Editor’s Note

Your customers and/or clients expect and deserve to be treated with respect, honesty, and integrity. Admitting mistakes – especially before the customer raises the problem – and then quickly resolving them is the foundation for good customer service.
Which category of salesperson do you belong to? The one who tries to dodge a bullet, or the one who brings up an issue a customer mentioned in the previous meeting, discuss it and take action?

Infuse Your Cowardly Lions With Courage!: Dodging a bullet is not what you should do

“I'm afraid there's no denyin' / I'm just a dandy-lion / A fate I don't deserve. / I'm sure I could show my prowess / Be a lion, not a mouse / If I only had the nerve.” So goes the song sung by the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz. He may have inherited the title “king of the jungle,” but this lion lacked courage. How much courage does your staff possess when it comes to coping with unhappy customers or clients? Do your employees own a mistake, face up to it, and fix it for the customer? Do they learn from it?

Sales and Service Excellence February 2016 Advertisers

Solutions Sales Reps Are Born: And, not made!

Today’s business solutions are increasingly complex. Solutions are rarely bought, delivered or deployed “off the shelf”.
By the time a prospect engages a sales rep they are highly educated and ask questions like “how would this work for my firm”, or “how could this solution integrate with my specific set of technologies”, or how this could be deployed internationally across many time zones and languages.

Going Old School: Five tried and true sales methods

Make no mistake; the world of sales is changing. Technology seems to be driving the sales vehicle in today’s society, but it’s the old school, tried and true, consultative techniques that separate the good from the great sales professional.
When we discuss old school techniques, we reminisce on our old school heroes such as Zig Ziglar, Harvey McKay, and Dale Carnegie who taught the world a few fundamental rules of sales, which can be encapsulated primarily by this one statement, which will always be true: People buy from people they like and trust.
As painstakingly obvious as that cardinal rule of sales is, there’s a diamond hard kernel of truth inside it that many salespeople overlook. The ability to cultivate and sustain trust with people is the X factor that the best sales professionals rely upon to consistently excel at what they do. Trust is a sales professional’s most valuable currency.

The Silent Selling Tool We All Have: It is…

Selling is something everyone does each and every day. Every conversation is a selling moment and a perfect opportunity to leave an indelible impression with whom you are speaking. That impression you leave can have other people wanting and clamoring to engage you. But wait - there is another selling tool that everyone uses every day. It is used more than conversation and many people do not have an active realization of how critical this tool is to success.

Lead When You Dance: Use LinkedIn to support your, not prospect’s process

Let’s say prospective buyer Jane is in a LinkedIn group with you, All About Widgets. You’ve targeted Jane for a few months, but you’ve never been able to connect with her. Then Jane reads a nice blog post you wrote, “The Three Common Mistakes People Make When Reconditioning Widgets.

How To Accurately Forecast Sales?: 5 key factors

How satisfied is the executive leadership at your company with the accuracy of your sales forecasts? If your company is like most business-to-business companies, there is likely a lot to be desired. In fact, just 31 percent of firms consider their forecasting efforts effective, according to the 2015 Research Brief: Forecasting Effectiveness, developed by the Sales Management Association and Vantage Point Performance.

Customer Relationships: An Asset Or Obstacle?: Here's how it works

Positive customer relationships are the basis of much B2B business, right? Positive business relationships ensure us an audience with the customer, make every step of the selling process go easier, and even provide us with a competitive edge. It's not unusual for the business to come your way just because they like you the best.

Building Rapport With Customers: If you succeed, financial rewards will flow

I enjoy meeting people and helping people. Not for what it can get me but what I can learn about others. I try to always be authentically me and represent my business honestly and build genuine relationships with my customers. When I stick to this strategy, the financial rewards flow.