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'Sales Problem of the Month'
InternationalAgUniversity™ Free E-Zine
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'Sales Problem of the Month'
Hello!
Answers will be printed in the next issue.
A very good customer of the dealership tells you in confidence that he does not like dealing with one of your sales people. He threatens to take his business somewhere else unless you assign another sales person to him. Your dealership has had assigned territories and has strict rules on that.
This is your most experienced sales person. Other customers love him and the reports are great. He also produces consistently well and his sales numbers are usually increasing rather than decreasing. You know he will be upset if you assign someone else to his account.
How would you handle this situation?
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Problem of the Month Submissions
For those new to the "Sales Problem of the Month" , let me explain a little. Each month we'll be posting a problem. We hope that participants will think outside the box and propose the best solution. Top answers will be published to our new website where managers and sales professionals all over the world can comment and discuss options.
Please submit your response via the button below; I look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to connect with me for more information or if you have a specific sales question
Remember, there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. These questions are meant to challenge your sales knowledge and allow you to exercise what you have learned in a professional sales setting and receive feedback. We appreciate everyone taking the time to participate in these problems and very much look forward to your submissions.
Email me at d.gross@iau.ag or use the links below to connect with me.
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| CLICK TO VISIT OUR NEW BLOG PAGE |
Here you can find all of our most recent Sales Problems and the top answers we received from sales professionals all over the world. Feel free to leave a comment or reply to other comments. We hope to create a global network of sales teams, where everyone can learn new ideas and concepts to help them in their sales operations.
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Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management is becoming a crucial part of sales-teams operations as client numbers increase, people retire and an ongoing trend of obtaining information on potential buyers is becoming increasingly important. Its to a point where traditional methods of organizing clients is being phased out and replaced by software that keeps the whole organization integrated; moreover allows individual sales persons to sort and create detailed databases for their clients.
Here are the top reasons why a CRM Software could benefit your sales process:
1) Improved Sales Management
Makes salespeople more effective and productive, can access and input more detailed and accurate information, and can react instantly to client requests that can be streamlined across the organization.
2) New Lead Conversion Rates Improve
As salespeople know more about their customers and make increasingly more targeted sales, the information gathered can be kept in a database for additional sales that relate to original purchase.
3) Existing Customers Become More Valuable
As salespeople are able to target them with more informed and relevant offers, more potential sales arise due to the amount of information that can be stored on each prospect.
4) Organizing Profitable and Non-Profitable Clients
Often time marketing efforts and prospecting to unprofitable clients is a regular part of doing business in any sales job. With CRM Software you can mitigate and sort through your buyers and tire-kickers. Ultimately by sorting your customers you can put more time in areas that will yield more sales.
5) The Inherent Ripple Effect
Customer Relationship Management integration will transform the way your business operates, it will help you win more customers, and manage the ones you already have more effectively and efficiently, all while helping boost revenue with time management alone. Overall it will reduce inefficiencies across your organization while additionally making your sales teams process more adaptive and flexible.
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Dave's Interesting Facts of the Month
What Motivates Potential Buyers
Interestingly enough, peoples basic needs come into play when they are making purchasing decisions. These needs are food, water and sleep as I am sure everyone is aware. It may not seem important, but if your client is hungry, thirsty or tired; their chances of buying something drop significantly. Many dealerships have popcorn machines and complimentary goods ready to go so clients are less likely to be experiencing discomfort due to these psychographic factors.
Be an Opinion Leader
An Opinion Leader is an individual in a certain field that has an expertise in a certain area within an industry. Salespeople should strive to be this type of reference group as, these kind of salespeople have the most influence on their clients. Opinion Leaders breadth of knowledge typically gives them a credibility advantage and that their information carries more weight in a discussion. These types of people generally focus on relationship building by accentuating their knowledge base to gain leverage in a deal.
Influence Your Clients Perceptions
Where one person views Gucci as a luxurious purse, there is someone on the other end of the spectrum that views it as an overpriced handbag, and you as the sales person are the front line at influencing on how they perceive the item. Make sure you know how your customer views the products you are about to propose before you propose them. If their perception contradicts your sales pitch, you are setting yourself up for failure before you've even started. Build your offering around what you know is important to them.
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'The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People'
STEPHAN R. COVEY, 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. SIMON & SCHUSTER LTD, 2013.
1) Be Proactive
Rather than reacting to things happening around you and external forces in which you have little to no control, focus attention to areas in which you have an influence.
2) Begin with the End in Mind
Develop a principle-based personal mission and extend that mission into long term objectives based on principles that mean something to you.
3) Put First Things First
Spend a majority of your time doing things that co-align with your mission and observe the proper balance between production and building production capacity.
4) Think Win/Win
Rather then trying to have things your way, seek out opportunities to make agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases where a Win/Win solution cannot be reached, accept the fact that agreeing to make no deal may be the best alternative.
5) Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
First seek to understand the other person, and their needs. Then only seek to be understood. This can be the most important principle in interpersonal relations. Listen empathically for both feeling and meaning and you will begin to develop a better understanding of your customers and their needs.
6) Synergize
Through careful and trustful communication, find ways to leverage differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. In other words, mutual trust and understanding can evoke better solutions than each individuals own.
7) Sharpen the Saw
Take time out of production and focus more on production capacity through personal renewal of all your emotional and physical dimensions. Always make time for yourself and create a balance among things regardless of how busy you are.
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Tips, Trends and Tactic
Management Tools
Incentivizing desirable outcomes is nothing new to the sales industry, but often times is undermined do to ambiguous results and a unclear purpose. In a job where your sales ability dictates your salary at the end of the month its hard to imagine any effort would influence sales teams motivation to sell more.
Incentive competition within the industry can be a great way to boost moral and competitiveness within the organization. It can also boost sales and drive prospecting to new customers. Alternatively though, it can signify that management feels that sales teams are falling short of objectives and need to pick up their sales game. This can give a sense of uncertainty and loss sense of security and stability which can work against you.
It is important to discuss your companies short and long term objectives within the selling team structure you have put together, that way everyone can feel like their suggestions are being considered. Once you have a sales team that is collaborative and cohesive, ideas can flourish and be nurtured into the companies structure.
By having your sales-team involved in more business level decisions you are creating a line of communication that allows ideas and concepts to flow freely within your organization which can tie up loose ends and ensure your sales teams are in synergy.
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Price and Pleasure
So If price determines value in the eyes of the consumer, what really separates a good product from a bad product, at least from a fundamental perspective.
bad we make it good in our perception. Same as when we pay less for something, we are often surprised when its value goes beyond our expectations.really If we pay a lot for something, we need it to be good or we are dissatisfied. So if it’s not This is a reflection of how we consistently and inadvertently create our own reality.
ACTUAL VALUE
This is the value that is derived from its inherent purpose and how functional and well it serves its user.
The actual value of an item.
The best example of this phenomenon is seen in air travel. Flying economy, business class and flying first class. All three come with noticeable differences in price, but at the end of the day you all arrive at the same time. It all comes down to what you value in a flight, do you just want to arrive there or do you want a fancy dinner during your trip, or extra leg room. There is no doubt that there is added value in each instance, but again if you want to measure actual value, they are all the same.
You can use this when determining what piece of equipment you are matching up with your clients needs and finding out what properties that individual attributes value too. I'm sure every farmer would love the $750,000 tractor with the cooled seats and GPS, but when it comes down to what the farmer actually needs, maybe the $100,000 tractor will meet all his needs, save him a fortune and put you in his good books as a salesman not just trying to reap the most profits for the organization he works for.
This is why it is crucial for sales teams to take the extra initiative and get to know their customers. Whether it is a bottle of win, air travel, or their next high ticket tractor investment, you should know exactly what your customer needs so you can deliver exactly that. Price comes second.
To view the original article by James Heaton
Click the video to be directed to the website where the content was found
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