Customer Expectations for Salespeople

I found this article by Jeffery Gitomer (http://www.gitomer.com/). It is a nice reminder of what customers expect of you as a salesperson.
Keep these in mind when you are working with your customers.
As for my customers, if I am failing you in any of the following areas on the list, let me know and I will do everything I can to correct the situation!

Here is Gitomer's short list of 9.5 customer desires and expectations:

1. They want Value -- "I want to know that what I'm buying is at a fair price, and will be supported throughout the length of my ownership. And I want to understand how I profit from the use of your product or service"

2. They want excellent Communication -- "Let me know what I need to know, when I need to know it. No surprises, and no misunderstandings"

3. They expect your Attitude to be positive (even if theirs isn't). Attitude is "Happy, eager, willing... prepared to meet my needs."

4. They expect Reliability -- "Consistent... be there when I need you."

5. They look for Tangibility of message - "Quality of product and performance, combined with a professional image."

6. They want Assurance and often need Reassurance -- "Deliver when you promised... have total product knowledge to help me... be there when I need you"

7. They expect Empathy when something goes wrong -- "Understand me and my needs. Give me your commitment."

8. They expect Exceptional Service as the norm, and use your service as a benchmark when it comes to placing a reorder - "I vote with my money, and an election is held every time I want to re-order or tell someone else about you."

9. They are hoping for a Friendly interaction -- "I want a friendly person to help me get what I want."

9.5 They want it NOW -- NO ONE wants to "press one, press two," no one wants to be placed on hold, no one wants a back-order, no one wants a delay, no one wants it to be out of stock.


I like the part about being friendly. I wonder why considering my personal brand is
"A Heck Of A Nice Guy."

Thanks Jeff Gitomer!

Ev Kam

Living Up to Your Brand As A Salesperson

Several months ago I wrote about the importance of having a personal brand when you are in sales (http://everetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/personnal-branding-works.html)
Here are two recent quick stories on how having the right personal brand can impact your legacy in sales.

A. The president of a sales force development company was talking to a previous customer. The customer asked what had changed since they last worked with us and the president explained how the business and the staff has grown. He mentioned I was now part of the company. The client, whom I had never worked with, said "He's the Heck of A Nice Guy guy. I heard he's good."

B. The president was talking to an alliance partner, whom I had introduced to him previously, and when he mentioned that we were now working together the alliance partner said "He's good. There aren't many good ones out there."

Having the right personal brand, and living up to it, can be one of your best marketing tools.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

What is 1 Thing You Know Now, You Wish You Knew When Your Sales Career Started?

I know as sales managers we are supposed to have all the answers to all of the sales questions, and of course we do. Wouldn't it have been a lot easier if we had all that knowledge when we started our sales careers? What one thing would we have wanted to know about sales when we first started that we know now?
Click on the link to find out what these sales experts (including me) had to say:

Everet

Can Social Media Replace Cold Calling pt. 2

In my last post I gave my opinion on whether social media can ever replace traditional cold calling can-social-media-replace-cold-calling.
Here is what some other sales experts have to say when I posed the question to them:







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l94zU3tpS1w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PWLfXuauvU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10l_LH9Xhy0&NR=1

Everet
a.k.a. A Heck of A Nice Guy

Can Social Media Replace Cold Calling part 1

As a Sales Manager you probably have a few salespeople that are trying to use social media for all of their leads rather than making cold calls. As a salesperson you might be hoping that sites like LinkedIn and Facebook will be your way out of having to pick up the phone.

In my experience all the different social media sites are tools to help make cold calls more effective, but for now you still have to pick up the phone and call. That might change but it probably won't be until the people that are in their late teens and 20's now, are the ones running companies in the future. Social media is how people of this age communicate and it is what they grew up with. That is not the case for older adults in the workforce.
Lets say you are calling on presidents of companies.
Right now companies are still being run by people who were born in the 1940's-1970's. These folks are used to the phone and is what they know (anyone remember party lines?). I know several presidents of big companies that don't check or write their own email let alone use social media.

Now that more executives were born in the 1980's, email is also becoming standard to reach these people, however they have grown up in an age where the internet was brand new. While it is a part of their lives they are usually not immersed in it like their kids. They grew up using the phone (party lines were still around in the 1980's). Email might work sometimes, but you still have to call them on the phone, provided you can reach them on one of the several numbers they might have.

So if you are looking for a way to avoid picking up the phone and making cold calls, lets flash forward 20 years and have this conversation again. Only then social media will have been replaced by some new technology and we'll be asking if that will be the new tool to avoid the future version of the phone.

Everet

Why the title "A Heck of a Nice Guy"

Over the past 10 years I've used the brand "A Heck of A Nice Guy" as my tag line. It has been on my email signature, business cards, fax pages, and of course the title of this blog.
I picked the title for three reasons:
1. To be remembered by my customers
2. People love to buy but hate to be sold. When you buy something, wouldn't you want to buy it from someone you know or like
3. Reminds me everyday how I should act.
It is good to see that someone else, namely Ed Delia (President of Delia Associates) agrees with me. A recent search provided me with the following article:

Heck of a Nice Guy
by Ed Delia, President of Delia Associates

As in many businesses, at the end of the day, winning or losing a contract comes down to the personality synergies of the parties involved. We naturally tend to gravitate towards providers that we perceive to be, well, likable. In many ways, a "heck of a nice guy/girl" equals a "heck of a nice brand."

The point is, we can make all the fancy visuals, statements and tag lines we want. But if the people charged with representing the brand to the marketplace are not living and abiding by the company's brand values in daily practice, it's all a wasted effort.

Think about some of the best sales people you know. They’re personable, likable individuals, the types that just seem to draw you in. They’ve got character, and many of them even are characters.

The same thinking can be applied to corporate brands. A brand is a claim of distinction, but it can also be considered a company’s personality. Whether it’s a product or service, we buy the brands we like the best, the ones whose personality best matches our own.

That's why branding starts from within. True branding begins with the people charged with operating, servicing, selling, or communicating the brand. If you want to substantially grow your business, build a likeable brand.

First things first. Think about your A-level customers. They’re the ones that you love working with, the ones that really make your business hum. There’s a reason why they’re such great customers. They probably like the experience of working with you as much as you with them. Yours is a likeable brand. There’s tremendous value in understanding why.

If you can discover why your A-level customers appreciate the business relationship, you can position your brand - and your people - to highlight the exact characteristics that similar-minded prospects would also value.

Then your brand becomes a beacon. But it doesn’t attract any customer. It only attracts A-level customers. After all, isn’t that what we’re after? A one-time customer may represent a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in revenue, but a repeat customer could represent exponentially more.

Build a heck of a nice brand, from the inside out, and you will build a heck of a nice business as well.
http://www.evancarmichael.com/Branding/489/Heck-of-a-Nice-Guy.html



It is always good to find out your reasons for doing something are valid.
Thanks Ed!

Everet

Staying Above The Line

Last week the baseball world was rocked when umpire Jim Joyce admitted he blew a call at first base that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game (it would have been only the 21st perfect game in major league history)
Joyce said, "It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the [stuff] out of it, I just cost that kid a perfect game. " By all accounts Jim Joyce has been a good umpire over his long career. In a span of five seconds the only thing he will be remembered for is this blown call (much like Don Denkinger’s call at first base in the 1985 World Series).

It took guts for Joyce to say what he did. Would you have said it if you were in his position? How many people in your organization would have made an excuse and not taken responsibility for the call?

Pretend you are a customer of the company you work for. You bought whatever product it is your company sells. At the time of purchase you felt good about your purchase. Over time as you have had questions about the product, your salesperson has never returned a call or email from you. In fact
you’ve never heard from your account executive except when it is time to sell something, and even then it sounded like your account executive didn't know anything about your account.
Now it’s renewal time.
Your salesperson calls and asks for the business.
You tell the salesperson that you are not renewing because of the lack of customer service.
The salesperson then makes any one (or all) of several claims:

another person in their office dropped the ball on a project that was to be done,

another account rep was supposed to take care of you,

a person in the office didn’t tell them the information you left for them

a colleague didn’t enter good notes into the CRM for them to follow up

Basically the salesperson blames everyone and anything else except themselves.
What are your impressions of that salesperson?
Are you more likely to buy from that salesperson in the future, or do you only remember the “blown call” like in Jim Joyce’s case?

Now pretend you are the salesperson in this example.
If you are calling an account that YOU KNOW you haven’t provided any customer service, and the customer decides not to renew because of that lack of customer service, do you:

apologize for your lack of follow up

prove to the client that you will be more vigilant in the future,

Ask how you can make it right by the customer

blame everything and everyone else except yourself?

make an excuse because you think that making another person look bad will make you look good and if the customer thinks it wasn’t your fault they will still buy?

What options above will leave a positive impression with your buyer?
If the customer doesn't renew, what options might make them give you a call in the future?

The circle of customers that buy your product is probably smaller than you think.
Customers can spot and smell a lying salesperson right away.
It makes you and the organization you are selling for look bad.
Plus the other people you lied about will probably hear about it and your reputation will be destroyed in their circles as well.
A good rule of thumb to remember that if you do a good job, a happy client will tell five people about how great you are. If you do a bad job, the client will tell fifty people how bad you are!

Draw a line across the middle of a sheet of paper.
Above the line write the words: Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility
Below the line write: Blame, Excuses, Denial
Be above the line in your sales career. Your clients will thank you for it!

Everet"A Heck of A Nice Guy"

Credits:
To see a picture of the play:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Robbed-Blown-call-costs-Armando-Galarraga-a-per?urn=mlb,245292
Joyce’s comments:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=300602106
Don Denkinger’s call:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/06/03/2010-06-03_denkinger_offers_support_for_fellow_ump.html

What the Chicago Cubs Taught Me About Sales

Baseball season is here.
As many of you know I am a huge Brewers and baseball fan.
Like all good Brewers fans, I can't stand the Cubs.
I don't understand why everyone loves them since they lose all the time.
Wriggly Field is a dump, although it is cool that it is still in a neighborhood.
Mostly I can't stand their obnoxious fans when they come to Miller Park.

Be that as it may, the Cubs fans have taught me a lesson about sales.
I used to sell tickets on game day at the Brewers.
You could always tell a local person versus a person from Chicago.
The local person would come to the window and say "give me the cheapest seat you have."
The Chicago person would come to the window and say "give me the most expensive seat you have."
I started asking why they said that. The explanation is simple. The most expensive seat at Miller Park was cheaper than most decent seats at Wriggly Field.
It was good value for money in their opinion.

This got me thinking that the way a salesperson values money will have an influence on the way they sell. If you are always looking for the "cheap ticket," you'll probably be more likely to accept a prospect telling you they have to "shop around" or "give me the best price." If you are a person that looks for value over price, you're probably more likely to pay a higher price for things you want and therefore will be more comfortable asking prospect for more money or be better at selling on value rather than price.

It didn't take me long to find out that I was right.
Don't take my word for it.
The data comes from Dave Kurlan and Objective Management Group, the original and market leader of sales assessments:

Thanks Cubs fans. I guess you're not so bad after all...
Yes. I know I have a Brewers logo at the top of a posting about the Cubs.
As a fan of the Brewers i just can't bring myself to have a Cubs logo on my blog!

Everet
A Heck of A Nice Guy

Now the Joke:
The Chicago Cubs!

Here are 20 major events that have occurred since the Chicago Cubs last won a World Series championship:
1. Radio was invented; Cubs fans got to hear their team lose.
2. TV was invented; Cubs fans got to see their team lose.
3. Baseball added 14 teams; Cubs fans get to see and hear their team lose to more clubs.
4. George Burns celebrated his 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th,70th, 80th, 90th and 100th birthdays.
5. Haley's comet passed Earth...twice.
6. Harry Caray was born...and died. Incredible, but true.
7. The NBA, NHL and NFL were formed, and Chicago teams won championships in each league.
8. Man landed on the moon, as have several home runs given up by Cubs pitchers.
9. Seventeen US presidents were elected.
10. There were 11 amendments added to the Constitution.
11. Prohibition was created and repealed.
12. The Titanic was built, set sail, sank, was discovered and became the subject of major motion pictures, the latter giving Cubs fans hope that something that finishes on the bottom can come out on top.
13. Wrigley Field was built and becomes the oldest park in the National League.
14. Flag poles were erected on Wrigley Field roof to hold all of the team's future World Series pennants. Those flag poles have since rusted and been taken down.
15. A combination of 42 summer and Winter Olympics have been held.
16. Thirteen baseball players have won the Triple Crown; several thanked Cubs pitchers.
17. Bell-bottoms came in style, went out of style and came back in.
18. The Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks and the Florida Marlins have all won the World Series.
19. The Cubs played 14,153 regular-season games; they lost the majority of them.
20. Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Oklahoma and New Mexico were added to the Union.
GO CUBS! MAYBE NEXT YEAR (but lets hope not!)

How to Recruit Salespeople Using Social Media: Tips for Different Platforms

This is part four of a four part series about how sales managers and recruiters should hire salespeople using social media.
So far we've covered:
1. catchy job title that either describes the position, or captures attention
2. don't use industry jargon in the ad-not all jargon is the same
3. be clear about the duties and expectations you are looking for in this person

There are other basics that need to be in place,
(I'll save those for later when you become my client, I can't give away all my secrets for free), however the tips above and below should be enough to get you started.

Now that the basics are out of the way, how should you best use social media to recruit salespeople? There are lots of ways, however I'm going to give you some different ideas to take advantage of for three popular social media sites:

Twitter:1. Make sure if you tweet that you are looking for salespeople, you include a link to a job posting or job description rather than a homepage or any other place that doesn't talk specifically about the job. Remember that most people check Twitter while on the go somewhere, coffee shops, lunch, so they want the information right away.

2. Tweet the job description with different titles. Remember you only have 140 characters to get your message out. Some words will resonate with some job seekers and some will not.

3. Shorten the link to your job posting to save you character space on your messages. Sites like http://bit.ly/ are great sites to do this.

4. Use Job Angels to spread the word about your job. For more information how it works: http://twitter.com/JobAngels


Facebook:For recruiting on Facebook many of the same things that are listed above for Twitter will apply, but used in a different way. Try the following:
1. Post the job regularly on the wall with different titles to draw attention of different job seekers.

2. Shorten the link to your job posting. With Facebook apps more people receive their updates on their phone. This helps save space when reading the message on their screen. A sites like http://bit.ly/ can help.

3. Use the photo albums to post pictures about the company, company outings, the job, the other salespeople. Use the photo captions to help explain the job and the culture. Make sure the pictures are realistic if it involves the duties of the job, but positive when it comes to the culture.

4. Post video messages about the job. Maybe a message from the sales manager, testimonial from a customer, anything that gives the feel for the job. These videos can also be shared on YouTube.com so if the candidate searches on YouTube (as of this writing it is the second biggest search engine behind Google) they can find you there as well.

5. Make sure there is something new posted about the job on a regular basis. In the event the job is sent to a job seeker by several different people the job seeker will have a reason to look because there is something different.

LinkedIn:
Once again there are some things that will be in common with Twitter and Facebook, however unlike those two sites, LinkedIn tries to be more of a business and business networking site as opposed to a social site.

1. Use the status tool to update every few days something new about the job. Post the job title one time. A few days later post one quality needed or one benefit about the job. Continue to do so until you have a good pool of candidates. Changing the status keeps the job top of mind in the network.

2. Link with others who do the same job or in the same industry. Birds of a feather hang out together and they can spread the word about the opportunity.

3. Use the applications section to post information about the job and company. Post a power point with details about the job, list books you want the salespeople to read or have read, post videos, link to the company blog.

4. Post the ad in the job section

5. Anytime you mention the ad, have a link to the ad available.

6. Shorten the URL of the ad (I'm not getting paid to endorse bit.ly but they are the one I use the most, I'll take two checks please!). It is not as critical on LinkedIn I believe because the title can help people see what the job is about since this is a site for business, however the status box does limit the amount of characters so a shorter URL can be helpful if it is a long job title. Twitter and Facebook are now tied into LinkedIn so it can help as you cross post from LinkedIn.

I hope you have enjoyed this series of tips on how to recruit salespeople using social media. Try them and see how they improve your results!

Everet
A Heck of A Nice Guy
To read the other parts of this four part series click on the link below:

how-to-recruit-sales-people-on-social media: Creative Title

recruiting-salespeople No Jargon

hire-salespeople: Tips for Different Social media Platforms
Recruit-salespeople-on-social: Be Blunt

How To Recruit Salespeople with Social Media Tip #3: No Jargon

This is tip #3 of 4 about how you as a sales manager or sales recruiter can be effective recruiting salespeople on social media. While I'm using sales as my example, these tips can be used to recruit ALL kinds of positions.

Here is tip #3: Use plain English when creating the title and in the job description, NOT company jargon.

Sometimes the temptation is to use industry or company jargon. People think that qualified job seekers with industry experience will know what the position is because they will know what the jargon means. While that does have some validity, don’t forget that companies or industries don’t always speak the same jargon as your company.

One recent position on a social media site was titled:
Financial Sales Representative II

What is this position?
A Stock broker? Financial planner? Life Insurance sales?
In reading the description it was a bank teller who could open up new saving/checking accounts.
A better title would have been: "New Accounts Teller" or "New Checking/Saving Accounts Teller"
Including the word "teller" is simple, easy to understand, everyone knows what it is, and it doesn't confuse the position with an outside or inside sales position (on a separate note, when did the word "teller" become a bad word? No bank or credit union uses it anymore).
People inside the banking industry might know what a "Financial Sales Representative II" is, however as a company you might get candidates clicking on the position that are not qualified or think the position is something it is not. To me "Financial Sales Representative II" sounds like someone that sells mutual funds or bonds. As a salesperson I was interested in it. I clicked on the posting as was surprised at what I saw.
As a candidate you've wasted my time by having me click on a posting that I'm not interested in. It is also a waste of your time if I apply for the position and I'm not qualified.

Avoiding jargon, using plain language, and being blunt can also avoid confusion and save everyone time.

Try the above tip the next time you advertise a sales position and see the difference it makes in your results.
So far I've given you three tips for recruiting salespeople using social media.

To read the other parts of this four part series click on the link below:

how-to-recruit-sales-people-on-social media: Creative Title

recruiting-salespeople No Jargon

hire-salespeople: Tips for Different Social media Platforms
Recruit-salespeople-on-social: Be Blunt
Thanks!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy