Catch 22 Solutions Blog

Make It Easy For Customers To Do Business

Published Sunday June 21st, 2009 - Union Leader NH Sunday News

If you’re a regular reader of my column, you have heard me share my thoughts and opinions about how serious companies need to take customer experience. I often use the term “customer experience” loosely and define it as the experience a customer has interacting with your company. Fairly simple, right? For your sake and mine, I wish it was that easy.

 

Customer experience is more than the perception someone has of your company. It’s also about their feelings, respect and whether or not your company is easy to do business with. I’ve said this over and over again, so one more time won’t hurt. If you make it difficult for customers to do business with you, it gives them a great reason not to. Let me give you an example and share an experience that truly defines what customer experience is.

 

In order to protect the innocent and give the benefit of doubt to the company I’m going to refer to, I’ll leave their name out of it. Hopefully the savvy readers of the Sunday News business section won’t figure it out by process of elimination.

 

I like most businesses have a phone in my office. Big surprise. Last month, I opened my bill and had two charges that were inaccurate and wrong. I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say the charges on my bill were a result of a few mistakes that were made when I first activated my phone lines with this particular company. They should have never been there.

 

When I noticed the bogus charges, I immediately called the sales rep who I signed the deal with and explained what was going on. Being a fairly seasoned and successful sales professional, she told me she would get on it and fix it as soon as possible.

 

A week or so later, I still hadn’t heard back from her, so I followed up again. I was already a bit on the irritated side that I even had to follow up, but I guess these things can happen.

 

The sales rep explained that there had been a reorganization in her company and she was having a difficult time finding the right person to help her get the problem fixed. My initial reaction was “fine, I’ll do it myself”. So I proceeded to call their customer service department and explain what was going on. Guess what happened? I got a call back from the sales rep saying not to call the customer service department, as they won’t be able to help me. Keep reading, it gets better.

 

The sales rep assured me that it would be taken care of. What she said next almost made me fall out of my chair. “Chris, you’re going to have to pay the total on your bill and then we can work out the details and get you the credit!” She explained that if I didn’t pay the full balance due, there was a chance my phone could be disconnected. I almost lost it. Fortunately, I have acquired the skill of being able to pause, take a step back and take a deep breath. It sure came in handy that day.

 

I’m sure you can guess what my response was. You got it. I calmly stated, “I’m not paying for your mistake. You call who you have to call, figure it out and let me know when it’s all fixed.”

 

Can you believe that? I am still in shock. You mean to tell me that a phone company can’t process a credit before a phone line is terminated due to lack of payment. I had a strong suspicion that with the right amount of pressure they could figure out a way to make it work. And guess what? They did. The credit was applied and my phone number was saved from being disconnected. Funny how that works isn’t it?

 

I know this was a bit of a long drawn out story, all for a simple point. I chose this example because it illustrates the reality that even the biggest and most successful companies have a hard time getting out of their own way when it comes to customer experience. Just think about all of the people that were involved internally at the phone company. Not one thought or said immediately that this needed to be taken care of now. Nope. They dragged it on until I had to play hardball.

I’m sure everyone reading this column has similar and probably worse examples than the one I described. Let’s hope the message is clear and business owners, executives and everyone involved in customer interaction gets the point. Every company says they care about customer experience. To truly stand by that belief and instill that belief in every employee is a different story.

 

Never underestimate the power of customer experience and pay very close attention to all of the points where customers interact with your company. This is not an option in today’s business world. This is the foundation of sales and customer service excellence and I hope it is taken seriously. When you fail to recognize the impact customer experience has on your company’s sales performance, you miss one of the most fundamental business practices; take care of your customers or your competition will.

Chris Thompson founded Catch 22 Solutions (www.catch22solutions.com), a sales performance consulting company in Manchester and hosts the Business Advantage radio show on WKXL 1450AM, 103.9FM & www.wkxl1450.com.

 

Focus Areas For Top Performing Sales Teams

By Christopher Thompson

Published Sunday June 7th, 2009 - Union Leader NH Sunday News

Early in my sales career, the varying levels of performance within different sales teams intrigued me. I always found it interesting to try and figure out why certain teams consistently over performed while others seemed to always struggle and miss their numbers. Was it the sales people themselves, or was there more to the story?

As my career developed and I became more exposed to the inner workings of sales management, the reasons started to surface. I began to recognize common characteristics, traits and habits that existed among top performing teams, as well as teams who regularly fell short of achieving their performance expectations.

The unfortunate part for sales leaders, business owners and executives is that this topic is so critical to the success of a business, yet it is often the most challenging part of the business to manage. There are simply so many moving parts that it becomes extremely difficult to diagnose problems and develop the most effective strategies to improve performance.

In the world of sales management and leadership, countless hours are spent discussing strategies and figuring out new focus areas that will positively impact the performance of their sales team. While there are of course brilliant new ideas that are developed, keep in mind there are countless high performing teams to draw experience, success and failures from.

Listed below are what I often refer to as the five critical elements of high performing sales teams. I have seen many companies implement this model within their sales teams with amazing results. This model provides laser focus on the topics that impact sales performance the most and provides sales leaders and executives the ability to break down each category and execute on initiatives, programs and plays that will improve each category.

Compensation

Compensation plans are truly the foundation of sales behavior and performance. They document and hold people accountable to performance expectations and help outline the behaviors and metrics that matter most to the business. Poorly developed comp plans can demoralize a sales team and influence activities and behavior that are counter productive to selling efforts.Leadership

This is always a sensitive topic, but the reality is that a team’s performance is a direct reflection of the team’s leadership. How sales leaders manage, interact with and coach their sales team has a major impact on performance, morale and attrition. Don’t underestimate the impact leadership (good and bad) has on a sales team.

Activity

I define activity as the behaviors and tasks that drive sales. It is important to measure, define and hold your team accountable to activity metrics such as the number of calls they make, number of proposals they do, etc. It’s even more important to have the correct amount of focus on the right types of sales activities. Take a hard look at your activity metrics to ensure they are effective as well as realistic. Effectively managing and measuring activity can give you line of sight to future performance and helps to measure the overall effort and work ethic of a team.

Skills

Within every selling role exist skills that are required for someone to be effective in their role. Sales skills, communication skills, presentation skills, product knowledge, negotiation skills and competitive intelligence are just a few examples. It is important for sales leaders to recognize the importance skills play in the success of their team and create professional training and development programs that will help their sales team grow. An investment in sales training and development is rarely a bad investment as long as execution, follow up and coaching is part of the plan.

Sales Support

It’s no secret that sales is a grueling job. Having the appropriate amount of support for your sales team often determines the amount of time they spend with prospects and customers. The goal is obviously to maximize every selling minute. I can’t tell you how many sales teams I have seen that are also responsible for tasks that have nothing to do with driving business. I don’t get it. Within the sales support category you will also find topics such as morale and recognition. Think of sales support as all of the resources your company allocates to support the selling efforts of your team.

Within each of these high level categories lie many other related topics and focus areas. By following this model and developing plans to positively influence and impact each category, you will see a natural improvement in morale, performance and the long-term success of your sales team. Remember, there is always more to a high performing sales team than just sales skills.

Making the Tough Decision

Published Sunday May 23^rd, 2009 – Union Leader NH Sunday News 

 

        There comes a time when everyone in a sales management or leadership position must make the decision to terminate a sales person for not meeting the performance expectations of the company.

            I have always found this particular topic intriguing, as the decision making process that is used varies greatly in the world of sales management.

            For some companies, there is a very short window in which sales people must prove themselves worthy of continuing their selling career with the company. For others, they have a more structured process where terminating an employee is the absolute last resort.

            For most companies, the truth is somewhere in the middle. They recognize the reality that tough decisions must be made and they have an established process to help guide them through the decision making process.

            There are countless reasons why companies choose to terminate sales people and some of the reasons are no brainers. Most companies have a zero tolerance policy for those who choose to lie, cheat and steal and rightfully so. There is no place for unethical behavior in a professional business environment and I support cutting ties with sales people who fit this description.

            But how about terminating someone based on their performance or should I say lack of performance? This is where it gets tricky and the gray areas pop up.

            If someone isn’t meeting the sales performance expectations of the company, is that grounds for termination? It’s unfortunate to say, but in many companies the answer is yes. If you aren’t meeting your sales goals, your sales career at that company will likely be cut short.

            The problem with this concept is the assumptions and other factors that often go into making the decision to terminate someone based solely on performance. The reality is, lack of professional development, coaching and mentoring has a major impact on the likelihood a sales person will succeed long term in their role and is often the root cause of sales people failing.

            Take for example the company who hires new sales people, trains them for a day and then throws them out into a pool of sharks to either sink or swim on their own. They get very little direction other than the constant barrages of communication about what they need to do and the numbers they have to hit. Sound familiar? It’s sad to say, but this is a reality for many sales teams.

            These challenges span across all tenures and it’s not just the new sales people. It includes the veterans and seasoned sales people who may also run into struggles and challenges related to their performance.

            Making the decision to terminate an employee based on their performance is a decision that should be taken very seriously. Throughout the course of my sales management and leadership career, I have stuck to a few sound principles that I have found to work extremely well in assisting me in the termination decision making process.

 

The Core Belief

I start with a core belief that I strongly believe is critical for every sales manager, leader and executive to adopt. You never terminate an employee based on performance until you have done everything in your power to help that individual succeed. Ask yourself “Have I done everything I possibly can to help this person?” before you make the decision to terminate. If you can’t answer “yes”, it’s time to take a look in the mirror.

 

Who Is Working Harder?

Another good rule of thumb to follow is to make an assessment as to who is putting in more effort. If the manager is working harder and putting in more effort to help the sales person succeed than the sales person is themselves, you have a serious problem and swift action is required.

 

Performance Improvement Plans

If you come to the point where you are ready to terminate someone based on their performance, it shouldn’t be a surprise to them. There should be a well documented history of coaching conversations, action plans and most importantly plans that detail the support and resources the person was given to help them turn their performance around.

 

Coachability

I have written about this in past columns, but it’s worthy of a mention here. If someone isn’t willing to accept feedback and guidance and make the necessary adjustments to their selling efforts, you are likely fighting an up hill battle. On the flip side, if someone is hungry, driven to succeed and open to feedback, under the right leader, they can be groomed and coached and have a better chance of succeeding in sales.

 

It goes without saying that there will always be situations where terminating someone based on their performance makes complete and total sense. Sales is not for everyone and some people learn that the hard way. I have found that the vast majority of terminations could easily have been avoided had the sales person been given the appropriate amount of coaching, support and resources. How many top performing sales people do you know that have struggled at some point in their career? The last time I looked, it was every one of them. 

 

Thompson founded Catch 22 Solutions in Manchester (www.catch22solutions.com) and hosts the Business Advantage Show on Tuesday mornings on WKXL 1450AM (wkxl1450.com)

What’s In It For Me?

By Christopher Thompson

Published Sunday May 17^th, 2009 – Union Leader NH Sunday News

How many times have you as a decision maker or consumer encountered the typical sales person who attempts to persuade you with a barrage of speeds and feeds about their product or service? I don’t know about you, but I have experienced it often and it’s starting to get old. It’s actually been old for a while.

The product dump and speeds and feeds pitch happens fairly consistently. A sales person gets your ear and all they do is spew out features and characteristics of their product or service that they feel are compelling. This approach is also known as the “spray and pray” technique and is often the root cause for customers shutting down and losing interest early on in the sales process.

The simplest way to explain this approach is when a sales person has the mentality that if they “pitch” or tell as many people about their product or service as possible, they will eventually run into someone who will be interested in what they have to say.

While this belief may be somewhat true, I have found it to be high on the list of ineffective sales approaches and quite frankly it does nothing but annoy the people who are subjected to the onslaught of hearing how great your product or service is. To be blunt, most people could care less. Sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings.

Anytime a sales person approaches a prospect or customer in a selling situation, there is one main question going through the customer’s mind. That question is; “What’s In It For Me?” I often use the acronym WIIFM, (pronounced “wiffim”) to describe this meaningful question.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of sales people get so caught up in their own presentation and approach that they often fail to address this critical question. A customer doesn’t care about the super high quality manufacturing process your company performs on every product. They want to know what that high quality manufacturing process means to them. See where I’m going with this?

Trust me when I tell you, this is a very common mistake sales people make and it’s also one that when corrected, can drastically improve the probability that customers will be persuaded by your presentation and actually begin to move forward in the sales process.

To avoid falling into the spray and pray trap, I offer the following suggestions:

 

So What?

Every sales person has a particular approach they take when selling. Presentation is most important, but as you go through your presentation on whatever it is you sell, put yourself on the customer’s side and ask “So What” throughout your presentation. If you don’t have good answers to “So What?” after you sprinkle the questions into your product or service presentation, you are likely not addressing what’s in it for your customer

 

Document the Features

Features are defined in the world of sales as compelling characteristics of your product, service or company. It is critical to have all of the features identified and most importantly, able to be discussed off the top of your head without much thought or effort. To give a few examples, a feature of a home would be an alarm system. A feature of a laptop would be a spill resistant keyboard.

 

Add WIIFM to your Features

Once you add the answer to “What’s In It For Me?” to your features, you are moving closer towards a compelling presentation that may actually persuade and sell. Sticking with the alarm feature of a house, what does that feature mean to your customer? It means a lot of things, such as faster service response in an emergency, peace of mind, reduced insurance premiums and the list goes on. I think you get my point.

 

Once you have mastered the art of constantly addressing what a feature actually means to your customer, you are answering the WIIFM question that is going through your customer’s mind. And when you do this consistently, you will see a drastic improvement in your ability to persuade and address the true needs of your customers.

Christopher Thompson founded Catch 22 Solutions and hosts the Business Advantage Show on WKXL 1450AM (wkxl1450.com). For more information visit www.catch22solutions.com