How to triple your sales revenue the easy way

For some people selling comes easily and naturally. However for many business owners sales is a nuisance and although important, it’s something many people don’t want to do. Leave it to the professionals, is the motto and although if you have plenty of money in the bank to hire sales pro’s, it’s not for everyone.

But sales doesn’t have to be that difficult. So, if you’re on your own, or working with a team of sales people that may under-perform, here are a few tips and tricks that could help your business to triple sales revenue by simply making it easier for you and your team to deal with potential new and old customers:

1. Use the number of averages – Many people put sales calls to one day a week or a specific time. Trying to do 20 or 30 or more calls to connect with potential clients may sound easy, but in reality how many did you actually get on the phone talking to? Most likely if you’ve done 20 calls you can consider yourself lucky if you talked to 3 – 5 prospects (and I mean getting to the main decision maker). This may sound good but reality is that it might even be less. Some weeks you may even just get to one or none. Turning this around is the key and making sure you make your calls on a more regular basis. Lets say you want to talk to 25 clients per week, divide them by 5 and now take 15 – 30 min each day to call 5 potential customers. You may still have days where you will not reach anybody of importance to you and you may need to add them to a different day/ time to call back. Once you get in to a rhythm however, you will notice that you transform 2 – 3 prospects on a daily basis (on average) either into meetings or sales (depending if you try to get a meeting or trying to get a sale over the phone).

2. Get yourself and/ or your team to go to networking events/ join networking groups. – This is important to spread the message of your business. You need to be out there and you need to be seen. Getting referrals is the goal with networking groups and getting meetings is the goal when you go to networking events. In both cases it is important to have the next step sorted before going/ joining:

3. Have a properly designed sales elevator pitch ready – With the right pitch you will gain up to 50% more referrals. Be specific, and tell people what or who it is that you’re looking for. A sales pitch is also great for networking events. It presents your business within 30 seconds, gives an overview of what it is that you do and how you can help any other business owner or potential customer to solve their problems. (If you need help creating an elevator pitch, you can contact us here).

4. Email/ letter marketing campaigns – Proper email or letter marketing campaigns are another great source to bring more customers to the table. But what’s important to know is that you need to do your research. If you don’t know who to address the letter/ email to, pick up the phone and ask. If you just send out generic emails to a list of thousands of customers, then you are not better than 95% of the other businesses doing just that. If you want to stand out and generate more revenue, you need to be different. Choose 100 of those potential clients, find out what they do, how you can help them and most importantly, who is your main contact and their contact details. Then address a properly designed letter/ email directly to them.

Don’t send all 100 sales letters on the same day. Spread them to maybe 5 – 10 letters daily. You will see why on point 5 and 6.

(If you need a sales elevator pitch and a powerful letter/ email marketing campaign, have a look at our PitchPerfect Programme here.) 

5. Have an inactive and pro-active call to action in your letter/ email campaign. – An inactive call to action is when you ask your clients to give you a call based on the information they received and if they like it of course. This could be something simple such as: If you now, after reading this letter, can’t wait to talk to me, please give me a call on xxx xxx xxxx or please fill in this application form and return back to us.

A pro-active call to action is when you take matters in your own hands. This is usually followed by the inactive call to action and is a simple way of saying, I will be calling you. You could say after your inactive call to action: If however you are like most business owners very busy running your business and may not have the time to call us, then don’t worry. I will call you on date x to discuss this in more detail with you. Our call will not take longer than 2 – 3 min of your valuable time. (make sure that with an email campaign you allow 48 hours before you call, on a letter campaign between 3 – 5 days. Don’t take longer. If you give them 2 weeks they will not remember your letter or you for that matter.

Now it’s your move. You promised a call on that specific day and most people do expect your call. Make sure you keep this in your diary and make that call.

6. Follow-up – It doesn’t matter if you take my advise on point 5 and have both an in-active and pro-active call to action or not. If you don’t follow up with your prospects, no one will. The return rate is usually quite low but if you keep your focus and make those follow-up calls, you will gain better results than any other company that sends generic emails/ letters. In fact, we have measured the success rate with a number of companies that we’ve worked with and it’s anywhere between 30 – 45%. Just by simply picking up the phone and making those dreaded phone calls. The good news is, that if you send a letter or email before hand, it’s no longer considered a cold call. It may not be a hot call, but luke-warm is already good.

7. Ask for referrals – Be it with your networking group or with customers and other business owners that you simply use for referrals, asking for referrals is the best way to keep your business growing. If you prepare your clients that you will be looking for referrals as part of your payment, then they will expect if they sign a contract with you, that you will be looking for referrals from them. Some clients may not be comfortable with it and others may just give you one or 2. On average we found that per client you could gain anything from 2 – 3 referrals that will help you keep going with your business.

When in a referral or networking group, it is important that you have a properly designed sales elevator pitch but also that you ask for specific referrals. Don’t be generic like: I’m looking for medium sized companies who are interested in xyz. You will not gain much out of that one. However if you ask specific it will make a difference: I’m looking for medium sized printing companies in area x. (If you can and done your homework you could also add:) I’m looking for an introduction to company X-Print in Town Y and company W-Print in Town Z. The only danger here is that if you choose 2 companies, it might happen that no one in your networking group knows anybody in those companies. However, consistency is the key and asking every week (or every time you meet with your group) for other specific companies, then you will get more referrals out of this. You could also ask type specific such as medium sized IT companies with focus on cloud computing or Start ups, Management consultancies, Coaching businesses etc. Be specific and referrals will come.

8. Put a picture of yourself on your business card and letter/ email campaign – People like dealing with people and this simple change can help you gain at least 10 – 15% more traction. People will remember you, they might not remember your business but they will most certainly remember you. If it’s in a good or bad way is of course up to you and your own selling skills but most people will remember your face.

Sales doesn’t have to be a daunting exercise. If you take every day 30 min to 1 hour to connect with new and old customers, you should see an improvement within a very short period of time in your sales revenue.

Some people say, sales is a numbers game, others say it’s not. In fact, sales is a game of averages. Every day you should do some sales related activity (and by that I mean not looking at your facebook page and hoping to get a customer interact with you). I mean real sales activity when you actively look for new potential customers, engage with old or former clients, use proper up-selling and cross-selling techniques and become more and more visible. Be out there, go to networking events, sign up to a networking group, join the chamber of commerce and actively promote yourself first, then your business and you will see a rise in sales revenue. Meet for networking coffees to discuss how you can help each other.

Try out different ways to interact with your customers. If you have a list of old or former clients, talk to them again. Maybe you have some missed up- or cross-sell opportunities, maybe you can get some referrals out of them. If your old clients are happy, they are more willing to recommend you on to somebody they do business with.

Have the right steps in place when it comes to your own sales strategy. If you don’t have one, it’s time to create one. Make it your daily mantra to work at least 1 hour on your sales and your business will flourish. (Just for the people who might say, 1 hour is not enough…we found in our research that the average time spend on sales activity is less than 2 hours per week for most SME’s. Having a focused 1 hour per day will not only enhance the performance of the business but will make it much easier to grow this activity over time to a decent 2 – 3 hours per day. Some SME owners are not able to spend that much time only on sales activity as they are out working with customers. Getting them to spend 1 hour per day on this, is the real challenge).

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

Double your sales in 2015 – 11 ways to grow your sales revenue

Our new programme, Double your sales in 2015, is now online and next to some applications we’ve also received some inquiries of how we’re going to double sales. I want to take this opportunity here to talk a little bit about how we can help achieve double your sales figures.

Of course there are companies out there who are doing great and there is not much room to get more out of people. But let me assure you that 85% of businesses are not running on full capacity. They are not even running on 20% of their potential.

I would like to provide you with some facts that I found with my previous and current clients that we easily corrected and the outcome of this:

1. No proper sales techniques or strategy in place (some of our clients didn’t ask sales related questions or showed interest in the customer) – 75% of businesses face this and this equals a min of 25 – 35% of additional revenue once this behavior is changed.
2. No up-selling or cross-selling opportunities taken – 85% of businesses don’t take up-selling opportunities and lose out on nearly 35 – 60% in additional sales revenue. Cross-selling is another factor that is easily overlooked. When this behavior changed, cross-selling amounted for another 10 – 15% of additional revenue.
3. No online presence – It doesn’t matter if you sell online or not, having an online presence is a must nowadays and counts for at least 10% of additional revenue.
4. Use of old (impersonal) marketing techniques that no longer work – Using proper marketing techniques is crucial. We had some clients where we brought in a marketing specialist and this brought another 40% in revenue over 6 – 12 months.
5. Not enough prospecting (no prospects, no sales) – This is the biggest factor. In all businesses we found that prospecting is not done properly and could improve. With every client, we have found that doubling their prospecting activity was not only possible but many of our clients even tripled their prospecting behavior. This lead to over 3 times the amount of contacts made by our clients in a week and revenue skyrocketed within a matter of months. This is the main ingredient to double sales. 200% – 350% additional revenue generated (and no, this is not out there…those are realistic figures that we have come across. One client of ours contacted 3 customers per day, after he went through our extensive programme he contacted between 12 and 15 customers per day. Another client simply switched from a passive behavior to a more pro-active behavior. This shop owner went from order taker to a sales specialist and expert and is now actively approaching customers in his shop moving from serving 20 customers per day to nearly 40.
6. No proper customer service in place – Another big factor, if the service and friendliness in a place is not given, then customers choose to shop elsewhere. Having a proper customer service approach was something nearly 60% of businesses lack. Changing this, made customers come back and spend money in their shop. This resulted in growing revenue by nearly 30%.
7. Too competitive thinking – Competition is good but a lot of people think too competitive. Sometimes customers want a specific product that you either don’t stock or you ran out of. In either case, who’s to say that you can’t source it for your customer with a competitor? Doing so will result in a better service that customers appreciate but also will help keep the spending in town. Talk to your neighboring businesses and help customers to buy locally. Customers will appreciate your help and effort and come back to you for other or additional purchases. This resulted in 10 – 15% increases and helped other businesses to thrive as well.
8. Motivational energy too low with employees and management. – Motivational energy is something we can easily measure. Many employees and managers go into coping mode and this results in low motivation and less focus on goals or targets. Motivation is a funny thing, it’s like bathing if you don’t do it regularly, you start smelling out of your pores. Regular motivational sessions with our clients and their employees resulted in higher performance, less sick leaves and created more employee loyalty to the business, meaning less employee turnover. This resulted also in additional 20 – 25% sales revenue because if the staff is highly motivated it transfers automatically to the targets or goals at hand and makes customers want to buy from you.

9. Not asking closing questions (no pushing or even pursuing of the sale) – I’m not talking about pushing a customer over the edge to get a deal done, but it is sales and sometimes we have to push our customers to help them make the best decision. A lot of sales people don’t ask closing questions. They do everything else right in the sales process but when it comes to ask the final closing question they failed. The customer simply chose a different seller because buying signals were ignored. Over 80% of sales is lost. Increasing the closing ratio is only possible if you get your sales people to ask closing questions and sometimes pushing the customers to buy (gentle because a little nudge can work wonders). Over 50% of sales growth is possible with the right strategy and tactic. Pursuing the sales is another factor that we can and should count in. A lot of sales reps give up after the 2nd or 3rd attempt of contacting a customer. Getting your sales reps to contact them at least 8 times before giving up (12 is recommended) will result in a higher conversion rate as well. This could amount to at least 30 – 50% higher sales figures.

10. Responsibility was handed to ‘lazy staff’ – And finally, if things don’t go right, the management blamed the staff. Taking all other points into consideration, this one was a big factor among our clients. However once we got the management to see the errors of their way, we found the mistakes and corrected them easily (usually getting the Manager to become a leader). This resulted in happy and satisfied staff and resulted in higher motivation and brought along a 10 – 15% increase in sales.

11. No customer loyalty programme in place – Loyalty programmes are great but many businesses don’t have them. It seems they don’t value their customer or they think it’s a waste of time and money. Using the right loyalty programme is key and giving back will always drive more sales. Having a loyalty programme specifically designed to your needs could result in 50 – 70% more revenue simply because customers choose to go back to get that little extra from you.

There you have it. 11 reasons how we can drive more revenue and grow sales by at least 200%. We found most of the points above were missing with our clients and changing their behavior (and in some cases habits) helped tremendously to grow sales revenue.

Our projects take a long time (each project can take up to 3 months) but because we do it thoroughly we not only find the problems in our clients business we can easily correct them. And yes, we guarantee results with our SalesGrowthGuarantee™.

If you are interested in what we do then you have the chance to apply to our “Double my sales in 2015” programme. Have a look, you will find all details here and apply online. www.salesclinic.biz

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

How your business can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes

Is your business struggling? Have you been thinking of closing down shop or moving locations? Maybe you don’t have enough customers coming in or leaving great reviews for you?

Well, here is something you may want to consider instead of closing down the business for good. I mean, you’ve been working hard and in the end, you deserve a successful running business. So, why not give it one last shot. One last push before you give up for good.

There are several ways to enhance your customers experience. Yes, some might cost you some money (I see it more as an investment) and some are free. You can also use a good combination of both (which I would recommend) and find a better way to market your business.

1. Look at your customer service

Is your business a local shop or restaurant? Do you have an office where you meet customers regularly? Do you provide an outstanding service?

In many cases we find that the business owners believe they offer a great customer service only to be told afterwards that their service isn’t really that good at all. Providing a great service is one of the most important aspects of business. If you believe customers chose you because of your low pricing, think again. It’s only a minority who look for the cheapest option. Over 85% of customers are buying based on their feelings and emotions that they have towards a seller. No matter what you sell, if you are not looking after your customers properly, then you will not survive. Change your routine if you have to, but make sure you always offer top notch service to your customers.

2. Sales ability of owners and staff

Are you capable of selling? Maybe you think you are but how good are you really? Many retailers or waiters/ waitresses are just order takers. Customer comes in, buys a product and leaves. Nobody is asking questions, trying to establish the customers needs. I’ve been preaching this for years now and except a few people who took this on board many are still suffering the low sales turnover. If you ask the right questions and LISTEN, your customers will feel valued and will buy from you. Not necessarily the product they were initially looking  for, but maybe something in addition to that, or more. In rare cases customers have to be shown that the product they chose is not the right product for them. This happens every now and then but it is up to you to make the right recommendation to your customer. What is the right product? Can they get it from you? If not, where can they get it? Sales and customer service in this case go hand in hand. And even if you lose the sale because you don’t have product xyz in stock, you can still help some other person to get the deal by sending them over. You will earn credibility from your customer and they will still be back. You can also consider getting the product for your customer. Have you ever considered that? Think in terms of joint venture. Imagine a customer comes in and buys a TV from you and he also wants a very specific DVD player that you don’t stock. Maybe you know somebody who stocks this DVD player and you give them a call and tell them, I have a customer for you who wants to buy this product. Do you have it in stock? Imagine the other person says, yes, I sell it for 199. Could you make me a deal so I can sell it on to my customer for 199? And say this person only gives you a discount of 10 EUR. Suddenly you can sell a product from somebody else and get a small referral fee or commission out of this one. Put your business head on for once and think who can help your business achieve higher sales results? How can you work together? Maybe you can do the same for this other business if they refer clients over to you? Think about it for a moment.

3. Change strategy

Sometimes we have to change our strategy, our routes to market or even our entire business around in order to make it work. Remember why you went into business in the first place? Maybe it was because you thought you could do the same as your boss did. You can offer a better more proficient service or sell more products? Be more flexible with customers? How did that work out for you? Well, if you’re still reading, I presume not so good. Business is about constant change. Moving away from one strategy that you’ve held for a number of years is sometimes necessary. Don’t get stuck in “The old ways” but rather look at what you can do differently in order to succeed.

4. Use some crazy ideas

Crazy doesn’t necessarily mean bad or “insane”. Crazy sometimes is good for business. Be a bit more open to attract different customers to your premises. Be a bit more outgoing, flexible and open minded. Sometimes you have to do the drastic thing and just get out of your shop and talk to people on the street. It may not be the most comfortable way of doing business but heck it beats closing down shop, doesn’t it? Imagine you can talk to 50 people a day when you get out of your shop. And only 5 of them would visit afterwards, do you think it would be worth your while if they come in and start buying from you?

Maybe you can do a competition, work with other businesses together, create an in-house event etc. Maybe you can do a shopping hour and offer everything for one hour a day half price (maybe on selected items etc.). It would be a promotion so consider that you may need to invest in this but getting people into the store should be first priority.

How about a nice “Midnight Shopping Event” with a glass of wine or champagne (booking mandatory). Maybe you own a boutique and you could do a modeling event? Become a model for one night…The ideas and possibilities are endless.

5. Restructuring and new layout

Sometimes it’s the business itself that needs a new structure and layout. Even if you have a great marketing and sales strategy, it doesn’t mean that customers will come in flying into your premises. And maybe an event is not even a problem but bookings are not made? Look at your shop and what you would like to achieve. How is it structured? Does it look nice from the inside and outside? Is the layout great? Do you have old carpets or new ones? Maybe you want to attract a younger audience but your products and services don’t reflect that. Take a risk and create a new layout, new store front, buy some exciting new products etc. It might help you turn things around once word gets out.

6. Get a coach or consultant/ mentor

This might be a good investment. A business coach or consultant can help you turn things around. Yes, they are usually not that cheap but the value you’re getting will help you and your business not only to stay alive but to grow. Of course no coach or mentor can come in and save the day. You should not expect that. If you’re already bankrupt or very close to closing, it might not even be possible for them to help you at all. However a coach is always a great way to discover alternative options. Maybe closing the business is good but the way to do it might be worth looking into. Maybe they can help you discover new avenues to go down to and create better business opportunities with you. A business coach can cost anything from 50 – 200€ an hour and is depending on their own experience and expertise. The value of this is incredible if you are a open minded and ready to explore. A great coach or consultant can help you on any of the points raised above. You just need to have an open mind and be ready for change.

7. Don’t give up

No matter what you do, don’t give up on your dreams. Just because one thing isn’t working doesn’t mean something else won’t work. Sometimes we have to close down one chapter of our lives (or business lives) to open up a new one. There is always opportunities out there so keep following them. Learn from your mistakes and make sure that next time around you avoid making the same mistakes. You will get better at this but as with everything it requires practice and patience.

Let me tell you a quick story. Have you ever heard of the Phoenix? The Phoenix is a mythology creature, a bird that has a long life. Towards the end of it’s life-span it gets heavily sick and dies by self-combustion. Out of the ashes rises now a new, healthy bird, majestic and full of life. The Phoenix is believed to regenerate itself every 100 years or so, (at least that’s how the story goes that I’ve heard). I think it’s the perfect story for any struggling business. If you are struggling or really have no other option as to closing down shop, think of the Phoenix. No matter if you had a great run or you were struggling right from the beginning, something majestic will come out of this struggle. Something so incredible that you can’t even imagine it right now.

But I am certain that you will rise again and again out of your own ashes if you keep going and trying.  

Thank you for reading.

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

Hotel Reception: How to grow your revenue

Any hotel reception is the first point of contact for customers/ guests coming into a hotel. This is the first impression any guest will get and it’s important to make a great impression.

However a lot of people (hotel staff/ managers/ directors and receptionists) think this is not a place to sell. I believe it is the most important place to sell and I will elaborate on that in a moment.

Any reception is dealing with different type of customers:

1. The ones who didn’t book and just ask if there is rooms available

2. Guests who booked before and want to check in

3. Local customers who are looking for bar/ restaurant/ gym/ spa etc.

4. Guests who checked in previously and now want information from the reception on available services, asking what’s in the area etc.

5. Guests who are checking out

The reception area is dealing with all sorts of customers and representing the entire hotel. If your experience is great while checking in or talking to the receptionist, your overall perception of the hotel will improve. However if your experience is bad, long waiting times, neglected services or you have a receptionist that doesn’t really care then no matter what you do with the rest of your hotel, the experience will be bad for your guests.

Here are a few tips on how to improve your customers experience with you:

1. Use the right time greeting (Good morning/ good afternoon/ good evening)

2. Introduce yourself by name (Good morning sir/ madam, my name is xyz. How may I help you?). This is important as you will make a difference to your guests straight away. You will make their experience much more personal if you introduce yourself by name.

3. Put all your attention to the customer if possible. Try not to get side tracked, answer phones etc. unless you have no choice (being the only one at the reception). If you are the only one tell your customer to excuse you for a moment and apologize. Greet and acknowledge other customers when they come in and wait for you. A simple nod and smile is more than enough.

4. Always smile. It’s one of the most neglected things people do but it’s also one of the most important. And it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with customers direct (meaning face to face) or over the phone. A smile can be heard through the phone line.

5. While you checking in your customers inform them about your loyalty programme and sign them up. Make sure you know the benefits by heart and give them 1 or 2 reasons of why they should sign up. This will create loyalty and brand awareness. You should aim to sign up at least 80% or more of your guests.

6. If you know about any special offers this is the time to test your customers. Ask them why they are in your hotel (business or pleasure), and make a referral about any area of the hotel. For example if they are there for business you can mention the great Jacuzzi to relax after a hard days work or special offers for the spa, etc. You can also mention any special deals you have in the restaurant. You would need to ask sales related questions of what they would like to do and then make the right recommendation to the guest. You may even be able to sign them up straight away.

7. Make them aware of in-room purchases such as mini-bar, movies etc.

8. Make them aware of any other services that you offer such as 24 hour dry cleaning for suits etc.

9. Prepare a welcome package for your guests of available services within the hotel, what’s available in the area and special offers or vouchers. To give you an example that will definitely make your guests go for dinner in your restaurant (if they haven’t booked it) might be a dessert voucher for every day of their stay. Basically if they decide to go for dinner in your hotel then they can use the voucher to get the dessert free of charge. Think about it, how many people would go for dinner if they get something for free?

10. Sell, sell and sell. Selling is natural and it provides your customers with a great experience. The points I’m raising here are not meant to be taken all at once. Choose some of them especially on the sales aspects. It all depends on your customer and what they would like to get out of their stay. If they want to rewind and relax use the spa option, sell spa treatments etc. If they are there for work, offer lunch and/ or dinner in your restaurant, and book a table for them if needed. You may also sell wine/ champagne, flowers, chocolates, or any other hotel accessories that you may have.

Reception is a great way to boost sales if done right. And it can be done without pressuring or pushing the customer into buying something from you. Think why they stay in your hotel, what is special about your place, what is available in the area and how you can make your customers stay even more special.

Food for thoughts.

What is your experience with hotel receptions? Let me know.

Thank you for reading.

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

The importance of Up- and Cross-Selling

Many businesses seem to neglect up- and cross-selling opportunities and fear that if they would try to up-sell or cross-sell that the customer might leave and not return. The fear is that the initial sale will fall through and that customers might feel pushed to buy additional products or services.

Before we dive in, lets see what it means to up-sell and cross-sell:

Upselling

Up-selling is usually when a customer asks about a specific product and the seller includes other products, upgrades and services to enhance the initial item the customer asked for. Take a computer for example: You may see a laptop that you like, it has the specifications that you as the customer believe it needs. The seller now might try to sell you additional memory, a bigger or faster hard drive, better graphics card, an extended warranty etc. The seller also might recommend additional soft and hardware depending on your requirements such as external printers, external hard drives, or specific software. The need should be established by asking the customer lots of questions and listen to what they have to say. This can be established for example by asking “Why does the customer need this specific product? What’s the purpose or what do you need it for? Why did the customer chose this particular machine and not a different one? What software does the customer have or would require in order to use this machine fully. The next step would be to provide information about the product and the benefits or if required, move the customer to a more suitable product for what he/ she needs to accomplish. You may show the customer “What comes with the product, what’s not included etc. What additional products would the customer need in order to use the machine fully etc.” Imagine you don’t ask those questions and the customer gets home with his machine and discovers it’s not the right machine for him/ her. Or that items are missing that are crucial for him/ her to work with the machine. The customer then would feel disappointed by the seller and might need to either come back at a later stage or (the most likely thing the customer will do) buy the additional products elsewhere. In many cases because products have been mis-sold the customer will even return the product and goes to a different seller who (hopefully) will then provide the customer with the product(s) the customer really needs.

Cross-selling

Cross-selling is usually done once the initial sale and up-sell is finished. Cross-selling is when we divert the customer to a different product or service. To give you an example: Lets say as a customer you want to buy life insurance. The agent has finished the life insurance, got your signature, took care of additional up-selling opportunities such as included a pension scheme in your life insurance cover etc. Now the agent might ask you about your car: “I’ve seen you have a nice Mercedes out there. Do you mind me asking which insurance company you use? If the agent knows that he can beat that insurance quote he might add that to his sale. This can be done at any stage even if the car insurance is not due for some time. Of course this could be done for house insurance, public liability etc.

Any business (unless they only have 1 product to sell) will have these kind of opportunities.

What we as a business society need to understand is that up-selling and cross-selling is not an evil thing to do. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is certainly sales people out there who would take advantage of customers. But those usually don’t last very long and customers will see right through it.

And it’s not only about selling more products. Up-selling and cross-selling is about establishing the customers real needs and requirements. Providing more value and benefits to your customers is the key. Asking relevant questions will not only elevate your sales but your overall customer experience will become more positive and this in turn will bring loyalty to your business.

If you’re not telling your customers about current promotions, things they need with the actual product that they intend to buy, additional benefits and features and how this enhances their experience then you’re loosing out, your customer is loosing out and the overall experience within your establishment will become less valuable to your customers.

This is a service that you “HAVE TO” implement in your daily sales activity. Your customer will thank you for it. And no, this is not to push the customers over the edge, this is to help them have the best possible experience and value that their money can buy and that you can provide.

As a sales person it is your responsibility and duty to your customer to provide them with the most accurate information and establish their real need. Just because a customer is asking for a specific product doesn’t mean they really want it, need it or can even use it to their full extend.

I will give you one more example that a great sales person will do for their customer:

Imagine a customer comes into your shop and wants to buy a nice 60″ TV. He saved over a year for it to finally be able to buy it. He comes to your store and picks out the TV of his dreams. You may even deliver. Now imagine your customer comes home, the TV is delivered and he sees that his living room is far too small for the TV. The TV fits just about in the corner where his former 32″ TV stood. His living room however is so small that he was already sitting very close to his 32″ TV, say 2 – 2 1/2 m away. Because of the size of the new TV it needs to stand further out from the corner and now he sits 1 1/2 m away. He can’t enjoy his new TV as he sits too close. He also discovers that his TV stand doesn’t fit or former wall mount is too small etc. One disappointment after another. What do you think is now going to happen? The customer will most likely return the TV and feels disappointment with the shop. If the sales rep would’ve done their job right he would’ve discovered all this by asking simple questions such as “What size TV do you currently own? is it on a stand or wall mount? How far are you currently sitting from your TV? Will the new TV stand in the same corner/ hang on the same wall etc. By asking the right questions the sales rep would’ve discovered all of the above and could’ve avoided the disappointment for the customer, directing him/ her to a different or smaller size product, explain the why’s and may even use the left-over money to up-sell DVD/ Blu-ray/ Surround System/ Wall mount/ TV stand etc. Yes, he would’ve probably made less money but would gain a happy customer that most likely will return to him for future purchases.

Honesty and asking the right questions, making the right recommendations are crucial to build a great service and create customer loyalty.

Are your sales people using proper questioning techniques to establish the customers real needs? What is your experience with your sales team? Let us know.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

Waiting – The hidden sales talents

We’ve all had them. Good and bad experiences with waiters and waitresses. No matter where you go, bars, clubs, restaurants or hotels waiters and waitresses are a major part of any business in the hospitality industry.

They are the fore front of any business that serves customers foods and drinks. And yet, we find that the majority of waiters seem to be neglecting their customers. So, the big question is, why is that? Why is it that waiters and waitresses in some instances don’t seem to care?

 

Lets look at it from a business perspective:

1. They are underpaid
2. They get all the grief from customers
3. In most cases tips are shared between other waiters (so even if your waitress is slacking you off, they still get a decent tip or if your waitress is exceptional looks after you properly and you give a generous tip, it gets shared with the ones who don’t seem to care). In some cases management also takes a share of the tips.
4. Poorly managed (no leadership in hotels or restaurants)
5. Not enough training
6. No future, no possibilities (or so it seems).

Lets look at each point a bit more closely.

1. A waiter/ waitress gets paid on average 8,81 € an hour or anything from 14K – 23K a year and depends on fix hourly rate, tips or in very rare cases commission (see payment statistics here). The wages will not change much with experience. (These are figures from Ireland. Some countries are even worse taking the US for example where salaries are on average 19K a year for a waiter/ waitress).

2. Customers are coming in with bad moods, talking from the top down, thinking they are better than the waiter/ waitress. Let me tell you, that even though you might make more money than they do, in many cases a waiter/ waitress has much more general knowledge and can outsell the best sales people in the world. I’ve rarely come across a waiter or waitress that is not at least bi-lingual. They are ambitious even though it seems that there is no way out of waiting. However in many cases they are also students and one day might become your boss. So, be nice to them. They do a tough job and deserve a little bit of encouragement and respect.

3. Tips are shared with everyone. Yes, that’s right. You may give your waiter a generous tip because they done an outstanding job, but those tips go into a bucket and by the end of the day will be shared with everyone (including management). This is in my opinion the tip of the iceberg. Some people really work their asses off and do everything they can and earn great tips, and in the end they have to share them with colleagues that were rude to customers, that didn’t care about customers and neglected the customer completely. And one of the biggest shockers is that the management takes a share of the tips as well. There is a discussion going on if chef’s should get a part of the tip and yes, they might deserve a tip as well. But there is better solutions than taking and combining all the tips and share it equally with everyone. One solution that I’ve come across was that customers could split the tip themselves and provide a part of it to the waiter and the other part to the chef (this was outlined at the bill stating Tip Chef: _____ Tip Waiter: _____. I thought this was a neat solution. Some other companies give a 10% tip to the chef from everything that’s collected which in my opinion seems also ok. If it’s fair or not is a different story but the chef’s in that particular hotel seemed to be happy about it.

4. Lack of leadership skills. Managers in the hospitality industry seem to be more like soldiers, commandeering everyone around and not really leading the team. This is a big gap and managers in my opinion should attend proper leadership training before they are made managers in the first place. Unfortunately this doesn’t happen much in the hospitality industry or if it does, it seems people don’t pay attention to the training. Let me tell you that a true leader is leading by example. He/ She is not ordering people around and screaming and shouting at them in front of customers. They pick up the food and deliver it as well if it’s getting too busy or if the staff is running behind (or even understaffed).

5. Lack of training for waiters/ waitresses. This is a new one. Did you ever come across proper waiting training? I mean, not the how to hold a tray or how to balance 10 plates, 10 cups and 15 beers. I mean proper training that will show them how to provide a proper customer service, how to sell, how to up-sell and cross-sell etc? No? Me neither. But in this multi-million Euro industry, wouldn’t it be about time to get a training like that? Yes, we send managers to similar type trainings, leadership trainings (yes, the ones where they nod off) and customer service trainings, but are they capable of delivering this kind of training then back to their staff? In most cases no. They leave out vital parts of the training and wonder why their staff is not selling more or performing better.

6. No Future, no possibilities. Well, this one goes to the waiters and waitresses out there. This may seem like it’s the case but let me assure you, it’s not. As I mentioned before you are the real deal. The real sales people. You deal with great as well as extremely rude customers on a daily basis and you handling yourself well (most of you anyway). So, don’t be discouraged. There is plenty of opportunities out there for you. Here is a list of careers that might be interesting to look at:

A career in sales (yes, I’m absolutely sure about that one. If you can make a customer buy breakfast, lunch and dinner all at the same time, then you can certainly sell other products or services to the public or businesses).

A career in management. Want to do a better job than your manager does? Show them. Become a team manager, supervisor in the hospitality industry. The Swiss Hotel Management School in Switzerland is one of the best schools providing great education within the hospitality industry and are known worldwide for their Restaurant Management training. If you like what you do then this might be an option for you.

Tourism is also a good opportunity for you to make your mark. There is great careers to be made in tourism and if you are waiting, then you already have the fundamentals to start a fantastic new journey. Try it and see if you can find something for you. From tour operators to travel consultants, restaurant managers etc. this is a great way for you to start something new. And if you want to stay in your current job, then you can still do that while travelling the world.

Customer Service Rep/ Manager/ Team manager. If you are sick of waiting but still like dealing with customers why not try customer service roles? They are usually a bit better paid (depending on company size and where you are) but they usually offer good opportunities to grow and become a manager or team leader etc.

Become self-employed and open your own restaurant. As a waiter you probably know a lot of people. Other waiters, chefs, bar managers etc. So, why not make the move to open up your own place? If you are nice to customers, always up-selling and cross-selling items on your menu and creating more sales than any of your colleagues it might be worth it for you to look into the possibility to open your own little bar, restaurant, cafe or even b&b or small Inn/ Motel/ Hotel? Depending on the type of business you may need some capital, but if you start small you may get away with a few hundred or a few thousand Euro’s. There is plenty of empty cafe’s and restaurants available to rent. And most of them are fully equipped. If you can sell, if your friends, co-workers and colleagues can sell, why not give it a try? You can always get them trained and do it differently than your current employer does. And if you don’t have that much money that you could hire somebody then why not create a joint venture with a co-worker? A chef you know etc? If you partner up you may be surprised of the things you can achieve.

If you own or manage a restaurant, bar, hotel bar etc. then this part might be of interest:

I’ve seen a lot of times that customers are not properly looked after especially in hotel bars. The reason? Point no. 5, lack of training. Your staff might be good but have you ever thought how much money they could bring if trained properly?

An example:

If a good hotel charges 2 € for a coffee, and they have every day between 50 to 100 people coming in and out for coffees, teas, breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. then just by accumulating the amount of drinks that are missed because of not looking after the customers properly could easily run into the thousands for a company in lost sales on a daily basis. The same counts for a proper after service or looking after the customer regularly.

Imagine you have properly trained staff, highly motivated and encouraged to deliver on the customers needs and requirements, what kind of a difference that would make to your company’s turnover.

Now, I’m not saying that this is the case with all hotels, restaurants or bars. I’ve seen great caring staff, selling their butts off (literally) and increase sales nearly 10 times as high as many of their colleagues. Why? They ask questions, they understand the customers, they get commissions, tips but most of all, the manager is a real leader and knows how to motivate the team. Regular training is provided and I even came across a hotel that send their waiters and waitresses to sales and motivational training and coaching in order to keep the mood up and the sales going.

This was a real conversation I had recently in a hotel bar with a waitress:

Waitress: Good morning, my name is Magda. I’ll be your waitress today and will make sure that you are properly looked after. Do you already know what you would like to have?

Customer: Yes, I want a coffee and a scone, please. Oh and a glass of water if you don’t mind (if you order a glass of water in Ireland you will normally get tap water).

W: Certainly, Would that be sparkling or still water (with or without gas)? (notice how she turned things around and without even giving an option of tap water she just offers bottled water.)

C: Still please (most customers will go for one of the two options, it is happening every now and then that a customer may say tap water is just fine)

W: Great. Our scones normally come just with butter but for just 1  € extra I could add some cream and jam for you. Would that be OK if I bring this to you? (again, notice how the waitress up-sells on additional items?)

C: Sure, sounds good.

W: We have homemade blackcurrant and strawberry jam. Which one do you prefer? (By giving only 2 options she made sure the customer is not overwhelmed with choices)

C: Strawberry is fine, thanks.

W: Just to let you know we will start serving lunch in about half an hour. With this voucher you will get a free dessert with your lunch if you decide to eat your lunch here today. The coupon is valid until 6 PM tonight. Once we open for lunch I will let you know and you may then decide if you would like to take part and I will inform you of our lunch specials. Will there be anything else for now sir? (And now the cross-selling opportunity was also taken care of)

This was a real conversation I had with a waitress a while back. This waitress made the following sale:

Scone with coffee – 4,50 €
Additional Jam – 1 €
Still Water – 2.50 € (yes, water is expensive in Ireland)
Lunch – 15 €
Coke – 2,50 €
Cafe Latte – 2,50 €
Dessert – FREE

I did not intend to have lunch there nor did I intend to have a still water, a coke, another latte and a dessert. My original order from a scone with coffee for 4,50 € ended up costing me 28 € plus a generous tip that I gave. Now that’s a pretty good up-sell and cross-sell in my opinion.

Is it the best sales pitch I’ve ever heard? No, but it’s certainly a great way to increase sales in any bar, restaurant or hotel bar. And who would want to leave without using their free dessert voucher?

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

 

What to do…what to do…no more leads…

Are you running out of leads? No idea where or to whom to sell your products or services to? I think every single sales person has been at that stage during their career. But what did they do to get themselves out of it?

Here is a list of things you might want to consider:

1. Contact former customers again to discuss future opportunities. You never know, one of your former customers might need to buy additional products or services from you. Or you can inform them about new developments, activities, events or just want to meet up for a coffee with them to see how things are going after they bought from you. Follow up is a crucial part of sales and a proper after sales service can go a long way and generate new business for you.

2. Ask your former customers for referrals. You may be able to combine this with step 1 but most customers who are happy with you and/ or the service/ product you supplied, have no issue recommending or referring you to some other potential customers. This is probably the best option in order to keep your business going. Especially when you’re selling b2b, business owners/ managers understand the meaning of referrals and some might be happy to help.

3. Look over your old prospects, the one’s who didn’t buy yet from you. What was the reason? Maybe they didn’t buy because of an un-established need? Or maybe they just didn’t like your approach. Contact them again and get some feedback. Yes, it might be hurtful (in some cases) but it’s a learning curve. Feedback is valuable and most people are willing to provide you with feedback of why they didn’t buy from you. If it was you, maybe hand the account over to a colleague. We can’t get along with everybody, sometimes it’s as simple as that. This has nothing to do with you personally. It’s business. And if it’s a great sale, maybe you can even share the commission (if possible) or get an account from the other sales reps to deal with some of their clients. Selling may be competitive, but you’re working in the same company so the goal is the same: Increase the companies turnover and ensure future growth.

4. Re-establish your target market. Have a look again at your old prospects and other companies similar to your target audience in your area. If you don’t know your target audience, or you say, everybody should use my product, then think again. You may think your product is suitable for everybody, but who is actually buying? Make a list of your current customer traits and find companies or audiences that are fitting (age/ type/ gender/ company size/ industry/ country etc.).

5. Try a different target market. I know this one doesn’t correspond to point no. 4, however sometimes if you depleted all your options you may need to rethink your target market and make it more suitable for a new audience. This means, redesigning your pitch, values etc. It’s a lot of work but may be worth your while. If you’re targeting the IT industry for example and you have no more companies to go to (which I doubt but there is always this one sales rep…) maybe a similar market may be suitable for your products or services. Maybe automotive, pharmaceutical, retail etc. could also be a fit for your products. Yes, sometimes we need to adjust certain aspects of our presentations or sales pitches but hey, that’s life. Think why this audience may be able to use your products as well and what are the benefits for them? Maybe they are not in the IT industry, but have an IT department??? Food for thoughts…

6. Go to networking events, join social media networks, groups etc. This will get your name and trait out there. I’m sure a lot of you doing this already but as a sales rep or manager who is employed, how many of you actually go to business networking events to meet new people? A lot of people who are employed wouldn’t go because their company is not paying for it, meetings are held outside office hours / late in the evening or even weekends. If you want to make money, you need to hang out where your clients hang. Easy as that. And if you’re not willing to go the extra mile for your customers, what are you doing in this position? (Sorry for being blunt, but if you are in sales, and no longer have enough customers you need to look at activities that will bring you new clients).

7. Join Networking groups. You can also join local/ national or international networking groups such as BNI (Business Network International). They might be costly, but a lot of people get great value out of it. It’s all about meeting new people and getting referrals, and that’s what those networking groups are all about. Referring business to each other. So, get in there, yes, they are holding meetings usually early in the morning, but honestly, how much do you want to grow your business/ sales?

8. Ask your family and friends. Yes, I’m serious about that. Even if you believe they have no use for your products or services or that they are too expensive for your family and friends. Think about it this way, we all have a network of people and most of us know at least 250+ people that are hanging in our social (media) networks. Besides that we all know between 30 – 100 people which we consider acquaintances, friends etc. Ask them to help you out to introduce you to some of their friends or acquaintances. A lot of sales people don’t want to mix personal life with business life however you are leaving out a massive amount of people that you could easily tap into to get introduced to or do business with. Don’t be shy, get in there. It’s not about convincing your mother to buy your health insurance. It’s about convincing your mother to help you find people who would be interested to buy health insurance from you (I guess you catch my drift here). This is your network as well 🙂

9. Hit the phone. I mean, seriously now. If you have already tried points 1 – 8 and you’re still out of options, then there is only 2 things left to do: Either hit the phone or quit. Sometimes it requires drastic action in order to get back on track. And if that means to open the telephone book or yellow pages to get out there again, then by all means, do it. It will not be the most fruitful time in your life, but usually 1 out of 10 will listen to you and may even invite you over for a coffee to meet. In order to ease the pain of just calling, you could create an email list of companies that you haven’t targeted yet and send them an email first. You may want to do some research but this will take the (extreme) cold out of cold calling. Read my article on successful email marketing and you will see what I mean.

10. Still no luck but haven’t quit yet? OK, here is one last thing you might want to try: PRAY. I mean it, seriously, go to church and start praying. Well, maybe not literally. But talk to your local priest. Even if you’re not a church goer, an atheist, have different faith or religion then what’s locally available, go anyway. Talk to the local priest or pastor. They know a lot of people and they are in the business of guiding and helping people in their most desperate times. Having faith is one thing but maybe the local priest knows somebody who you could talk to to get your business off the ground again? If that doesn’t work you may also want to try chamber of commerce, other business owners/ entrepreneurs, talk to other sales reps even from different companies, join clubs, health and sport clubs etc. Don’t give up. There is a lot of things that you can do that we haven’t even mentioned yet.

A lot of people saying that we as individuals like it comfy. We stay inside the box where it’s cosy, comfortable and nice. But sometimes we have to go to different lengths in order to succeed and need to stick our heads outside of our own box. And most of the times it works. If it doesn’t who’s to say that you can’t take the box, throw it out the window and redesign a complete new box for you? Brainstorm with colleagues, co-workers, managers and/ or other business owners on how to increase sales and get more leads.

You might also want to consider a business or sales coach to help you find new leads.

Thank you for reading. Follow us on facebook or twitter for more current news.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

A simple guide to networking events

Have you been to a networking event recently? Here is what happens most of the time:

People meet at networking events, talk briefly and go their ways. Afterwards not much is happening and many people complain that it wasn’t really fruitful. Nobody contacted you afterwards to do business with you. Nobody send you an email or called you to buy your products or services.

Well, here is a shocker: One of the most important fundamentals of networking events is the follow up that comes afterwards. You may have made great connections but if you don’t follow up with them, no one will.

Here is a few tips of things that you can do before, during and after the event:

Before the event takes place:

Get your 60 second pitch ready. Yes, have a pitch or elevator pitch ready that you can deliver in 60 seconds or less. Make it interesting and make it count. Rehearse the pitch until you perfected it. If you need help designing a pitch for you then I would urge you to do some research.

Dress for success. Dress for the occasion. Business smart is good but (for men) a suit would be better. Proper business attire is the key for both men and women and it doesn’t really matter what your profession or business is all about. You want to get in with investors, meet new potential customers, get business referrals etc. In order to get those, you need to look the part. Nobody is referring someone who is dressed like a teenager that want’s to score.

 

Show up before. Make sure you show up on time, maybe even 5 – 10 min early. This could give you a head start by already talking to some potential new customers before others are joining the group. I personally make it usually about 30 – 45 min earlier. And as people come in, I’m already there to introduce myself before the event starts and have time to talk to more people.

During the event

Use your pitch. You have rehearsed your pitch now talk to potential new customers. These events are usually filled with different types of businesses and may not even resemble the target market that you have however this is about making connections. Maybe they are able to introduce you to some of their key customers. Keep this in mind when talking to people.

Go around. Don’t spend too much time on one or two people. We all tend to find the people who are a bit like us. And networking events are no exception. We may have the best intentions to introduce ourselves to everybody however we mostly stick with the people we either know or meet who are like minded. This is not (only) about meeting like minded people. This is about looking for business opportunities with as many people as possible. You can mingle afterwards if you wish but use the time wisely. Many business networking events have a set agenda such as speed networking or any other games that will engage the crowd. If this is the case and you followed my advise of being early, then you already have made a good bunch of connections and can enjoy the games of the evening. (Just a thought…)

After the event

Send an email. A few days after the event (no more than a week after) send an email to each of your new contacts. Introduce yourself again and of course mention that you’ve met and ask if they are available to meet for a coffee. Don’t make a big pitch of why they should meet you or what the benefits are to your products or services. Keep it short and simple.

Use the phone. Max. 2 days after you’ve sent your email, pick up the phone and again, introduce yourself, mention that you’ve met during the event and that you’ve sent an email and you were wondering when it would be best for them to meet with you. Here you may need to have a small pitch ready because some people might wonder why you would want to meet up. Many people however will most likely agree to meet with you especially if you had a connection with them during the event. But in general keep it simple. Having a coffee to find common business interest goes a long way and doesn’t scream sales right away. Yes, you may want to sell your products or services but you may also get some referrals out of this in case they are not interested. And obviously this goes both ways.

Prepare yourself. Book the meeting and prepare a small agenda of what you would like to get out of this meeting. This is mainly for yourself. You may want to send it over to your new contacts to give them a chance to prepare something as well. Remember, they give you the courtesy to show you what you’ve got so it’s only fair that you provide them the same benefit.

No sale at first meeting. Key again is to not make a full pitch. The first meeting is not about selling your products or services but to see if there is a general or common interest. Yes, you may want to be prepared for somebody telling you straight away, that they need exactly what you’re selling, but honestly, how often does this happen? You can show off what you do, who you are, what your company does, benefits, strengths etc. but take it slow. Also give them the time to tell you what they do. Afterwards establish the grounds of going forward. Book another appointment if they want to hear more about the products or services you offer, or see if you can exchange customer details in form of referrals. If you provide a handful of customers to them, they might do the same for you.

The key point I would like to make is that barely anybody follows up after networking events and wonder why no business comes out of it. It is vital and important to keep business going and if you want to not waste your time going to those events, then maybe it’s time to follow up with your new connections. Because barely anybody really follows up after those events, there is a lot of business left undone. If you’re one of the people who will follow up you can be rest assured, that something positive will come out of it. Give it a try and let us know how you got on.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

How to find the right sales job

There is a lot of confusion of what would be the right sales job for me. Well, I can tell you that there is not really a right or wrong to this. However there is something like a preference. In today’s world we have multiple choices of different sales careers.

Here is a list of some of them:

Sales Account Manager

Field Sales Representative (B2B or B2C)

Business Development Rep/ Manager

Lead Development Rep/ Manager

Telesales (inbound/ outbound)

Retail sales (assistants, managers, clerks etc.)

This is just a handful but it represents most of the current sales jobs available on the market. Here is what you need to know about those jobs:

Sales Account Manager – This role is usually a more passive sales role. You mainly deal with current customers/ clients also known as install base customers. You usually get assigned a territory and a list of accounts and it’s up to you to keep those customers happy and informed. In most cases they already purchased from the company and you need to provide maintenance renewals, contract renewals, additional product information etc. Why passive? Well, you do have to call or visit them (depending on the preference of the company you want to work for) usually at least once a quarter to build a relationship and to keep those customers happy and buying from you but normally you don’t have to develop leads. This is a great role for people who are strategic in thinking and are capable of implementing up-selling/ cross-selling techniques. Closing a deal might still be part of your job but the main focus is to make sure these customers will remain customers to the business. Usually paid a higher base salary and commission (60/40 split is quite common).

In rare cases you might need to develop new accounts as well but again, this is depending on the company and their route to market.

Field Sales Representatives – This is a more active role in selling. You are responsible to sell directly to either business clients or consumers. It involves booking meetings with potential new customers, create small campaigns to drive sales such as email campaigns or events. This is an outgoing role and usually not suitable for people who have a fear of cold calling or door to door sales. If it makes you uneasy this role might not be for you. However if you like being out of the office most of the time, travel a lot (either inside the country or even outside) and have unregulated working hours than this is a great job to be in. The rewards? Usually high commissions but a very low base salary. Some companies offer additional benefits such as a company car/ petrol card/ laptop and mobile phone.

Business development representative or manager – This is also a very active role. It might not require you to travel as some companies offer this role as a inside or internal role. But it does require you to make new connections on a daily basis. You are usually free to network and implement new ideas in order to drive customers to the business. However it needs to be pointed out that this role has it’s rewards of medium commission and a higher base salary. The 60/40 split is also very common in this type of role.

Lead Development Representative/ Manager – This role is usually done in larger companies such as medium to large size multinationals. It requires people to be constantly on the phone and generate new business through certain lead generation tools. This could be that leads are coming in through a website that need to be followed up and qualified, re-qualify old leads or even some cold calling or follow up on email and other marketing campaigns. Again, this is more an active and outgoing role that requires the rep to deal with new potential customers every day through phone conversations. The lead development rep is usually not in charge of driving campaigns and is merely there to initiate contact with potential new customers. However it needs to be pointed out that this is a very low paid and ungrateful role to have. As a lead development rep you are usually not required to close deals but just to generate interest. You will have a low to medium base salary and low commission or a bonus. In many cases leads get handed over to sales reps or sales account managers. Relationship building is usually not part of the role and you will talk every day to new potential clients. Many companies even have a min calling rate that you would need to achieve (such as 40 or 50 calls per day).

Telesales (inbound/ outbound) – This role could be pro-active or in-active depending on the organization. If you are applying for a job as an inbound Telesales rep then all you have to do is take calls and close the deals over the phone. Providing information is key and asking for the sale is a must in this role. You will also have up-selling and cross-selling opportunities to increase your sales revenue. As an outbound rep you might have to do some lead development on your own but usually you receive a list of clients that might be interested in the products or services offered by the company. Your job is to just call and see if there is a real interest and then close the deal. In many cases outbound telesales reps need to do a lot of cold calling. In both cases the salary is a medium base and medium to high commission. One of the main aspects to look out for is the commission structure. Most companies offer capped commission. This is on 100% of the target and some might offer an additional bonus if you achieve more than 100%. However capped commission also means that you may not be able to earn more. If it’s uncapped commission the one thing I would urge you to do is to look at the teams performance. How likely is it to achieve target and what is the highest that people can earn? Many companies claim that their commission structure is uncapped however the target is rarely achievable. So, do your homework and look out for these things.

Retail sales – Retail is one of the purest forms of selling. For most people (unless you are the business owner) it doesn’t require much prospecting work. Customers are coming into the premises and (hopefully) leaving with some new products that you are selling. The downside to this? If you are a trainee, clerk or shop assistant you might only get a base salary. Commission is rarely offered in retail (which I have to say is a real shame). But it still provides a decent enough income and lets you deal with potential new customers as well as “regulars” on a daily basis. Product knowledge is asked and many retailers establish themselves in a retail niche market. Such as electronics, computers, toys, men’s or lady’s wear etc. you can nearly find anything in retail. However a lot of retailers are suffering from not knowing their products well. This is the downside to retail. Too many products and competitors out there. In order to make a difference to your shop it is important to keep you and your team well trained and informed on new products. Knowledge is key in retail as well as driving a great service and friendly staff. As a business owner it is vital to get customers into the premises. This can be achieved by looking at your shop and make sure it attracts the right customer (gender/ age). However prospecting doesn’t stop there. Your staff is also required to prospect however this again is a different type of prospecting. It requires your staff to be outgoing and actually talk to the customers. Over 80% of customers leaving retail premises because of low or no attendance from the shop assistants/ owners.

This is only a handful of potential sales roles out there in the market. However one thing is for sure: No matter what type of sales role you currently have or are looking for, make sure it is the one for you. Nothing is worse than being in a sales job that you hate or don’t like because of the nature of the role.

Prospecting (making connections every single day) is a big part of sales no matter what type of role you’re looking for. Just because you are looking to become an account manager doesn’t mean that you don’t have to prospect. Prospecting in this case is just done in a different way and you still need to be outgoing enough to make this job work.

I hope this is helpful in finding the right sales job for you. If you need more information or require help in finding the right job for you, you should consider taking our Selling Style Profile Analysis.

Thank you for reading and please follow us on Facebook or Twitter with more current sales news.

Carsten Schnier

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

First step to a successful sale – Prospecting

I’ve been asked a lot of times what I would think is the most important part of the sales process.

The answer might be shocking but simple: Prospecting. In order to initiate contact with a potential new customer we need to prospect.

 

Here are the first steps that in my opinion will help you find more customers:

1. Define your niche.

Every product or service can be defined in a niche market. If you already know what your niche is, great. Move on to step 2. If not, make sure you define what it is that you are really good at. What benefits bring your products or services to your customers? Why should they buy the products or services and most important what need do they fill for your customer.

2. Define your target market.

It is important to know who your target audience is. Not every product or service is meant to attract every single person. Make sure you know your target audience. Your niche can help. By establishing a niche you can find customers who either offer similar type of products (make sure you are not competing with them) and could benefit the customer if implemented or bought from you or you attract customers who could use your products/ services because they are looking at your niche in particular. Look at your current customer base. What do they have in common? Now find similar type of customers. Because if one car manufacturer can use your product, maybe there is another one (again, just an example). I understand, that if you are just starting out and don’t have any customers yet, you might be in for a challenge. But this is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

3. Do your research

You shouldn’t spend too much time researching your customers but to know a bit about their business goes a long way. What do they do? What is their product range? Who is the decision maker in that company for your products/ services? Who is the gatekeeper? Did their sales figures improve or decrease compared to the last year(s)? Knowing your customer can go a long way in order to help you sell your products. And don’t dismiss the gatekeeper (aka receptionists, secretaries, assistants). They can become your most important ally in order to place your products/ services with the company. If you get them on board then usually the decision maker is ready to listen to you as well. (Create a list of potential customers)

4. Develop an elevator pitch

An elevator pitch should not be longer than 60 seconds. The pitch should contain who you are, what you do, the benefits to your customers and a close (in order to get more attention or to book a meeting). You can find 3 great elevator pitches at speakingppt.com. Make it unique and interesting for potential new customers to get to know you better.

5. Prospect

Now the real fun starts. You have to start prospecting. This can be done in several ways but one thing is for sure: Most of the time it should end with you calling your potential new customer. In step 3 you created a list of potential new customers. This is your money making machine. If you don’t feel comfortable just cold calling them, do one of the following:

a) Send an email first with a short pitch. Make sure that pitch is short and to the point. You don’t want to waste anybody’s time. However, the likelihood that your email will be read is very little to none. So, after you send the email, make sure you follow up with your customers a day max. 2 days later. Now you have a reference that you can revert back to and your cold call becomes much easier. Warning: Sending an email will NOT result in your customers calling you nor is leaving a message resulting in your potential new customers calling you back. You have to do the first step: PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL…

b) Invite them to a free or low cost event. Create an event in eventbrite.com (just as an example) and send invitations to your potential customers. Again, after you send the invitations it is important to follow up with them. You won’t get any sign ups by just adding an event. Make sure you share it and market it. But again, use the phone to follow up.

c) Create a social media marketing strategy. This might take some time but once you have build an audience on social media it should become part of your daily routine. Post regularly and inform about events, special offers and other things that you do. Here you have to follow up by making sure you monitor comments and likes. This time there is no need to phone unless you have their numbers already. This should only be a small part of your daily sales activity. You don’t want to waste too much time looking or waiting for comments to come.

d) Create a newsletter/ sign up page or blog. Writing can give you more exposure. So make sure you write about something that you do and are passionate about. If you have a maintenance business write about what you do for your customers, outcomes, what could happen if certain things are not done correctly etc. This is all about exposure and interact with anybody who comments or maybe even likes your page.

e) Lead generation tools. A lot of businesses offer lead generation or you could even use certain tools that might help you get more exposure or even clients. Some of them are costly but depending on your business and audience you can also find some that are great and free of charge. Do some research.

f) Make sure you have a website/ blog page etc.A lot of small businesses don’t have a website and believe it is not necessary. But having a page, even a simple one, can make a massive difference to any business. Websites don’t cost an arm and a leg anymore unless you get it done professionally. But if you look at pages such as wix.com or even vistaprint.com you can get easy to develop websites from approx. 5 quit a month or even for free. A website will give you additional exposure and you can use it as a tool to refer customers to.

g) Go to networking events. Business networking events are usually done in every country, county or town and most of them are being held on a regular basis. Some of them require a small fee but many are even free of charge. This is a great way to meet other business owners, entrepreneurs and like minded people who share a common interest. (Here you can test your newly developed elevator pitch).

h) Join a local/ national or international business network. Business networking is great and could bring new business to you on a regular basis by means of referrals. Referring business to each other is a great way to improve your sales and will help you stay on top of the game.

i) Chamber of commerce or other business related networks. Most countries have support for start up or small/ medium sized businesses. Make sure you know what you are entitled to and how they can help you grow.

j) Get a business/ or sales coach. Getting help should not be the last step a business owner does before he goes out of business. Waiting until it’s too late is the worst you can do for your business. Make sure you have a mentor, or coach that you can go to either regularly or whenever you need to in order to discuss business growth. A coach is definitely the way to go for increasing your business turnover.

Prospecting is the number one process any sales person, entrepreneur and business owner could do on a regular basis (at least in my opinion it is). The more you prospect, the more you will sell. Of course other parts of the sales process are important too. Especially closing the deal, however without prospecting there will be no deals to close. And if you are in retail, you might think that you can’t prospect. Every business can and has to prospect. But using the right prospecting kind is key to success. I will write another article on how retailers can prospect and drive more business into their premises but in the meantime, if you really want to improve your shop’s performance, maybe read my article Road to retail success.

How many calls did you do today?

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland