most important employees within an organisation. Sales equals money, so without sales, an organisation would cease to exist. The importance of a company’s sales force cannot be understated in a competitive marketplace.

Finding good salespeople can be difficult and time consuming. Many organisations struggle to create, develop, and maintain a successful sales force. There are several actions organisations and sales managers can take to transform their sales team into lean, mean, selling machines, and this article will focus on what companies can do to maximise the productivity of the entire sales team once they have hired sales employees.

1. Address negative or disengaged attitudes immediately

The nature of sales provides plenty of opportunity for negative emotions to surface: loss of a sale, loss of a client, rejection, and market conditions. In many different contexts, negative attitudes can lead to decreased levels of employee engagement, productivity, and morale. Managers need to address these negative attitudes before they have the ability to impact productivity. A positive atmosphere in a sales department is important to motivate employees to press through the challenges that accompany a sales job.

Organisations and sales managers often face challenges when trying to develop their sales force and increase productivity. By taking the steps listed above, companies can rise to the challenge of maximising the productivity of their sales force and ensure future success.

As a partner of Summit Assessment Solutions, we can provide the Profile XT assessment tool; which can be used to measure how well an individual fits a specific job within your organisation. The “job matching” feature of the PXT is unique, enabling you to evaluate an individual relative to the qualities required to successfully perform in a specific job. It’s used throughout the employee life cycle; for selection, on-boarding, managing, and strategic workforce planning.

Did you know that you can create, in the mind of your customer, a monopoly? You can deliver your goods and services in such a way that, they will never consider the option of going to another company to get the services you offer. This can be created if you’re intentional about it and upsell them.

Upselling to your customers is a critical part of the lifecycle marketing process. It is re-converting your customers. This step focuses on the idea of selling more of your products or services to each one of your customers.

Let me share with you an example;

If you go to a clothing store and buy a men’s suit, do they typically only sell you a men’s suit?

Of course not. They try to sell you a tie, pocket square, belt, shoes, and more.

At the same clothing store, you attempt to buy a dress. Do they just sell you the dress?

Once again, of course not. They will try to sell you shoes, a purse, belt, a scarf and more accessories then you could possibly need.

The same goes with your product or service.

• Are you getting the maximum pounds added for each of your customers?
• Are there things that you sell that your customers would like to buy after their initial purchase from you?
• Do you know all services and or products that your customers need?
• Do they know all the products and or services that your company has to offer?
• You need to find the answers to all these questions at this stage in the process.

Do you know which company is the world’s greatest at up selling?

That company is McDonald’s. Every time you buy something from them, they will typically say to you, “would you like fries with that?” Do you have any idea how more ‘stuff’ McDonald’s sells just because they ask you?

It’s a very big number. If it wasn’t, do you really think they’d keep asking?

There are six things that you must get right in this phase of Life Cycle Marketing:

1. Welcome them with a bang.
2. Maintain a relationship of WOW to create a monopoly.
3. Get answers to the questions I have asked above and increase the frequency of how often your clients do business with you.
4. Increase the average transaction size.
5. Keep your customers longer; keep them for life.
6. Ask for referrals (not accidental referrals but intentional referrals requested at the right time).

We will look at this last point in more detail next.

If you want help taking stock of your existing systems, and identifying the seven key areas of your business that you must systemise for success then go to: www.mybusinessdevelopmentacademy.com or you can speak to someone by clicking the following link make an appointment.

We have some great tools and free resources that can help you systemise your business and free up your time, so you can grow your business strategically.

Until the next time.