Information Is Useless

May 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Information is only useful if acted upon

There are two problems with gathering data: Not taking action on the data or the data being innacurate.

We stockpile information in our heads, journals, and databases. We do this to potentially utilize the data in the future for the benefit of ourselves, our organizations, or for somebody else. If we never do anything with the information we’ve gathered, we have wasted time and brain space when we gathered it in the first place.

Even worse than not using data, is using data that is inaccurate. Was your perception of an individual skewed by your own sour mood? Have you ever spent time persuading an individual who had no authority to make a decision because your information said he was the decision maker?

One Moore Thing: First decide whether or not to save a particular piece of information, then make sure the data is correct so you can maximize it’s value.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Sales

Getting Started Is The Hardest Thing

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Keep on truckin

When you’re on a road trip and drive through a rest stop or gas station, you’ve probably noticed that most of the semi trucks have their motors running all night. With the rising cost of gas, why would they do that? Because they burn more fuel by starting the diesel engine than by leaving it on for several hours. The same goes for our habits.

When you decide to give up smoking, start exercising, or change your prospecting habits, those first few weeks require you to constantly think about what you’re doing until it becomes a habit. Simply put, it takes more energy to start doing something than it does to continue doing it.

One Moore Thing: According to most evidence, it requires 21 days to form a habit. So if you’re trying to change something in your life, commit to at least a month.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Sales

Does Your Grandma Know What You Do?

April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Rock on, Grandma

If she can’t explain it, then your message is overly complex.

One Moore Thing: Even if you offer a dozen different services, condense it into a message that can be communicated in less than 15 seconds. If done properly, people will ask questions that expand the conversation.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales

What’s Your Story?

April 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you don’t have a story, you don’t have an audience

It seemed like my grandparents knew everything. I could listen to them talk for hours, and even when I was supposed to be sleeping, I would sneak to the top of the stairs, lay on my belly, and eavesdrop on them talking to other people. I remember those conversations like they were yesterday… but I can’t remember what I heard yesterday.

Why is that? Because there’s no story.

Would you rather look at your friend’s souvenir from a trip to China, or hear how he acquired it? Do you remember the uneventful boat tour you had in Amsterdam or running smack dab into the middle of the anti-American protest (ask me about that one…)?  Would you rather watch a boxing match or the movie Rocky?

Since the beginning of time, people have passed on information by telling a story. It’s an art that has been lost in this age of information, where you can literally find a hundred million pieces of information about any topic and without interacting with anybody. People are desensitized and they’ve stopped paying attention to the minutia of messages.

So, as a marketer, how do you not only grab somebody’s attention, but get them to remember you for more than six seconds after your interaction? You tell a story.

Stories help us remember because they involve humans instead of statistics, features, or insignificant details. A good story helps the audience put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, and once they are in invested in the story, the listener will more readily accept the lessons learned by the heroes in the story.

One Moore Thing: Telling a great story (and being a great storyteller) gives you a chance to frame a problem and provide a solution. People will remember what you said long after they’ve forgotten your competition’s name.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Sales, Training/Education

Is Competition Good?

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Make sure competition isn’t working against your goals

You may be undermining your sales staff without even knowing it. We have always believed that competition is good, that the constant nipping at your heels by a peer would elevate your performance. While that may be true for some people, it doesn’t work for everybody, and it doesn’t work for anybody 100% of the time.

Some salespeople see competition as a threat to their jobs, and many times that is accurate. If they feel their managers only view them as a number instead of a person, they may be forced to make decisions that are detrimental to the company or that have negative long-term consequences. Some examples include:

  • Not being completely honest with a customer just to get the sale. The salesperson gets credit for the sale but the client has incorrect expectations for product performance.
  • Signing unprofitable clients because “we’ll make money on their next order.” That never works because they’re trained to expect the same discount for the length of the relationship.
  • Selling transactions instead of  being strategic. Transactions are a band-aid to the customer while strategic partnerships help their business.

One Moore Thing: Yes, competition is good, but it can’t be the only thing that motivates your people… it’s your job to find their intrinsic motivators. Leaders need to emphasize to their sales force that they are valuable members of the team, and their actions should accentuate the long-term interests of the organization and the customer. If they’re constantly looking over their shoulders, nobody wins.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Motivation, Relationships, Sales

Fire Your Customer

March 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Trump knows the value of firing… do you?

Most people consider “firing your customer” a form of blasphemy. After all, if the customer is always right and acquiring a new customer costs 5–10 times as much as retaining them, why would you fire them? That’s sound thinking in Business 101 classes, but not for the real world. If you have customers that are draining your time and resources, how are you going to continue working with them in a profitable manner?

Because he’s a financial wizard, Justin Himebaugh at HRU Technical Resources, was tasked at a previous job to gauge the profitability of each account. Much to everybody’s surprise, they were losing money on some of their biggest accounts. Just because those customers were bringing in large amounts of revenue, they were given many services for free or at a discount. So not only was his employer losing money on that account, but those employees couldn’t work on profitable customers… it was a double-hit to the bottom line.

If you take the time to do that analysis in your own business, and find unprofitable customers, you have two options:

  1. Change the way you work with them to ensure those accounts are profitable.
  2. Fire them.

One Moore Thing: Your pool of customers is probably larger than you think, so why do you continue to work with unprofitable or pain-in-the-ass customers? Instead of banging your head against the wall, hating your job, and taking it out on your family, why not find good customers that are profitable and enjoyable to work with?

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Relationships, Sales

Why Do Customers Lie?

March 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Don’t perpetuate the myth… tell the truth

One of the most frustrating aspects of being in sales is being lied to by prospects or customers. “We’re going to sign with you” or “if you can meet this demand, we will choose your firm” is many times followed by unanswered calls or news that they went with your competitor. Why do customers do this?

Because salespeople have trained them to. Prospects have been told about special offer pricing, competitive offerings, and time-sensitive deals only to have that same salesperson come back to them and offer even better terms. In short, your client has been lied to by people just like you (and maybe even by you).

Obviously you can’t control other salespeople’s actions, but you can control yours. If you tell a client they will get their shipment on Tuesday, make sure it doesn’t arrive Wednesday. If you say this is your best price, make sure it’s your best price. If you are asked about the competition, tell the truth and learn to differentiate yourself from them without lying.

One Moore Thing: If you sell without ethics, you won’t sell for long.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Sales

99% = Failure

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

The last 1% could make all the difference

Eradico Services is a market leader in pest control and lawn services and they have been a long-term client. Last year they purchased a new phone system, and they raved about how much they loved the sales process, equipment, installation, and training. The project lasted about eight weeks and everything went great throughout the entire process… until the final day. An installer had to put in an outlet and left drywall dust on the floor from the hole he drilled in the wall. In their customer satisfaction survey they gave everybody 9’s (they don’t give anybody 10’s, because there is always room for improvement) and noted the drywall dust in the notes. They will use the company again and still refer business to them, but the vendor fell just short of being excellent.

Five seconds with a hand-held vacuum could have made all the difference in the world; because even though the first 99% of the job went great, the last 1% is what they remember, and they still use that story as an example in training their own service people. That last 1% is what made that project good instead of great.

One Moore Thing: What are you doing to train every member of your staff to excel in customer service so they separate themselves from the competition and are considered great in their field?

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Sales

Sweet Smell of Success

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It all started with just one bite

Debbie had big dreams. Armed with only a small storefront and a unique cookie recipe, she flipped the sign on the door to read “OPEN” and waited… and waited… and waited, but nobody came in to enjoy her chocolatey goodness. Finally, she took samples out to the sidewalk, enticing pedestrians with the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies and telling them where they could find more. That’s how the Mrs. Field’s cookie empire began 35 years ago.

Over the past three decades, Debbie Fields has went from one store to over 400 franchises across the world. She still has the same quality recipe as she did that first day, but it would never have been purchased by millions of people if she had waited for the customers to come to her instead of going to them.

One Moore Thing: Have you developed a proactive plan to get in front of your prospects or are you waiting for them to call you?

Filed Under: Customer Service, Feature Post, Prospecting, Sales

Your NETworking is NOTworking

March 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you aren’t prepared, somebody else will be

If you’re NETworking is NOTworking, you’re approaching it wrong. Consider this scenario: you’ve been invited to a great networking event by a friend or colleague. You probably are thinking one of two things:

  1. I won’t know anybody, and I don’t have anything in common with these people. I’ll make a quick appearance so my boss will think I was working and then sneak out to catch the Mad Men marathon.
  2. Awesome! Free beer!

Instead of showing up with the intent of sneaking out or getting free drinks, come up with a game plan in advance. That plan should include:

  1. Anybody in particular you want to meet.
  2. If there’s nobody specific you want to talk to, then how many new people would you like to be introduced to?
  3. What kinds of questions are you going to ask them?
  4. What topics of interest can you find common ground on?
  5. How long should you talk to somebody before you disengage and move on to another conversation?

By having a plan in place, you will show up more confident. And confidence attracts people.

One Moore Thing: One or two free beers are great… ten free beers, not so much.

Filed Under: Attitude, Customer Service, Feature Post, Motivation, Prospecting, Relationships, Sales
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