Tag: sales and marketing

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Business

Experience versus Education

Evaluate If Recent College Grads Are Right for Your Company

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

When hiring a salesperson, you can seek someone with relevant experience or someone with related education. Sometimes a candidate has both. The opposite is when they have neither.

I’d been hiring salespeople who had varying degrees of selling experience, though sometimes it was minimal—as was the case when hiring Brandon, the waiter. Not satisfied with the results, I opted for a different approach. I targeted college graduates who had an interest in sales and some relevant education, even if tangential.

Author and blogger Peter Lyle DeHaan

The Marketing Major

Jessica was about to graduate from college with a degree in marketing. She applied for a sales job with us as her last semester of college wound down. I offered her the position, starting when she graduated. She was excited, and so was I.

Before long I welcomed her to our company and began her training. This involved educating her about our business, the services we offered, and our typical customers. She took it in with great enthusiasm. Before long she felt ready to begin work, and I turned her loose.

Since we worked in different offices, I checked in with her daily by phone and weekly in person. When her enthusiasm ebbed, I offered encouragement. She received it well and resolutely pushed forward. She made a couple of sales and was on track to become a successful salesperson for our company.

Imagine my surprise when, in her second month of employment, she resigned. She decided she didn’t like sales after all and felt customer service was a better fit. She’d already found that position with a different company.

Disappointed for myself, I was also disappointed for her. She had spent four years in college pursuing a marketing degree with an expectation to go into sales. Yet within two months of graduating, she abandoned her career in sales and switched tracks to pursue customer service, a career independent of her marketing degree.

The Liberal Arts Graduate

Lauren arrived soon after Jessica. She had recently graduated from a well-respected, highly ranked liberal arts college. In addition to being professional and intelligent, she carried herself well, was articulate, and had an engaging personality. Not to diminish others I’d interviewed or our existing staff, but Lauren was a step above them. She was that good.

Interestingly, she worked part-time at a high scale restaurant, the kind where one table could generate a $100 tip or more. Her weekly tips roughly equated to the base pay I was prepared to offer her. As I gently probed into her motivation, I learned that she wanted full-time, business-hours work in a professional environment. She wanted to move beyond part-time, evening and weekend restaurant work.

I was excited to have someone of her caliber on our team, offered her a position, and she accepted. She started right away. Training went well and quickly. Soon she was working on her own and closing sales. As with Jessica, I checked in with her daily by phone and weekly in person. Since the two worked in different offices, I introduced them to each other so they could encourage and support one another. But at about that time, Jessica left.

A few months into her employment with us, Lauren also realized a disconnect. All her college classes had stressed collaboration, group exercises, and working in teams. They did this because that’s what employers said they needed.

Yet her role with our company required her to work independently. Though other people worked in her same office, they weren’t in sales. And I was off-site.

In short, she wasn’t part of a group. She wasn’t on a team, something four years of education had trained her for. She tried to adapt to working independently—and by my assessment had done so successfully—but it wasn’t an environment she wanted to remain in. She needed regular interaction with others. With reluctance, she gave me her two weeks’ notice.

Training and Support Is Key

These aren’t cautionary tales to avoid hiring recent college grads. Instead, it’s a call to evaluate your company’s management and training of salespeople. With the proper infrastructure in place, many companies strategically target recent grads and successfully bring them into their company.

There are several reasons why this is a good approach.

One is that since they’re new in the workforce (at least as a full-time employee in a professional environment) they have no negative habits for you to counteract or retraining to do. You start fresh. As a bonus, they’re used to learning.

Another is that they’re more apt to have youthful enthusiasm for their work. Also, since this is their first real job, they want to succeed. And, although a healthy work-life balance is important to them, they also have certain lifestyle expectations they want to meet. Having a job with open-ended sales potential can do just that for them.

The key to making this work is having a well-honed onboarding process and management structure in place to supply daily support, encouragement, and oversight.

I did not have that to offer Jessica and Lauren. I wasn’t a sales manager. Instead, sales management was one more task I tried to squeeze into an already too-busy workload. And it wasn’t a priority for me. Other aspects of my job held more interest. Sales got whatever I had left. Sometimes that was enough; sometimes it wasn’t.

Also, since we seldom hired salespeople—averaging about one per year—we had no structured training program in place. It was more of an ad hoc approach. This worked for some people, and it didn’t work for others.

Sales Management Success Tip Examine the sales management and onboarding structure you have in place. Then target applicants that align with it. Alternately, restructure your training and support processes to better match the applicants you receive.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

Not All Sales Experience Applies

Successful Selling in One Area Does Not Universally Apply to All Others

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Frank had a successful sales career in one industry, but his desired career path wasn’t an option at that company. To pursue his dream, he needed to change employers. He soon landed a job as a sales manager, the next step in his career path.

Frank looked to apply the selling paradigms he learned—and successfully applied—at his prior job to his charges at his new job. When he told me his plan, I was skeptical. It struck me as impractical and unworkable at his new company—even though it had served him well in his prior sales position.

The strategy was simple. End one day by setting appointments for the next day. Since the contacts occurred over the phone, the goal was one appointment per hour, resulting in eight appointments each day. This provided eight opportunities to close a sale every workday. Then, after the final appointment of the day, begin setting appointments for the next.

Since he didn’t ask my opinion, I didn’t give him one—even though I really wanted to.

As I understand it, his sales team wasn’t impressed when he presented his grand idea. They gave him a half-hearted assent and made some effort to set appointments, but no one came close to the goal of eight per day.

After a month of him trying to hold them accountable, he abandoned his strategy. Notably, there was no overall measurable sales increase for the month, one person even sold less, and none of them were happy.

Not All Strategies Transfer

At Frank’s prior job he sold manufactured products to an identifiable niche market. Each existing customer in his territory would make ongoing purchases throughout the year. And each prospect in his territory needed what he sold. The question was whether they would buy from him or his competitors. Most ended up choosing him.

To meet with his customer base, he would visit them in their offices. Because of travel time, he could only set two or three appointments a day. It was easy for him to do because these meetings were with people who wanted to talk with him. In many cases they already knew what they would order when he showed up.

His goal was to build a rapport with each customer, supply the information they wanted, and offer strategic advice as needed. Then he would take their orders. Frank was professional, personable, and reliable. This allowed him to achieve success and earn a nice income.

Frank’s new company, however, didn’t sell a product. They sold a service. And each sale was a one-off; there were no chances to make repeat sales. Though there were occasional opportunities for later upsells, the more likely scenario was a customer scaling back to save money.

Setting appointments in this industry was also a challenge. Prospects were entrepreneurs or small business owners. They were busy, often out of the office, and hard to reach by phone. They’d call when it worked best for their schedule. That meant sales staff functioned primarily in a reactive mode. Prospects would call, and the salespeople would react. If they weren’t available when the call came, they might not get a second chance. For them, availability was the key to success.

Frank soon realized his sales training, experience, and success didn’t transfer to his new employer’s industry. He needed to revamp his strategy to better align with what his company sold and how its prospects functioned.

Key Differences to Consider

Product versus Service: Selling a product is different than selling a service. A product is tangible; a service is not.

A customer can look at a picture of a product or hold it in their hands. With their senses they can assess its functionality. A prospect can’t look at a picture of a service or touch it. They can only imagine how it might function and if it’ll produce the desired outcomes.

It’s much easier to sell a product than a service. Success in the first area does not guarantee success in the other.

Repeat Sales versus One-Time Purchases: Making a new sale to an existing customer is much easier than making a first-time close. Repeat customers understand the product’s utility and know your company. They’ve already made the buying decision once, so making a later purchase is an easy decision.

Successful salespeople are often effective because they can make recurring sales to existing customers. It’s much harder to find success when each sale is to a new prospect.

High-Ticket Items versus Low-Cost Purchases: The price of the product or service has two ramifications.

The first is the amount of commission. Ten percent of a hundred-thousand-dollar sale is much more significant than ten percent of a ten-dollar sale.

The second is the amount of work needed to make the sale. High-cost items may need several people at the prospect’s organization to sign off on the purchase or multiple rounds of approval. It may mean adding the cost to next year’s budget, which will delay the purchase for a year or more. Inexpensive items or services are open to spontaneous purchase and easier to sell.

Differentiated versus Commodity: If your product or service is different from what your competition offers, even unique, prospects who need it will eventually buy from you. All that’s needed is patience—which is a good reminder to never write off a prospect who doesn’t buy right away.

A commodity product or service, however, is available from multiple providers. This includes you and your competition—all of them. Prospects can buy from you, or they can buy from somebody else. It may come down to price, availability, or how well you connect with the prospect.

Sales Management Success Tip Recognize that sales skills that worked well in one job or industry may not readily transfer to another. Therefore, build on what you know to create an approach that fits each situation.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

Earning Expectations

Sales Compensation Requires Careful Consideration

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Our company had multiple offices. Those in larger cities called for having full-time salespeople. At one of those offices, one with a larger geographic workforce to draw from, my ads always received a response. Yet not all respondents were good fits.

For one applicant, Jennifer, our in-person interview was going quite well. She currently worked in retail sales and wanted to move her sales skills into the business-to-business environment. Professionally attired, she conducted herself well, having an engaging personality and a suitable level of enthusiasm—coming across as neither desperate nor aloof.

Author and blogger Peter Lyle DeHaan

The 24-Hour Rule

As our interview wound down, I wanted to hire her. Though I had never offered an applicant a job at the end of the first interview, I expected I would eventually do so. As a rule, I always make myself wait at least twenty-four hours to process my interaction with the applicant more fully to make sure I hadn’t overlooked something.

One time, however, I came close to breaking that rule, but fortunately I did not. Because the applicant came from out of town for her interview, I asked my operations manager to take part in the interview process. The applicant enthralled me but not my operations manager. Her apprehension over the candidate gave me a needed pause.

Fortunately, I resisted the urge to offer the woman a position on the spot. Instead, I told her I’d be in touch. In the hours after the interview, I considered her conduct. I realized I’d focused on her many good points and brushed aside the multiple red flags that went with them.

The next day it was clear she wasn’t a good match for our company. Hiring her was bound to produce conflict throughout her employment. She would be a high-maintenance salesperson. And, despite her confidence to the contrary, I doubted she could produce the sales results she promised.

I wisely decided to pass. This experience confirmed the importance of waiting at least a day before offering a salesperson a job.

How Much Do You Want to Make?

I had one last question to ask Jennifer before we wrapped up our interview. I asked, “How much do you want to make in this position?”

She had her answer ready and flashed a confident smile. Her response, however, shocked me.

Even though I had told her this was a salaried position with commission, she gave her answer in terms of an hourly rate. This revealed a disconnect between the entry-level job mentality of where she was at and the professional sales opportunity she applied for. Her perspective of hourly pay was misaligned with my salaried compensation paradigms.

More telling, however, was the low number she gave me. It was about twice minimum wage. Though I hadn’t given our salary range, what I planned to offer far exceeded that amount.

I knew she would be completely satisfied to earn our base pay. As a result, she’d have little incentive to work hard to close sales and earn a commission. This is because she’d already be making more than she wanted to.

Though I could’ve offered her a much lower salary—one slightly less than the amount she wanted to make—and thereby motivated her to sell, it wouldn’t be fair. And I wouldn’t feel right about it.

I wrapped up the interview and thanked her for her time.

Too Much

Though Jennifer disqualified herself by having low expectations, I’ve more often experienced the opposite extreme. These people cruised through their interviews but then ruled themselves out with their lofty compensation goals.

By design, I expected a successful salesperson to earn commissions equal to 35 to 50 percent of their base pay. In doing so, they could earn a good living.

Though they could surpass that amount and earn higher commissions, it seldom occurred—and never on a regular basis. No one ever earned a sales bonus that approached their base pay. It was the nature of what we sold, the amount of a typical sale, and the number of hours in a workweek.

One cocky applicant insisted upon a nice six-figure base pay. He claimed he was worth it. Regardless of if he was, I knew from experience that he’d never come close to making enough sales to justify such a lofty salary. It simply wasn’t achievable. Even if he accepted my offer of a much lower base, he wouldn’t stick around and would leave as soon as a better opportunity came along.

For him, I smiled and segued into my 100-percent-commission ploy. He backpedaled quickly. His overconfident demeanor disappeared, yet he held fast to his need for a high base salary.

Another slick-talking interviewee waved off my offer of commission. “I don’t need an incentive to motivate me. I’ll be more successful than anyone you’ve ever hired.” Of course, he wanted an astronomical salary as well. Our ensuing discussion about why I wasn’t open to his request became quite terse. The interview didn’t last much longer.

These are examples of why I always guard against sales candidates who try to convince me to do something I don’t normally do or doesn’t feel realistic.

Just as Jennifer set her sights too low and didn’t get the job, these two applicants—along with others like them—missed out because their expectations were unrealistically high for our industry.

Sales Management Success Tip

Never offer a sales applicant a job on their first interview. Always give yourself time to fully process how well they align with your company and goals. And never allow an applicant to sell you on the need to offer them a compensation plan that’s unrealistic for your organization.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

An Unconventional Hiring Approach

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Her words surprised me.

“I can’t run this ad!”

The rep’s response caught me off guard, but it wasn’t completely unexpected either. “I agree that it’s a bit unorthodox.”

Author and blogger Peter Lyle DeHaan

“I might get fired if I publish this.” She fumbled for words. “Or we might get sued.”

“It’s just a classified help wanted ad,” I said. “What are your concerns?”

“Well . . . to start with, I doubt it complies with EOE requirements. And then there’s truth in advertising too.”

“I worked hard to write an ad that is both legal and ethical. I feel I’ve done that and see no reason the ad can’t run.”

She paused and let out a deep sigh. “Let me check with legal.”

I doubted their small operation had a legal department or even legal counsel, but it sounded better than her saying she was going to check with her boss. Though I’m sure that’s just what she did.

She agreed to call me back with the decision.

I waited.

As I did, I contemplated what plan B would be. Yet this was plan B, and there was no plan C. I only resorted to my unconventional ad because I was desperate to hire someone to handle our sales.

The office in question was in a resort town. We served area businesses and needed a salesperson if we were to grow and realize the market’s potential.

Currently, the operations manager was handling sales in addition to her other duties, but she already had too much to do. Responding to a sales inquiry was one more distraction from her primary role. And if she closed the sale that meant even more work for her and her team.

She had no incentive to handle sales inquiries and even less interest in closing a sale.

That’s why I needed to hire someone for sales. I’d been trying the usual approaches for months and had come up empty. That’s when I stumbled onto plan B.

Waitstaff and Salespeople

My idea was to target restaurant waiters. Here’s why a waiter would make a good salesperson.

First, a successful waiter knows how to interact with a wide range of people with different temperaments and expectations. They know who they can banter with, who wants to establish a rapport, and who wishes to keep a professional distance. The same skills are critical for sales.

Second, a successful waiter knows how to read people. Waiters not only listen to what the customers say, but they also tune into the tone of voice and are careful observers of body language. They’ve honed all three aspects of effective communication: words, tone, and nonverbal. They excel in each area. Sales staff must do the same.

Third, successful waiters receive generous tips. The expectation of a financial payoff from each patron motivates them to do whatever they can to maximize their tip. The same principle applies to sales. Commissioned salespeople want to maximize their commissions. Though waitstaff receive tips and salespeople receive commissions, both have a financial incentive to do their job with excellence.

But why would a successful waiter want to exit the restaurant industry to work for a 9-to-5 business? There are several good reasons.

The Benefits

The first reason is better hours. Restaurants schedule staff to work when people want to eat. This seldom fits working eight-hour shifts. It requires short shifts, long shifts, split shifts, and even double shifts.

The second benefit is a more consistent schedule. The work schedule for most restaurant employees varies from one week to the next. There’s a constant juggling of shifts and trading hours. This is ideal for a person who likes variety and is okay with their plans being flexible. Some people can build their life around an ever-changing work schedule, but few people can do so for the long-term.

Third is full-time employment. The nature of restaurants, with most of their activity happening around mealtimes, not only makes an eight hour shift unlikely, but it also requires a lot of part-time staff. But most people want full-time work—because they want full-time pay.

Fourth is protecting evenings and weekends. Though it’s not absolute, many restaurants—especially the upscale ones—do most of their work in the evenings and on weekends. Again, this is ideal for some people but not for most—and not for the long-term.

Working in business sales is a full-time, daytime, weekday job. It smartly addresses the downsides of working at a restaurant.

The Ad

A few days later, my ad contact called me back. “I can’t believe it,” she said, “but they approved your ad!”

It ran that weekend and for the next seven days. I waited for the calls to roll in. Five people answered the ad. Though I’d hoped for more, five responses were more than the none I had been getting.

Of the five, three were interested, two scheduled interviews, and one showed up.

Brandon, however, was not who I envisioned. He fell short of expectations. Yet he responded to my ad for exactly the reasons I theorized. He was tired of the restaurant schedule and wanted full-time, business-hours work.

He was the best candidate I interviewed, but he was also the worst. I hired him anyway. This wasn’t because he was a great match for the position but because I was desperate to hire someone.

The Results

We went through a few days of training, and I turned Brandon loose to work on his own. Brandon, I soon learned, needed on-site supervision, but I was seldom on site. For a while I checked in with him daily by phone, and he told me what I wanted to hear (his waiter skills coming through). But I doubted his veracity.

His results disappointed me as well, with his sales numbers only slightly surpassing the results of the office manager.

Because I was desperate, I worked with him to improve his sales, but the outcome didn’t change. He quit before I could fire him.

The Mismatch

I think my logic in targeting waiters was sound. The failure was that it didn’t apply to our company’s situation. We needed an employee who was self-motivated and needed minimal daily accountability. Had I been running a retail operation, with on-site management and day-to-day oversight, I suspect Brandon would have excelled.

Sales Management Success Tip

Never hire someone because you’re desperate. Better to be short-staffed than stuck with the wrong salesperson.

[In case you’re wondering what the ad said, I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember. But I can assure you it was a wonderful one.]

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

Commission Plan Failure

Ill-Conceived Incentive Programs Can Actually Hurt Sales

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

John was a salesperson who periodically visited our business. His company supplied specialized equipment to our industry, and we regularly bought from him.

He cultivated relationships with many people in the company, including me, even though at the time I was scarcely an influencer—let alone a decision-maker. Yet John paid attention to me, and I looked forward to his visits and the cordial friendship we shared.

Author and blogger Peter Lyle DeHaan

John once told me that his company provided a decent base pay along with a commission. The base pay was enough to live on, but to go beyond that the commission was essential. When my company made a significant purchase from John, I assumed he would be ecstatic.

He was not. He was quite nonchalant about his significant sale.

“Won’t you get a nice commission?” I asked him in private.

He shook his head.

I gave him a quizzical look.

“I only get a commission if my sales exceed last year’s. And last year was a banner year for me, three times what I’ve ever sold in one year. I was the top salesman of the company and ranked high on the all-time list.

“I won’t be able to match that this year, not even close. That means no commissions.”

I considered what John said. “Does that mean you need to try to alternate between good years and bad years so you can at least earn a commission every other year?”

John again shook his head. “Last year’s sales number is my target going forward to earn any commission. And since my base pay is fixed, if I want to earn more, I’ll need to change jobs.”

John continued his affable interaction with our business, but he seemed to have lost his enthusiasm. His company’s commission plan had disincentivized their top salesman, serving to push him away.

Much later in my career, the company owner presented me with an intriguing incentive plan of my own. Though it wasn’t sales related, he intended it to motivate me to produce even greater results.

As he explained the criteria to calculate my bonus—which could double my already nice base pay—I planned what I’d do to maximize my bonus.

My eagerness didn’t last long, however, when he got to the last provision of the plan, a caveat. It said that the payout was contingent on company profits. That meant I could meet every objective and receive no bonus if the company had a bad year.

He never asked me what I thought about the plan.

If he had, I’d have told him that to work all year for a bonus but then not receive it would be the biggest demotivating factor I could face. As far as my long-term employment with the company was concerned, it would be in my best interest to not pursue the bonus, even though that’s how I was wired.

I ignored the goals of the incentive plan and continued to do what I thought was in the best interest of the business. Even so, by year end I did earn a couple thousand dollars bonus. But I didn’t care. I didn’t get my hopes up because I knew that each year was contingent on the company’s profitability.

My indifference toward the bonus surely perplexed my boss, but he never asked why the plan failed to motivate me.

My employer no doubt put that last provision in place because of a negative experience that another company owner had encountered. She had put her operations manager on an incentive plan that rewarded her for growth, effectively for sales and customer retention. The manager responded with diligence to the incentive and the company grew under her direction. She earned nice annual bonuses.

A few years in, the owner realized the operations manager would make more than she would—much more. The owner paid the agreed upon amount and dropped the plan. The operations manager soon left.

Sales Management Success Tip

The purpose of a commission or bonus is to motivate salespeople. Evaluate your plan from their perspective to ensure that it does, in fact, incentivize them. Make sure there are no provisions that would cause them to not do their best or that might provoke them to leave.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.


Categories
Business

Sales and Marketing

Promote a Product, Service, or Idea to Achieve a Desired Outcome

By Peter Lyle DeHaan

Every business or organization has a sales and marketing function. It’s only the details that vary. They may have an existing department, or two, to address this need. Or the sales and marketing functions may fall under the purview of an individual, manager, or department. Regardless of whether it’s structured or ad hoc, every group has a promotional element integral to it.

Some businesses sell a tangible product. It’s something that customers can see and touch. It displays nicely on brochures and in ads. Buyers can hold it in their hands or try it. It’s real.

Author and blogger Peter Lyle DeHaan

Other businesses sell a service. A service is intangible. Buyers can’t perceive it with their five senses. They realize benefits only after using the service. To sell service requires painting a picture of what life will be like once they’ve used the service. This is a harder sell because there’s a delay between making the purchase and realizing the desired outcome. Amid this uncertainty, it’s easy for the hesitant buyer to say no.

Some organizations—especially nonprofits—sell ideas. They promote concepts. Often their promotion efforts revolve around asking for donations. They use these contributions to cover overhead, fuel more sales and marketing initiatives, and address the needs of their target audience. They may even use a form of sales and marketing to find and reach out to their clientele, the population they seek to serve.

Beyond businesses and nonprofits, however, individuals must also use these tactics throughout their life. Whether it’s finding a job, promoting a cause, or successfully interacting with family and friends, each interaction has some degree of sales and marketing—even if we don’t call it that.

We must be able to successfully promote ourselves (sales and marketing) to land a job. The same applies if we’re advocating for a cause or pitching an idea. And many interactions with family and friends involve a degree of negotiation—from “Pick up your room,” to “I think we should buy this car,” to “Which restaurant do you want to go to?”

If we don’t fairly present our perspective, we lessen the chance of realizing the outcome we want or find acceptable. At the root of this idea of influencing others to achieve a desired outcome is sales and marketing.

That’s why this book is important. Everyone’s involved in sales and marketing to one degree or another. It’s just that most people who don’t carry a sales-and-marketing related title don’t realize this truth. Whatever your position or situation, it’s important to master effective sales and marketing. This book will get you started. It will be up to you to apply these principles.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Telephone Answering Service

Look for Ways to Better Serve Your Clients

Seek Initiatives to Stand Out from Your Competition

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

You’re proud of your telephone answering service; at least I hope you are. You strive to serve your clients and their callers well. You do things with excellence. You relish the fact that you facilitate hundreds or thousands of communication efforts every day.

Yet your competitors feel the same way. Every answering service does.

So how can you stand out? What can you do to differentiate yourself from every other service, which seems to most people to be just as impressive as yours?

You should focus on providing quality service; everyone does. It’s not a distinguishing factor anymore but an expectation.

Instead look for ways to better serve your clients. Here are some areas to consider.

Inquiries

The first idea to better serve your clients is to start before they become your customer. One area to look at is the amount of time from when they click on your ad to when they’re having a true conversation with someone on your team. An automated response or AI-powered bot doesn’t count. Only true human interaction matters.

Strive to shorten this time as much as possible. Establish systems to aid in this effort, and reform your sales staff’s perspectives of the imperative need to respond right away.

Onboarding

Once you’ve closed the sale, the next step is setting up their account and beginning to answer calls. Again, measure the time from when they commit—such as submitting paperwork or signing an online form—to when you answer their first call.

Streamline this process is much as possible. Cut bureaucratic steps. Look to do functions in tandem rather than sequentially.

Yet balance speed with completeness.

Don’t subject them to a generic solution within an hour or even a few minutes with the goal to add the details later. This will give them a negative first impression of your answering service, one from which you might never recover.

The goal is to minimize the time from when they hire you to when you’re providing complete, first-class service. The longer you take, the more opportunity they have for buyer’s remorse to sit in. Take too long and they could cancel service before they even start.

Message Delivery

The TAS industry has made great progress in better serving clients with all the innovative options in your arsenal of tools to get them their messages and information quickly and effectively. Yet most of these capabilities exist on your platform, which means every other answering service has these options at their disposal as well.

Look for other innovative ways to help your customers with their communication needs, delighting them in the process. This will be a key distinguishing characteristic to better serve your clients.

Billing

Have you ever received an invoice that was hard to understand? Did it contain descriptions that didn’t make sense or line items that delineated information that confused you?

Do the invoices your answering service sends carry these same issues?

Information on most invoices reflect what the business needs to better manage the financial aspect of their operation. The side effect is a less-than-ideal presentation to customers.

This is backward. Don’t frustrate your customers with a confusing invoice just because it is what works best for you.

Redo your invoicing with a customer-first mentality to better serve your clients.

Problem Resolution

Though we wish problems never arose with the service we provide to our clients, they do. The obvious solution is to strive to minimize the occurrence of problems in the first place.

Yet when they do pop up, how you react is critical. This includes how quickly you respond and how accurately you resolve the problem. A third, but often overlooked, element is how the customer reacts to your efforts. If you’ve corrected their concern and they don’t realize it, you still lost.

Moving Forward to Better Serve Your Clients

As you review this list of areas for improvement, pick the one that offers the biggest potential impact to your customers. Then work toward improving it. This will help you better serve your clients and stand out from your competition.

Learn more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s book, How to Start a Telephone Answering Service.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of TAS Trader, covering the telephone answering service industry. Check out his books How to Start a Telephone Answering Service and Sticky Customer Service.

Categories
Business

The Sales and Marketing Success Formula

Sales Success Comes through Attitude and Execution

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

People often ask, “How can I get more sales?” Increasing sales stands as a primary concern at most businesses. No one has ever told me their company closes all the deals they want.

I wish they would ask me easier questions: “How can I improve quality?” “How can I increase revenue?” “How can I reduce turnover?” I’ve dealt with all these issues, but the sales dilemma is trickier.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Sales managers seek a quick fix, a simple strategy. It’s as if they expect me to say, “Invest X dollars in Y process to produce Z sales.”

But there is no magic solution. If there were, I’d start a sales and marketing business. My clients would merely tell me their sales goals for the month, and I would fill their order. But it’s not that simple. Selling is complex.

Though there are many sales strategies and marketing channels to pick from, they don’t count for nearly as much as implementation. Implementation matters most.

The Sales and Marketing Success Formula

Here then is my ultimate sales and marketing success formula:

Sales and Marketing Success = Personnel + Attitude + Execution + Management

Personnel

Sales staff is the first element in the success formula. Without the right people in place, nothing else matters. This starts with finding the ideal person for the job. Over the years, I’ve hired many salespeople.

What is true for all job candidates is even more valid for sales applicants: you see them at their absolute best during the interview. In fact, even mediocre salespeople know they must give their best sales performance during the interview. If they can’t sell themselves to you, how can they ever sell your product or service to someone else? To cut through all of this, I have a few key questions I like to ask sales candidates:

How much did you make at your last job? If they made six figures, but can only earn half that at your company, they’re unlikely to work out. They’ll be unhappy with their lower compensation, develop a negative attitude, and leave as soon as a better-paying job comes along.

Conversely, if they barely cracked the poverty level at their last position, they may be out of their league to produce at the level you expect. Ideally, their target compensation working for you should be 5 to 25 percent higher than what they made at their past job.

How much would you like to make at this job? The response to this is most telling. Why? Because if it’s unreasonably high, they won’t be satisfied working for you. On the other hand, if it’s lower than what you are prepared to pay, then they’ll coast once they hit their target compensation.

Look for a salary expectation that’s consistent with what you can deliver but will still motivate them.

Would you like to work straight commission? I don’t advocate that anyone earn a straight commission. However, I pose this question to throw them off track and gauge their response.

To make this work, don’t ask the question directly but back into it. If they’re at all good with sales, they will have already regaled you with their accomplishments, assured you that they’ll be your best salesperson ever, and pledged to produce at a level beyond your wildest expectations.

And, if they have moxie, they may even say you’d be foolish not to hire them or they may suggest your company will fail without them. (Yes, I’ve heard this from sales applicants.) Given all of this, they assert that you must pay them top dollar.

At this point, I lean forward and whisper, “I don’t normally offer this, but based on your track record and past performance, I think you’re worthy of special consideration. I suggest we consider a compensation plan where you’ll be highly rewarded for your results and given an open-ended opportunity to exceed your compensation goals.”

Then I pause before I ask, “How would you like to work for straight commission?”

First, watch if they can smoothly react to an unexpected question. Next, see how they retreat from their prior boasting. Often a more realistic picture emerges. Last, their counterproposal will reveal what they expect for base pay and how much they’re willing to put on the line in the form of commissions, incentives, and bonuses.

If this offer offends them, simply apologize and say that, based on what they said, you thought this idea would appeal to them.

Never once did I have a boastful sales candidate want to work for straight commission.

Attitude

Having the right sales staff, however, is just the beginning of the success formula. They also need to have the right attitude. How many times have you seen salespeople talk themselves into a bad month?

The thinking goes like this: “Last year this month was bad. Is it always bad? I better brace myself for a bad month.” It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and then they have a bad month.

Another self-defeating attitude is negativity. Consider, for example, the salesperson who says, “Direct mail? That won’t work!” And with that attitude, it never will. Or how about, “That didn’t work last time, and it’s not going to work now!”

Are they willing to try new things? If they’re open to innovative ideas, then they have a much greater chance of success than if they’re closed-minded.

Strangely, all too many salespeople would rather continue to do what has failed in the past than try something new.

Execution

Linked to attitude in our success formula is the proper execution. In fact, without the right attitude, successful execution is impossible. I’ve seen ideal marketing plans flop because of poor execution. Conversely, I’ve seen the most ill-conceived strategies succeed brilliantly because the sales team diligently, steadfastly, and consistently implemented them.

Quite simply, there needs to be a plan. Then meticulously follow the plan. And hold those involved accountable for their work. This brings up the fourth element: management.

Management

The glue that holds the success formula together is management. Good management starts with hiring the right salespeople, giving them excellent training, providing them with proper compensation, and motivating them to produce.

Follow this with a sound marketing plan and a supportive environment in which to implement it. Finally, sales management means an ongoing time investment to encourage, observe, teach, and adjust what your sales staff does.

Succinctly put, management keeps them on task and holds them accountable.

Seldom is a salesperson successful without ongoing managerial attention. They need encouragement when they are down and applause when they make a sale. Keep them responsible for their schedule and liable for their results. This takes considerable time and effort. As such, proper sales management is not just one more hat to wear, but a full-time job.

Successfully managing salespeople is challenging work. It takes time, perseverance, and dedication. But then, don’t all things that are worthwhile?

Sales Management Success Tip

Find the weak link in your company’s success formula. Then implement a plan to fix it.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

Choose Your Business Partners with Care

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Conference planners sometimes ask me to sit on a panel. The common format is that each panelist makes an initial presentation, followed by a Q&A. Other times the presentations are longer, with no time for questions.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Most of my panel experiences have not been positive. For my first one, my fellow panel members dismissed my suggestion to coordinate our presentations.

I went last and was alarmed when the first panelist covered some of my planned remarks; the third person addressed most of the rest. I needed to come up with new content at the last minute.

Another time, at an early morning panel, one of the panelists had stayed up all night partying. Sitting next to me, he smelled like a brewery. His speech was slurred, his judgment impaired, and his humor – some of which was directed at me – was not so funny.

I spent the entire time praying he wouldn’t get sick on me. I doubt he realized he made a fool of himself and demeaned the rest of us in the process.

Another time I thought I was safe. Three of us discussed our remarks in advance, but the fourth person was vague, implying he would ad lib something aligned with our presentations. He went just before me.

The first two people gave practical advice, as was my plan, but the third guy delved into high-level theory, giving a well-conceived strategic vision for the future. He outclassed us all – and I had to follow him.

Not surprisingly, I no longer agree to sit on panels. I’m fine with solo presentations, where success or failure sits solely on my shoulders, but keep me away from group presentations.

In business, we often have occasions to collaborate with other companies. Like my panel opportunities, these seem easy to do, require less prep, and share risk. The key word is seem.

Here are three areas to consider:

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is performance-based promotion, where one entity (a person or an organization) pays another entity for each lead or sale generated from the first entity’s customer base. Often done via email, there is little cost and a potentially high payoff.

Bill stuffers are another example. At a basic level, a company allows an ad aggregator to place relevant promotions on its website. The payoff is pay-per-click revenue.

Recently I bought a tutorial from someone I met at a convention. This person added me to his mailing list and began blasting out affiliate marketing pitches on a weekly basis, with multiple messages for each promotion.

I grew weary of the hype and eventually unsubscribed, even though I was open to buy future products from him. Because of his implied endorsement of the people he promoted (some who I deemed questionable) and his unrelenting marketing for them, he lost me as a customer.

Strategic Alliances

Sometimes we seek opportunities to better serve clients by working with other businesses to provide a one-stop solution. Reselling products is one example, as is bundling services provided by other businesses.

When seamlessly integrated, customers don’t realize they are dealing with two companies, and the interaction occurs flawlessly. But when there’s a problem, the caller sees only the initial company, blaming them for the shortcomings of its partner.

In these cases, we can succeed and fail based on what our alliance partner does or doesn’t do.

Outsourcing

Sometimes it makes sense to outsource work that other companies can do better or cheaper, yet in each instance, our reputation is placed in the hands of someone else who we have minimal control over. Is it worth the risk?

Whether it’s sitting on panels, affiliate marketing, strategic alliances, or outsourcing, we must proceed with care, not allowing someone else to control our reputation or determine the results.

Customer Service Success Tip: When pursuing strategic partnerships, affiliate initiatives, and joint ventures, temper your excitement for the positive potential with caution over the possible negative consequences. Are there any existing initiatives you need to revisit or cancel?

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Call Center

Don’t Chase Away Shoppers: Turning Prospects into Customers

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I often share customer service stories in this column. While I prefer to pass on examples of excellence, they are harder to spot than service gone awry. Even so, I try not to let these tales become a rant but instead offer helpful information in an interesting way.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan

As my history teacher said, “If we can learn from history, we will avoid repeating its mistakes.” Contact center managers, then, will benefit by considering my accounts of less-than-ideal customer service. Here are two more that occurred while researching Internet access for a friend.

I entered his address into the website of the most likely provider. Four options came up. I clicked the first, and it said, “Service not available.” I clicked the second, and it said, “Service available.” What perplexed me is that they appeared to be the same basic service, but one had more features. The third was likewise not available, while the fourth one was.

I called the support number, and the rep said, “I’m sorry, but we do not serve your area.” I explained what I found online. He checked again and then a third time, verifying the address with each attempt and muttering as he did. Finally, he said, “I guess my system’s not up-to-date. Let me transfer you to customer service. Even though you’re not a customer, they can help.”

The person in customer service didn’t appreciate me being transferred to her, acted snarky, and assured me that all four options were available. She needed to transfer me to another department, but I never heard what they had to say; I was disconnected during the transfer.

I intended to start all over, but then I considered the company I called. I had a bad encounter with them, a relative had a string of bad experiences, and several friends also complained. I couldn’t recall anyone ever sharing a positive experience about this outfit.

I went on to the second company. Again, four options came up, but there was no indication whether or not they were available in the area. I called the number listed. The closest prompt on the IVR was “To order service, press 1.”

The rep wasn’t pleased that I only wanted information. In less time than it would take to check, she snapped, “Of course it’s available.” Then she tried to sign me up. Despite me saying I didn’t want to order service, she made three attempts, with the last one being for a delayed installation. At each try, she grew more irritated over me wasting her time. When I said no the third time, she hung up.

I’d heard negative things about this company, too, but also some positive things. As the least undesirable option, I’ll recommend this one to my friend. I hope they really do service his area and won’t subject him to frustration by later telling him, “Oops, service isn’t available in your area after all.” I’ve heard stories of that happening.

No self-respecting call center manager wants to hear these types of complaints, yet how can you know for sure? Here’s an idea. Ask some friends to place an order – friends you trust to give you honest feedback. But don’t give them any background about your company or call center; don’t even tell them what number to dial. Just share your company name, and then make them work to find the number, just as a real prospect would. Also, if it’s legal in their area, have them record the call. But don’t merely rely on the recording; ask them to share what happened and their reaction to the experience.

If the report and recording are perfect, you can celebrate your success – but also take steps to make sure every call produces the same level of excellence. However, if your friends uncover glitches or shortfalls, address each problem, starting with the most critical one. If your friends have issues placing orders, prospects are likely suffering the same fate, resulting in lost business.

Read more in Peter’s Sticky Series books: Sticky Leadership and Management, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Customer Service featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Connections Magazine, covering the call center teleservices industry. Read his latest book, Healthcare Call Center Essentials.