Interview - Patricia Weber

How can a dog help make you more sales?

Dogs have so many behaviors we can learn from. One of my favorites is dogs do not play games with you — except fetch, and then they do not laugh at how you throw. Your customer might play games with you. They might throw you a buying signing by asking for more information. Or they might give you the go ahead on an order and later cancel. If you go fetch for these, note your reaction. Examine your reaction’s appropriateness to the situation. You may have to adjust it to keep on playing, and improve your throw.

 What is the most important skill for a salesperson?

 There isn’t any one but instead the combination of people skills, most importantly listening; knowledge of the buying/selling process and product or service knowledge. The most important understanding is to have command across these three areas in selling.

How can you apologize to your customer with meaning?

 There’s a formula I use in my customer service workshops. Part of the formula is to Apologize Blamelessly. That means no finger pointing. “I’m sorry but our shipping department must not have read that correctly,” only serves to point out the lack of team effort in your organization, and makes you seem unaccountable for the situation. The most meaningful way to apologize is with acknowledgement of the mistake and exploration of the solution. “I’m sorry we shipped you the wrong item. We can either X or Y if that is acceptable for you.”

See the entire interview at:

How to Generate Record Profits from Customers You Already Have!
by Allan Katz

Are your customers loyal to you ? Here's how to insure they will return again & again & tell others about you!

How would you feel if you could build a one to one relationship with each and every customer to the point where they then become an advocate for your business?

Actually, if you have a list of your customers, you're already on the way to building one to one relationships............ Here's How.

As a small business owner, former retailer and marketing coach, I’m amazed how many small business owners fail to take advantage of their most important asset, their customer list. Most of the small business owners I meet are constantly searching for ways to expand their customer base when its been proven time and time again that you can make more money from your present clients than constantly looking for new business. So, I devised some secrets to begin the process of retaining good customers and generating greater profits from them.

Secret 1: GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS

Small Businesses today are finding that in order to survive super discount competitors and huge conglomerate advertising blitzes they must go back to the relationship building of the good old days. In cities and towns of yesteryear, the shopkeeper knew his customers by name and the type of merchandise they needed and made certain he had it in stock. This kind of relationship coupled with personalized customer service and a genuine empathy with customers, is what keeps them coming back to you instead of your competitors.

Secret 2: GATHER CUSTOMER INFORMATION

A database of customers is the most valuable asset your business has. Yet only 10% of the retailers in the United States keep a current list of their customers! Statistics show that businesses spend five times as much for new customers than they do on their present customers, yet a regular customer is worth 10 times the cost of acquiring a new customer! Today, however, a mailing list is not enough. To build relationships with customers that engender loyalty, you must gather information, which is valuable to you. For example, age (ages of relatives), size of home, color and style preferences, date of last purchase, amount of purchase, brand preferences, important dates (birthdays, anniversaries).

Figures out... ask customers what they really want. You will probably find that you can profit the most from a customer who buys high-ticket items repetitively, rather than a one-time shopper. You can also profit from cross selling or up-selling major purchases. Consider the Lifetime Value of the customer. If your customer, over a 5 year period bought a necklace, ring, diamond and chain, how much money would that be worth to you? Then imagine, if that person recommended you to all her friends for example, for all their jewelry needs. It begins to add up, doesn't it? So it makes sense to capture the name and transactional data of that customer who has the potential to generate thousands of dollars more to your bottom line!

Secret 3: SERVE THE CUSTOMER

Waiting on customers courteously is just the beginning of good customer service. First, find out what the customer expects from you. Make sure your salespeople praise every customer, show an interest and establish rapport. Get in the habit of corresponding with your customers. Send them notes, cards, articles and clippings that interest them. Send them thank you notes and cards telling them about private specials and trunk showings. Mail out a newsletter explaining what’s new in your company.

Follow through after the sale. Ask yourself, " What will this marketing action do to help bring the customer back again."

Remember what Mr. Feargal Quinn says in his book, Crowning the Customer, "What gets measured, gets action. What isn't measured, gets ignored."

Secret 4: REWARD THE CUSTOMER

Michael L’Boeuf, Ph.D., author of How to Win Customers and Keep them for Life says his "Greatest Business Secret in the World" is: THE REWARDED CUSTOMER BUYS, MULTIPLIES AND COMES BACK."

A study by the Rockefeller Foundation found that a whopping 68% of customers stop buying from you because of an attitude of indifference toward the customer by the owner, manager or employee. In other words, if you ignore customers, 7 out of 10 will not shop with you again, for NO SPECIAL REASON!

By segmenting customers into groups, you can treat customers individually, based on their buying habits and the information you've gathered. New customers need to know that you value them as a NEW customer and that you actually care if they shop with you again. Send them a thank you note after their first purchase.

Take a jewelry store for example. Since jewelry store customers are infrequent and cyclical you want to offer rewards to past customers between the times they might shop with you again. For example, if you have a list of young women age 17 and over, you might send a newsletter about planning a wedding. Or offer free accessories if they recommend a friend for a jewelry consultation. Start a Preferred Customer Club where the customer signs up to keep in touch with you from their first purchase through marriage and adulthood. You stay in touch by advising them at each stage, while showing your latest fashions, accessories and specials... just because they are a "preferred customer."

Secret 5: USE WHAT YOU KNOW TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS

Once you've built a list of customers, their preferences, demographics and transactional data, you'll be able to use this important information to find new customers with similar characteristics. Start a Referral program by rewarding customers who refer their friends and relatives. Obtain a list of new movers to your area with similar age and income parameters to your present customers. Use testimonials from satisfied customers to attract new customers by mail. Obtain a mailing list of targeted prospects that match your customer profile.

The information you need to become more successful is right in your own backyard, your customer records. Dig in and harvest an acre of diamonds.

Allan Katz helps companies attract, keep and multiply their customers. For his ezine, "Remarkable Marketing Results" visit his site at http://www.loyaltycoach.com. Allan Katz may be contacted at http://www.loyaltycoach.com

Stop Using the Economy as an Excuse!
by Roberta Matuson

Leaders are using the economy as an excuse on a daily basis. Don't believe me? Just ask your managers why now it's okay to lay-off those employees who haven't come close to meeting their performance objectives over the past several years. Perhaps your company could have avoided lay-offs if the entire team had been operating on all four cylinders. This is just one example of how companies are using the economy as an excuse for poor decisions. Here are some others.

Poor planning

You can blame employees for a lot of things. However, at some point you have to take responsibility for what is in your control. Here's an example. Have you ever heard of a fast food restaurant that sells only pizzas, at an airport location, running out of food at 3:00 PM? According to those employees staffing the counter, this is not an uncommon occurrence. So who is to blame? Certainly not the people who are popping the frozen pizzas into the convection oven.

This is a planning and inventory problem. Not an economic problem. However, if you look at this company's declining earnings and recent interviews you will hear them say that business is down because less people are going out for pizza. Maybe less people are eating their pizza because there is no food to be had. Is this really the way to increase profits in a down economy?

Creating new expectations

Everything appears to be on sale these days. It has gotten to the point where people will not make purchases unless there is a discount associated with the price. Is this really the fault of the economy? Or have businesses created an expectation among customers and clients that has created this new reality?

What if you were to offer a product or service that people felt was worth the purchase price, regardless of what this number was? What would that mean in terms of increased revenue and profitability? In spite of the economy, people are still purchasing luxury vehicles and are patronizing restaurants where they perceive the experience is worth the money spent. Customers are choosing cool electronic equipment over cheaper less innovative products.

Stop blaming the economy and start looking at your offerings. Are they appealing? Are you creating "must have" products and services? Are you providing consistent service? Are people invested in your product or service? Or have they moved over to you because you are the cheapest guy in town?

Improving your people

Companies used the excuse that there was no time to invest in performance improvement programs when the economy was humming. Now many of these companies have nothing but time on their hands. Would this have been the case if they had provided training for their leaders on how to effectively manage through periods of change?

These organizations can emerge from this recession even stronger than where they were before the decline. How? By preparing their organization for the recovery. This means investing in the training and development of managers and those individual contributors who are on the front lines with customers.

It certainly is a heck of a lot easier to blame the economy for the decline in your business. But by doing so, you will miss out on the opportunity to build an organization that can sustain itself and thrive in any economic climate.

© 2009 Human Resource Solutions. All rights reserved.

Roberta Chinsky Matuson is the President of Human Resource Solutions (www.yourhrexperts.com) and has been helping companies align their people assets with their business goals. She is considered an expert in generational workforce issues. Roberta publishes a monthly newsletter "HR Matters" http://www.yourhrexperts.com/hrjoin.cgi which is jammed with resources, articles and tips to help companies navigate through sticky and complicated HR workforce issues. Click here to read her new blog on Generation Integration http://generationintegration.typepad.com/matuson/. She can be reached at 413-582-1840 or Roberta@yourhrexperts.com. Roberta Matuson may be contacted at http://www.yourhrexperts.com

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