sales Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Dennis E. Gilbert

26
Dec 17
-

Customer Experience Mathematics

Tags : customer experience innovation marketing math sales

People often suggest you’ll find greater understanding when you do the math. Does the budget fit or will the return on investment be enough? Someone may suggest that you should do the math. Will customer experience mathematics work?

In some cases, people are just trying to make a point through rhetoric. In other cases instead of telling someone to do the math, we may suggest, “We have done the math.”

Right Answers

What we really mean is that we know the right answer. We understand both the problem and the solution. So much so that now that it is apparent, it feels silly that we were once on the wrong path.

Doing the math is interesting though because there really is only one correct answer. In a field of infinite answers, the probability of a wrong answer is much more likely.

Many Possibilities

When seeking correct answers for how to do the marketing program, the advertising campaign, or close the sale, doing the math is more difficult. Sure, you can apply some math but there may not be only one single answer.

When you want innovation, a new direction, or to capture a new audience for your product or service doing the math may be a detriment, it closes options.

Although sometimes it becomes clear that we have the wrong answer. It still doesn’t mean that there is only one correct solution.

Customer Experience Mathematics

It seems that when we are trying to make an impact, be innovative, and creative, we have to know the difference between right answers, wrong answers, and the possibilities in between.

If you are planning to deliver the absolute best, customer experience mathematics may not matter so much.

The objective should be to avoid the wrong answers, but finding the right one may not happen by doing the math.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

19
Dec 17
-

Customer Sales Funnel Feels Easy

Tags : abundance complacency funnel motivation sales

Many people make their living in sales. Often those who are not in a sales profession don’t realize how much they sell. I don’t mean quantity, I mean the activity of selling. Do you understand the customer sales funnel?

A sales funnel, also sometimes known as the sales pipeline is jargon for having many opportunities that eventually result in a closed sale. People are always selling. They may be selling their ideas, their thoughts, or an alternative direction.

Large Funnels

For everyone, sales professional or not, having a large funnel or an overflowing pipeline often feels good but it may also be deceptive.

Have some of my M&M’s, I have a five-pound bag.

My apple tree is loaded, stop by and pick some.

We just lost that sale, but no worries there are hundreds more in the pipeline.

Abundance and Complacency

Abundance may cause comfort, and with comfort comes complacency.

What is often not realized or forgotten is the scarcity of abundance. Having a sense of urgency or the realization that the funnel is nearly empty is much more productive.

The customers that you’ve talked to, the ones who have expressed interest, the quote, the sale coming next week, or the special of the month are not guaranteed. A big pipeline, the large funnel, signals that things are coming, until they don’t.

The pipeline is dry.

My funnel is nearly empty.

How do I get more sales?

Customer Sales Funnel

When you have many ideas, it seems like the possibilities are endless, so there is no need to spend energy on ideas. When your email inbox is loaded with new messages, your telephone always buzzing, and people seeking what you have your chance for complacency are much higher.

Five pounds of M&M’s are many, share some, and a loaded apple tree is a great problem, give some away.

Assuming things will always be this easy is a mistake you don’t want to make.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

15
Dec 17
-

Customer Service Impact And Cultural Change

Tags : customer service experience front line impact sales

Many organizations strive to make a bigger impact with sales and the customer experience by driving cultural change. Is your organization getting the most from its efforts? What are you doing to improve customer service impact?

In the conference room, boardroom, or a pop-up meeting near the water cooler organizational leaders often consider how they’ll create the next rush of revenue. Often the design is based on only a few. What if there was a different approach?

Based On The Few

Organizations put forward a lot of effort on the hiring process. Certainly, this is important and valuable. The lifetime value of the right kind of talent in your organization is hard to measure. Mostly because it is likely a much bigger number than you can quickly realize.

Inside there is often a push for attracting or advancing the right talent to the C Suite.

There is a focus on sales and marketing teams that are properly aligned. Perhaps there are bonuses or commissions in place to drive engagement. In operations, it is often about quality control and perfecting the build and delivery of products and services.

Much of this design is focused on the few. The few who are leading the teams, the few who may be the next picked for advancement, and those who fit the image of organizational success. This focus is important but the activity that this culture builds is based only on those few.

Front Line Reach

What if the approach was different, what if instead of focusing on the top twenty percent of the organization you focused on the growth and development of the other eighty percent? How would sales revenues, profit margins, and customer satisfaction improve?

Imagine instead of leaders connecting with leaders, the entire front line was more connected with customers?

Sure, the influence of leader-to-leader is important, but what if instead of focusing on the goals, revenue, and growth presented by the twenty percent, you made a difference with the eighty percent.

Imagine if the eighty percent improved their emotional intelligence, honed their customer service skills, and the value was placed on front line customer facing engagement? Would this change the numbers?

Customer Service Impact

Certainly, this is not pointing the finger at the eighty percent with a proclamation that they are the only ones who need change. It is a proclamation that the focus for customer service impact will be more powerful from the front line, not grooming the next manager.

When the focus is on the management team, fewer people are touched. If you’re going to make your organization great, leaders will matter, but it is the eighty percent who are closer to the front line who will show the customers what your organization is all about.

Running The Marathon

Consider this, thirty thousand people run in the Boston Marathon each year. Certainly the few at the front are honored and important. Their accomplishments are great. The report of their success will touch many lives.

If they were the only ones running in the event, it would not be nearly as impactful. It’s the reach of the other twenty nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety participants who will ultimately touch more people and more lives in a more personal way.

It’s not about the ten, it is about the thirty thousand.

You can have ten people doing great things, but measuring the true impact of thirty thousand. That is almost hard to imagine.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

27
Oct 17
-

Want and Need, What is the Difference?

Tags : customer satisfaction ethics needs sales wants

Is the difference between want and need just semantics? It could be, but if you are in consultative sales understanding the difference may be critical. If you are setting the bar for customer service excellence it has never been more important.

What is the difference?

I want it with four-wheel drive.

I want the biggest engine.

It is common for customers to present with what they want, but do they always know what they need? The basics of delivering exceptional customer service mean that the customer is highly satisfied and hopefully delighted with their transaction. The customer decides, not the vendor.

When the vendor gives the customer what they want, is it the same as what they need? The safe answer of course is, “sometimes.”

Transactional vs. Consultative

The sales exchange at the drive through window of a fast food restaurant most often is not consultative sales.

I want the #1 with a Diet Soda.

I’ll have the big box, hold the guacamole.

Give me the two for $5.

It is a transactional sale and while want and need may still be important, it isn’t nearly as critical. Sometimes it isn’t even our business to know. Suggesting the healthier choice (in your opinion) may seem valid, but it also may not be your business.

Consultative Sales

The other side of sometimes is that sometimes it isn’t. The highest level of customer satisfaction is long-term satisfaction. The customer should understand that what they want is appropriate for their needs.

A commercial grade tool may not be required for the average homeowner. Likewise, a seven-passenger vehicle with a DVD entertainment system may not be what an 80-year-old needs to pick up groceries, even though it is on the lot at a great price and they can pay with cash.

The sales process at a car dealership, with a realtor, or in many business-to-business transactions is often consultative sales. The size, the intended use, product life, and many other variables will condition long-term satisfaction.

Want and Need

Is this all a no-brainer? Perhaps, but the words we chose often have a psychological impact. Our mind-set is important to deliver exceptional levels of satisfaction. When we deliver what the customer wants, and it really isn’t what they need, we might have a problem.

Many people subconsciously search for effortless. They, by nature, like it easy. It might be easy to be an order taker. Closing the sale fast and without debate helps make the numbers, it could also result in a nice commission check, for now.

Businesses with high integrity and ethical standards who are watching lifetime value should know the difference between want and need.

You should too.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

18
Oct 17
-

being right appreciative strategies Dennis Gilbert

Being Right Is Not The Point, Pull More, Push Less

Tags : buying customer service marketing sales service economy

Making your point feels valuable. Sometimes all we want is to be heard. Is anyone really listening? Maybe they are not, because being right is not the point.

We are deeply rooted in a service economy. Things have been shifting for years and they’ve been accelerating since 2008-2009. What is the point?

The point is that in an ever-expanding service economy you must continuously ask yourself what are the service points to your business, regardless of your sector.

Being Right

Too often people and businesses place their focus on being right. They may feel that there is something to prove regardless of the cost. One big problem with this is you have to ask yourself if people will care. Caring is where the value exists.

Most buying decisions, even in business-to-business transactions have a strong emotional component. Logic, which feels important to some, really takes a back seat to emotions.

This is true in engineering, it is true in manufacturing, and it is even true technology sectors. Logically you may be right. Does that mean that anyone will care? Perhaps not when you recognize that buying, starting, or staying is emotional.

Pull More Than Push

Many businesses market through the push. Push the product out, push the concept, push why a buyer should care. Just because you are pushing doesn’t mean that anyone will pay attention. It doesn’t mean that they will spring into action. Most of all it doesn’t even guarantee that they will listen.

Being right is not the point. It never was and it likely never will be. If you are pushing your ideas with limited results, you may have to think differently. Start thinking about how you will pull.

When people are pulled, drawn in, and attracted they’ll follow, they will be more likely to listen, and they’ll actually consider caring.

Being right was never enough. If you want to close the sale, enhance the deal, and earn the respect and attention your product and service deserves, make sure being right is not your strategy.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

11
Oct 17
-

Service Economy Customer Service

Tags : customer service manufacturing sales service economy shifts

Ask anyone if they believe things are changing and you’ll probably get some strong responses. It is not uncommon during business discussions for me to hear stories of shifting priorities, new strategies, and the pursuit of providing more customer value. What about service economy customer service?

Are we in a service economy? You bet, not only will most CEO’s or C Suite executives confirm this, but it really isn’t anything new. Consider that for decades our economy has been shifting. Spinning out of the 2007 – 2009 era recession this trend intensified.

There are more service related businesses on the Fortune 500 list than perhaps ever before. Does this mean that those not in a traditional service sector are in trouble? Not necessarily, but it most likely means they are going to have to change, but how?

Service Economy Shifts

In a service economy, you are likely going to have to be thinking more about customer service. Everything is going to have to shift. This is critical for all sectors, but the biggest transformation may exist in manufacturing and industrial sectors.

Many manufacturing and industrial sectors sell through distribution channels. They may also hire out-sourced sales representatives. Often, their organizational culture has emphasis on the processes and systems that produce goods.

All of this is understandable and critically important, but in a strengthening service economy is it enough? Perhaps, but some of the trendsetters are looking for new strategies.

What works well in a service economy? Subscription based pricing is one approach. Magazines, newspapers, and record (music) clubs pioneered this approach with a lot of success.

Examples of this are well known in some sectors. Software products for example, you once bought a license for life, now you buy it for a year or monthly recurring charges. Website retailers do it through easy reorder, or scheduled monthly shipments, and there are many other examples.

Service Economy Customer Service

What this all means is that in a service economy your best opportunities for gaining market share exist in customer service, it is no longer a department. In fact, it never should have been only about a department.

You should be thinking about not just doing things differently, you are going to have to think about and implement different things.

It is service economy customer service.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

03
Oct 17
-

Understanding of Customer Needs and Needing Customers

Tags : margin marketing products sales value

Unfortunately, it is common that something we love changes. Despite the seemingly popular love for a product or service, it is suddenly taken away or changed. Do you know a product or service that should be more understanding of customer needs, instead of chasing things because they believe they need more customers?

There is a lot of push in our society, and I’m a firm believer that we need more pull.

Bigger or Changed?

Here is a great example. How often do you go to the supermarket, places like Wegmans, Weis, or Kroger, only to find it is being rearranged, remodeled, or in some cases rebranded? This is mostly about profit, not about loyal customer convenience.

Interested in some more examples?

There is the website the changes its login, your account information tab, or easy reorder features or location and colors. Not because it doesn’t care about you, but because instead it wants to focus on new traffic.

Have you considered the small restaurant, the mom and pop, that had fantastic food and excellent service until it doubled its seating capacity?

Let’s not forget about the technical sensation at work who gave up the technical job to become the manager instead. Now he or she is trying to understand why the motivation is gone and the work fills meaningless.

All of these scenarios signal the same type of thinking. As people, we often chase what we feel we need. In business, many businesses chase what they believe that they need in order to become bigger, stronger, and better. Does it all work out?

The best answer is probably, “sometimes.”

Understanding of Customer Needs

Here is what is most important, getting bigger, rearranging for more margin, or changing it up to capture new customers doesn’t guarantee anything. If fact, it may create a loss of exactly what brought people in the door in the first place.

Just because change seems warranted, just because someone didn’t like something, or just because it seems like the coolest new trend doesn’t mean it will make anything better.

Remember where you came from and how, follow that lead.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

19
Sep 17
-

happy customer service appreciative strategies

Happy Customer Service, Are You Sure?

Tags : culture customer service department happy sales

It is easy to stumble upon some interesting things when working with many different business sectors and people. Sometimes exactly what is believed to make them unique is really just a different flavor of the same thing. Does your brand or organization deliver happy customer service?

Same Thing Different Flavor

What is the different flavor? Every business feels they are unique, and in many ways, they are, but many are doing something very similar to their competition and they don’t even realize it.

One thing that I find with nearly every business is that they believe they are doing OK with customer service. Many believe that customer service is a department, and that the employees in that group have it all covered.

It makes me wonder, is sales a department? What about shipping and receiving, and let’s not forget accounting. The single biggest problem with most organizations is that when they grow big enough to have departments everything changes.

Sales may be a piece of the organization, just like shipping, accounting, or information technology. There may also be a help desk, technical support, manufacturing, assembly, quality control, and human resources. They are all departments.

Here is the most fundamental challenge that all of these departments face, they forget that they are all in it together. Internally there is often tension, political currents, and game playing. They try to put on the face of happy customer service, but are they successful?

No Words Just Expressions

Here is a different question, have you ever walked into a room or had someone approach you and the first thing that they say is, “What’s wrong?” No words were spoken yet, these are the first? Do you think about why? Perhaps it is because they read something on your face, an expression or a look.

There may be times that we are purposely trying to send a signal about our mood, but often we are not consciously aware. We are getting through our day. We might be thinking, worrying, or feeling stressed.

Why is there a different feeling on Monday or Friday? Why is there energy in the room, or none? Everyone is reading everyone else’s face. It is what we do. Consciously or subconsciously, we are assessing our environment. We are hard wired to do this.

Happy Customer Service

Just like we may often take for granted the expression on our face, organizations often do the same. More importantly, everyone looking on is trying to read your face. Watching and looking, they are perhaps wondering, is that organization happy. They may not talk about it or discuss but they are reading it.

You are all in it together. It is not about a department. It is about your culture.

What messages are your customers reading? What is written on your face?

Happy customer service? (…or sales, shipping, receiving, technical support, manufacturing, QC, or HR…)

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

23
Aug 17
-

Digital Footprints, Brands, and Reputation

Tags : brand customer service marketing reputation sales

There are at least several kinds of social media users. Perhaps all of them have an impact on brands, reputations, and culture. Have you considered the impact of your digital footprints?

How would you define your activity, what type of user are you? Here are three:

Bold. Those who share often and share anything, they are seemingly immune or care free about potential consequences or the impact to others. Positive or negative, ignorant or arrogant, they are making digital sound.

Careful. Those who live in absolute fear of sharing but secretly want to share much of what hits their feed. They share some but only with the feeling of great risk. They watch their posts in anticipation of acceptance or rejection and often worry until they post again.

Shy. Those who watch secretly, they stalk, creep, and are voyeurs of the system. Nobody really knows they are there and only a few would care if they realized they were.

Computer Forensics

The idea of computer forensics became widely known in the early to mid- 2000’s. People who post may recognize the permanency of their actions, or not. Everything posted enters in the chance for a cultural shift or the probability of influencing a brand.

It doesn’t matter much about the type of user, playing fields are leveled and volume is affected perhaps only by the number of followers. It might be the Presidential tweet, the suburban work from home mom, or the guy in the bar before noon.

Your brand, your reputation, or the culture of your environment exists today in part by the digital trail left behind by those who engage. You have little control over others actions or behaviors. The passer-by, the troll, or the person with digital rage all affect what happens next.

Digital Footprints

People often believe everything that they read, with the right script and implied emotion a post may go viral. Positivity seems to spread but negativity carries more drama and increases speed.

Sharing something that you care about feels important. It is rooted in your values and beliefs. It may be challenged by the bold, studied by the careful, and avoided by the shy.

Digital footprints affect culture, brands, and reputations.

It may answer this question: If a user makes a post on the worldwide web but no one reads it does it still make a digital sound?

Post well, share well.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

22
Aug 17
-

When Front Sided Customer Service Creates Back Sided Experiences

Tags : customer experience promise quality sales warranty

Service after the sale, is that the selling point? Is a culture of service after the sale the right culture? Do you have front sided customer service or back sided? Is your customer service scale balanced?

“This should work but if it doesn’t we have an excellent support department, or you can return it.”

“This has a lifetime warranty. If it breaks just bring it back.”

One of my favorites:

“Would you like to purchase the extended warranty?”

Sometimes you will hear complaints about customer service on the front side. Often though, the mindset is to prove your worth before the sale, to close the sale. Can your culture have too much focus on the front side?

Back Sided Experiences

Quickly some may argue that you can never have too much focus on either side. On the surface that seems appropriate but is there an underlying principle, an ethical challenge, and self-fulfilled prophecy looming?

Lifetime warranties once implied that it would never break. Today, it may be more about statistics. Sell enough product with just enough quality to just enough (or more) consumers that mathematically we can cover any failures.

Is that front sided customer service or a back sided focus? The better question may be, “Is it a customer focus?”

Customer Focused

Do you give service that is just enough? Is it just enough to cover any problems or just enough to close the sale?

When is the promise so good that it is never tested?

Should the cost of the extended warranty be balanced in the price of the product? What is the failure rate?

Does anyone ever ask why he or she needs the extended warranty?

How does an extended warranty business, stay in business?

Does the opportunity to buy the extended warranty lower the quality delivered?

When was the last time a major automobile insurance carrier went bankrupt?

Do casinos payout more than they bring in?

Front Sided Customer Service

Many consumers may decide that they don’t care about these questions. It might be the very reason the expectations are lowered, the quality becomes just enough, and the best customer service happens before the sale.

For the consumer: Be very careful about the offer on the front side, it may be a signal for the rest of your customer experience.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: sales

Dec 17

-

Right Answers

Many Possibilities

Customer Experience Mathematics

Dec 17

-

Large Funnels

Abundance and Complacency

Customer Sales Funnel

Dec 17

-

Based On The Few

Front Line Reach

Customer Service Impact

Running The Marathon

Oct 17

-

Transactional vs. Consultative

Consultative Sales

Want and Need

Oct 17

-

Being Right

Pull More Than Push

Oct 17

-

Service Economy Shifts

Service Economy Customer Service

Oct 17

-

Bigger or Changed?

Understanding of Customer Needs

Sep 17

-

Same Thing Different Flavor

No Words Just Expressions

Happy Customer Service

Aug 17

-

Computer Forensics

Digital Footprints

Aug 17

-

Back Sided Experiences

Customer Focused

Front Sided Customer Service

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