The difference is night and day.  One transaction takes place where the salesperson makes an introduction by offering me their name and asking for mine and another takes place with no introduction at all and gets right to the sale.  In the first, I feel important and appreciated.  In the latter, I feel like just another schmo.  In more casual terms, “I don’t feel the love” if you don’t take the time and make the effort to build some rapport before you try to get in my wallet. 

Here’s a fundamental concept to remember about service-based sales; people like to do business with people they know, with people they like, and with people they trust.  But unfortunately in today’s “hurry up, let’s go” society, the civility in everyday exchanges has become collateral damage and the basic foundation in relationship building has been lost.  We’ve sacrificed an essential component in a customer-focused sales environment and in the process reduced our ability to maximize our revenue opportunities and maybe even more importantly, severely handicapped the potential to create a “wow” customer experience.  And the saddest part - it only takes a few seconds to accomplish.

Would you build a house on top of sand?  The answer is obvious but that is exactly what happens when salespeople don’t lay a solid foundation before beginning the sales process.  Take the few seconds it takes to let your customers know that you are a professional (by introducing yourself) and let them know you care about them and appreciate their business by asking for their name…before you do ANYTHING else.  Then use their name throughout the transaction and be sure to thank them by name at the conclusion.  Show them some love and I guarantee they will reciprocate.  The bonus is that it will make you feel good about what you do and how you do it.

Walter G. Rudd, Jr. – Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group

Next to the sports world, no one can beat a cliché or “buzzword” to death better than the world of business. At the end of the day, it’s not about me, it’s about the team and I’m just taking it one game at a time and believe we need to take a proactive approach and close the file on these over-used terms.  

One of the most meaningless words is “focus”. The word is frequently used as an excuse for when there is no formal plan or strategy in place to address an issue. “Focus” is too often used as part of the “marching orders” given to frontline management from above, as in “I need you to focus your team on customer service.” Sadly, that is the extent of many organizations customer service strategy; “we’re focused on it.”

“Focusing” on customer service is not enough. Your strategy needs to be meaningful, sustainable and simple. It should be treated as a company “mantra” where every member of the organization knows what it is – lives and breathes it.

I recently had the opportunity to utilize the services of Safelite Auto Glass and noticed this sticker on the window of their repair truck:    

 I thought this was quite powerful; a 12-point “pledge” for their technicians beginning with the words “I will perform the following for every customer …” Here are the highlights of what they “pledge” to do for their customers:

• Perform a safe installation as outlined in our installation policies, procedures, and SafeTech Installation manual. In other words, they promise to do the job according to the rules of the organization.
• Complete the technician call-aheads. They actually take the time each morning to call every customer on their daily schedule to confirm the appointment and let them know the approximate time they will arrive at their home or business for repair.
• Arrive within the time frame agreed upon with the customer. A service company that promises to be on time; wow! 
• Have a professional appearance, be in clean uniform and arrive in a clean vehicle. Another promise, to make a good impression on the customer.
• Communicate the minimum drive away time to every customer. In other words, tell every customer how long the job will take to complete.
• Protect the vehicle by using all recommended covers and mats. Be respectful of the customer’s property.
• Communicate with the customer and always thank them for giving us the opportunity to repair or replace their vehicle glass.
• Wash all exterior glass and vacuum the interior of the vehicle after each replacement or repair. Do a little something extra for the customer that they don’t expect.  
• Fix the problem if something goes wrong and take ownership for delighting the customer. In writing on every vehicle, “you are empowered to delight (not ‘satisfy’) the customer.”

Safelite Auto Glass is doing more than “focusing” on customer service. They have obviously woven it into the fabric of their company.

If you were to put up a similar sticker, sign or badge what would it say?

Lee Silverstein - Managing Partner, Frontline Performance Group

When a prospect does not fully understand what you are offering or if they don’t believe what you are saying, objections can and do occur. Remember that if a person was not at all interested in what you have to offer, they would not even bother objecting. Sales in and of itself can entail changing a prospect’s perceptions about your products or services.

Here is an easy-to-use three-step process that will help you to engage your prospect and gain final commitment.

1) Validate

2) Similar situation story

3) What I’d like to do …

Validate

First of all, you never want your prospect to get the impression that you are confronting or arguing with them. This would break rapport completely and not allow you to move forward with any kind of closing attempt. So the idea is to let the prospect know that you respect their opinion and that you understand where they are coming from – even if you do not necessarily agree with them.

It sounds like this …

“Mr. Smith, I completely understand; I can certainly appreciate your concern.” This diffuses a situation that could get a bit tense if you don’t let the prospect know that you are “in their corner”. By validating their concern, you allow the prospect to lower their defenses and they will actually listen to what you have to say instead of mentally checking out. At this point you are still in the game to make the sale.

Similar situation story

Secondly, people like to relate to others and stories make a black and white picture into color. Remember the old saying, “Features and facts tell while benefits and stories sell.” Here’s an example, “Mr. Smith, I had a similar situation with another one of my clients. They too were concerned that there would be a lot of change fees on their financial printing order. They decided to go with us based on our reputation of excellent customer service and they’re glad they did. What they found was that, not only did they not incur exorbitant change fees to their order, they actually paid less than what they had budgeted for that line item.”

When you are using stories, the more details you can offer, the more impact they will have on your prospect. So start collecting stories of great customer service and how your company “saved the day” for a client. Record examples of how their initial concerns were proved wrong by world-class attention to detail, celebrity service, going above and beyond etc. This helps to move a prospect past their concerns to a higher level of trust with you and your company. It sets you up to close the sale.

What I’d like to do …

Any time you are making a closing attempt, remember to approach this part of the process from the paradigm that “sales is service”. You are serving your customer by helping them make the right decision for them and their company. Lead them to the natural conclusion of the process by being strong and yet still having a balance between frankness and diplomacy.

It would sound something like this coming off your similar situation story, “So, what I’d like to do is get the paperwork signed so we can start providing you with excellent value today.” This is both assumptive and seamless as you come off the positive emotion created from your similar story.

This simple process overcomes the objection, creates a positive perception in the mind of the prospect and closes the sale with a smooth transition. Start collecting real stories that you can use for your similar situations today.

Michael Stahl – Senior Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group  

One of my more memorable client experiences occurred a few years ago while I was working with a company to improve customer service and ancillary sales. After conducting the initial discovery visits and leading the frontline team through our core seminars, the company experienced an almost immediate and very significant improvement in both service and sales.

The general manger was so delighted with the positive results of the program launch – the changes in employee attitude, happiness, and the positive bottom-line impact – he literally cried out, “Thank God for Frontline Performance Group!”

In that moment he understood the power behind our principles, program, and the reason for our unwavering commitment to creating service-based sales cultures: happy employees = great customer experiences = improved bottom-line results.

This, of course, is no secret. However, what most business owners and managers do not realize is that changing a workplace culture requires much more than just wishful thinking; it requires the implementation of a hyper-efficient, impactful business system. This takes time, commitment, persistence, and diligence. But as this client realized, those willing to transform their business culture into one that supports employees and a service-based sales environment will reap the benefits a peak performing sales organization has to offer.

Andy Racz - Senior Account Manager, Frontline Performance Group

I often see high-level managers and business owners express an almost irrational fixation on a singular internal metric or Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Their steadfast focus, while admirable, is often shockingly misguided and harmful to the business. This owner intensity typically drives the organization to dramatically improve one specific metric while ignoring others, which frequently results in business trauma, unintended consequences and collateral damage.

One organization I recently worked with focused all of their attention, compensation and recognition on their top volume revenue producers. They characterized these agents as ”top performers” and rewarded them as such. Upon closer inspection, however, the agents who had produced the most revenue were not the best salespeople. They were simply “churning” calls and skimming opportunities rapidly for the easiest sales. This “cherry-picking” does produce large revenues; however, it does so at the expense of more needy customers who require greater attention and patience. Once conversion of opportunities handled and a customer service index were added as performance indicators, many of the perceived top agents fell significantly in the rankings. Although they were producing large revenue sums, the hidden collateral damage they were doing to the brand through their insensitivity to other customers largely outweighed the positive sales results they were generating. This situation is tragic…and common. Conversely, with the new performance indicators in place the true capabilities and contributions of some of the near-top and average agents were seen for the first time.

In one industry, an owner might place all of his focus on sales revenue only to get burned by profit slippage from excessive agent-to-customer incentives or discounts, or on the back-end through poor quality sales resulting in high accounts receivable defaults. In another scenario, an owner may become fixated on utilization percentage (as in car rental or hotel room usage) while simultaneously neglecting to see the harsh effect of the lower daily rates needed to drive that utilization. If you had a four room hotel, would you rather have 100% occupancy at $100 per room night or 80% occupancy at $150 per room night? The first example produces a Revenue Per Unit of $100 while the less-used property produces a Revenue Per Unit of $120 — a 20% revenue premium for less work! Factor in the reduced labor needed to handle the lower number of transactions along with the reduced product cost, and you see a new perspective surface. In yet another case, transactions produced per hour may be the driving force while little or no consideration is placed on the profit or brand-building potential of those transactions to the organization.

All of these metrics, along with many others, are worthwhile and critical to your success. However, it is important to remember more often than not it is the calibration of several Key Performance Indicators that will ultimately drive the two metrics that matter most, long-term customer care and profit.

Chris Brown- Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group