Mental downward spiral

Working for myself one of the biggest challenges I seem to face is not understanding when I have done a good job.  Why do I find this a challenge?  By not acknowledging the good things I do I generally get caught up in the general problems of my world, where am I going to find the time to do that? Why hasn’t that person paid me yet? Where am I going to find the people for my next seminar?  Will I have enough cash flow to pay my bills? Will I be able to spend this weekend with my family or am I going to have to work again …. and the tail spin continues, day in, day out, week in and week out.

As any business owner will tell you, there is only one place you go when your head is in that type of tail spin and it isn’t a good place, I had one of these moments a couple of months ago, when a good friend of mine asked the question “when was the last time you acknowledged you did a good job?” on stopping to think about this I honestly couldn’t remember a time when I said to myself “well done”!!  OMG I had become the type of boss I always hated, complained about all the problems but never acknowledged the good, the only consolation was it only impacted on one member of staff ME!!

My friend asked me how my business was going, how many new customers did I bring on board this month so far?  How many quotes have I sent out?  How many people have I talked about my business too?  By the time I had answered his questions he turned to me and said “I thought you said there was nothing good happening in your business?” I felt so stupid, here’s me, motivator of businesses falling into the very trap I tell and show others how to avoid, I wasn’t practising what I preach!!  To me this is one of the biggest challenges a business owner or sole operator faces, a lack of gratitude for the work they do!!  So how do we over come this?

Regular Reality Checks

My friend had it sorted, although he worked on his own, he and his wife would sit down at the start of each week and do a reality check and discuss  all aspects of the business.  Having gone through this process myself, I can tell you it is a great way of acknowledging the work done as well as providing a focus for the work to come.  Here are some of the areas I have looked at and acknowledged:

• I talked to 50 new people about my business helping to build its’ awareness in the market place.
• I secured 6  new customers this month so far.
• I have sent out 5 proposals last week for new business
• I outsourced an aspect of my business that I just could not do, I gave it to an expert who in turn helped my business!!
• I co-hosted a seminar last week to a group of people who had never heard of me whose feedback afterwards was great.
• I have been asked back to present to another like minded group of people the following week
• Most of my clients paid their invoice on time.
• I set aside some time to complete my admin for the month to date and completed everything I needed to.

It doesn’t matter how small the good thing is, it is worth acknowledging, keeping the positive in focus makes it easier to continue to drive positive results in the business and this particular exercise allowed me to sharpen my focus on all the good things I bring to the business and the good things the business brings to me!!

What do you do to stay positive in your business?  Do you even find it an issue?  Do you do something similar to this or have you other techniques that you use and if so what are they?  Please let me know, if I can pass on some of what you do to make another business owners life just that little bit easier then it is another job well done

For years in my early career in retail it was drilled into me on a daily (if not hourly) basis that the key to being successful in sales was to have exceptional customer service levels, why, because people are comfortable buying from people that are polite, courteous and care about their needs.  Today as a consumer I will not tolerate bad customer service even if the price is great (from a Scotsman that’s saying something!) I’d rather walk out than pay them the money, but if I get good customer service and they have what I need, I will go back to that business first if I need something similar.

Question:  If I walk away from a business because their service is appalling and go off to their competition and purchase from them, how then can it be said that customer service should not be considered as a distinguishing factor between businesses?

Another Question:  Am I the only person out there that thinks this way?  Are you happy to hand money over to people that quite frankly don’t care?  Please let me know I’m curious to find out if I am a dying species!!

How do you Improve Customer Service?

From my many years in retail and other service industries I have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly …. feel free to argue this point!) that you cannot train your staff in customer service, you can train them in selling skills, you can train them to communicate effectively but customer service comes from within, an individual has to want to help a complete stranger; they have to haven an attitude like “I’ll do whatever I can to help you with your requirements” .  We aren’t all natural do gooders, not all of us spring out of bed in the morning and say “I wonder who I can help today..”, this is why I believe great customer service in a business is a culture.  It is an infectious belief from the business owner or CEO that through constant reinforcement and through example influences the beliefs and attitudes of the rest of the people in the organisation.  A classic example that springs to mind is Virgin Air, led for years by Richard Branson, he has managed to grow his business world wide, but no matter where you are in the world the staff have an overwhelming need to satisfy their customers, that whole culture has been developed by one man’s vision, passion and belief.

When I talk about customer service I am talking both internal and external business customers, internal customers being other people within your business maybe from another department, it could also refer to your suppliers and contractors; external is anyone else who comes in contact with your business to help them find a solution to their needs.

If you start a culture of respecting and doing whatever you can for each other within your business then this attitude can only flow through to your customers which will manifest itself in great customer service.

Before you start really thinking about your products and the needs of your clients  its important to understand why people buy products (or services) in the first place. Now there are many theories on this but I would like to talk about a favorite of mine that I came across several years ago and that is the Customer Value Hierarchy Theory.

This theory talks about a product not just in a physical sense but also in a psychological sense meaning that your product not only needs to fulfill a physical need or benefit to the customer it also must meet the emotional needs and wants of the customer. This theory breaks the process down to three levels of need and if all these levels then the reasoning for the customer to buy the product will be easily justified.

Core Benefit Level

This is the first level, customers will purchase your product because of the functional benefit your product has to offer e.g. if you sell cell phones they will buy your cell phone so they can talk / text to others. This satisfies their basic needs of communication when on the move. Most products (including a cell phone) will do much more than allowing the user to talk or text, when a customer is considering more than just talking or texting they then look at the product from the Expected Product Level.

Expected Product Level

At this level other features and associated benefits of a product get taken into consideration, can the cell phone take pictures and to what quality, can I browse the internet, can I check emails or can I play music or videos; the list goes on. If your product addresses the needs of the core benefit and can also address the needs of the expected product level then you are well on your way to achieving the sale but there is one more level that can have a deciding factor on whether they buy the product from you and that is fulfilling the Augmented Product Level.

Augmented Product Level

This level time and time again is often the deciding factor for any potential customer when they are looking at purchasing your product why? The customer considers the value they receive from your sales team and after sales support, any warranties, free deliveries, maybe free installation, any service that can enhance the product or make their life that bit easier.

By looking at each of your products / services using this particular model it will give you a far better understanding as to whether or  not your product meets the physical needs of the customer and by understanding the value to the customer at the Augmented Product Level you will be in a far better position to a) understand the true value of your product / service to the client and b) use that information in the sales process to resonate better with your future client.  Ensuring all your products and services meet your clients needs in all three areas will ensure a happy client thus a loyal client.

Why choose one or the other, why not consider both?

Lets take a field sales team as an example, this part of any team is invaluable to any company in both hunting for new business and for managing current clients (check out Sales Rep or Account Manager blog) but is sales training enough.  These individuals are often responsible for working on their own with limited supervision, in charge of large geographical territories with 10’s if not 100’s of accounts, how does sales training help them manage their time, prioritise their customers and plan their call cycles?    That’s right it doesn’t!!

The point I’m trying to get to here for business owners and managers of sales teams is that when you are thinking about developing  or looking at new ways of motivating your team don’t necessarily go to the same field and re-plough it; yes there may be a case that some of your sales team may need to do a refresher course in sales techniques and if that is the case then go ahead and do it but consider ploughing a different field; give them the opportunity to develop in other ways and watch their levels of motivation climb even higher, give them some management training.

In my experience with sales representatives and account managers a two pronged approach works very well give them the management tools of Time Management and how to Prioritise their Day.  This gives them sound principals in what to consider when prioritising task whilst understanding a bit more about tools that can help them manage time more efficiently along with creating an awareness of the type of things that can negatively effect time management.  With this knowledge it is then easier to talk about how to Farm your Client Base more efficiently, what to consider when prioritising who you visit, look at the different avenues out there to ensure you company name is always fore front in your clients minds and specifically look at ways of getting more out of each client meeting.

Hopefully you can see how a two pronged approach to sales and management training can really help your sales teams in the field going forward.

Please feel free to let me know your views on this especially if you have received training like this

If you want to know more about this type of training for your team, please contact me for a no obligation chat.

]]> http://davesewell.co.nz/sales-staff-training-but-not-in-sales/feed/ 0 http://davesewell.co.nz/sales-training-can-your-business-afford-not-to/ http://davesewell.co.nz/sales-training-can-your-business-afford-not-to/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 18:00:04 +0000 Dave http://davesewell.co.nz/?p=1116 It has been an interesting time lately, world trying to come out of a global recession, Europe looks like it may be plunged back into it again, as a result our dollar is taking a pounding along with the other currencies and all through this kiwi business is battling on.  So what can we do to make sure our own businesses do not fall victim to any recession, why not speculate to accumulate, take advantage of the slower pace of our economy and have all your sales teams (including the business owner) do a refresher course on sales, process and technique.

... of course you can sell ice to Eskimos ...

I know what you’re thinking this is just a simple plug for my Sales Training courses, and yes I admit whole heartedly there is a potential connection (feel free to make that connection ) but on a serious note I hear all to often of companies big and small not doing the basics when it comes to sales and customer retention and because of that I feel the need to part with some general advice and things for your to think about.

Sales Techniques

There is enough information out there to sink the titanic regarding how to sell something and what you are about to read is not going to re-write the book, but I want to remind all you business out there that whether you have a full sales team or whether you are a one man band peddling your wears these techniques still apply!!

• Opening the Sales Process – First impressions count, our brains are such powerful mechanisms that they can asses a person, situation, object in as little as 3 seconds and by 20 seconds the brain will have decided what type of person it is looking at, are they a threat or not, is the situation itself hostile or safe and is the object being observed look as if it will harm me or benefit me.  That is why you have such a limited window of opportunity to make that right impression, if successful you will be off to a great start, if not you’d be as well going home!!

• Identifying needs not wants – One of the hardest part of the sales process (next to closing the sale) is to properly identify exactly what it is your customer needs. What is the real reason for them to come and see you, how do you stop yourself making assumptions about your customer, can you distinguish the difference between what your customer wants as opposed to what they need or are they one of the same thing, you get this right and the sale will be all but secured.
• Add on Sales –  It is more cost effective for any business to sell more than one product at any one time as the business only has to pay for the one sales process. If done correctly you may be helping your customer too!
• Closing the Sale – For many professionals who are not in the sales industry this part of the selling process tends to be the most difficult, asking someone for the business.  This can be made less daunting especially if you know what type of buying signals to look out for, for example if the customer continually agrees with what you are saying, they may start inquiring about other products that go with the main item, they may ask about warranties and they may even take their wallet out!!  Read the signs and take appropriate action immediately.

There are other process that go on during a sale but get the basics above right and you’ll find you and your team will convert more and more sales, once you have the customer you then need to look after them but more about that on my next blog.  Happy selling

The Sales Rep

Every business owner loves to hate the sales rep “we have a few coming through every week always pushing their products, I refuse to see them now” and often as a sales rep you’ll come across signs outside office buildings “No Sales Reps unless  by prior appointment”; and how hard is it to get that prior appointment!!  To me sales reps are the “hunters” of the sales world, they are focused on generating a predefined income for their employer and where ever possible they will over achieve because of the typical financial incentives that make it worth their while.  Because of these financial incentives and the pressure they put the sales rep under their ongoing customer service tends to be lacking (I am talking generally – if you are a sales rep reading this that does have great customer service then I apologise but I challenge you with one question, I bet you know many other reps that are like this!!) why, because they are after the next sale, the next new customer, their targets do not give them the time / luxury to spend much of their time looking after existing customers …….. that’s the boss job, right?

The Account Manager

Often businesses will categorise account managers long side sales reps and try to avoid them as much as possible, in my mind account managers differ from sales reps in that they are the “farmers” of the sales world, there focus is as much on retention as it is on new business.  More often than not an account manager’s financial package will have an element of new sales targets and current customer retention targets, making the account manager’s focus on ongoing customer service and relationship building far more important than that of the sales rep.

As an employer of a sales team you need to decide what it is exactly that you want from them and create a job role that compliments the goals and objectives of your business, if you own a car yard for instance, there will be less value in hiring an account manager over a sales rep because the vast majority of the work required is selling the next car, you couldn’t afford for your sales reps to be off visiting your customers to make sure the car they bought last year is still running well.  Equally if you are running a communications network an account manager would have more value than a sales rep because once that customer is on your network it makes sense to have them actively managed to ensure the competition don’t win them over and steal them on to their network.

In summary, a Sales Rep is a one hit wonder, they make the sale and move on to the next potential customer whilst the Account Manager makes a sale but is also responsible for retaining that customer in the longer term.

Agree or disagree, I would be interested in your thoughts.

If you are going through a similar dilemma in your business please feel free to contact me to discuss further.

How many of you out there have bought into a business and spent the same amount or more without knowing the first thing about managing a business, yes put your hand up and no you are not alone!!

In my capacity as a Small Business Development Specialist I recently came across a business owner who openly admitted that he thought he had a natural ability as a leader but he continually put himself down because he could never be a manager.  There is a couple of points here, firstly what is a “natural” leader?  If he thinks he can lead why can’t he manage?  What is a leader and how does that differ from being a manager is a discussion for another blog, today I want to concentrate on how to become a manager.

Firstly, managing is a learned skill, to continue my analogy with driving a car, yes sure you could jump into a car without first learning to drive and you will probably have a vague idea of how you think it should be driven because you have watched plenty of other people do it in the past.  The reality is that once you have started the car and your out on the road there is a good chance you may get to your destination but in the process you may have an accident or two, you may upset a lot of other drivers on the road but if you are lucky you may get to where you are going, if you are not, you may end up in a serious accident with your car being written off.

This really is no different to owning and running a business, you are good a what you do, you decide to invest into a business (whether it is existing or a new business, it makes no difference) put all your hard earned savings into it and off you go.  Now if you have never learnt the basic principals of management the chances are your business will bumble along slowly, you may upset a few customers on the way, you may even run into trouble with suppliers, your bank or your staff and you may come out the other side successfully ……. or you may not!!

Learning to manage a business is not too hard, it is a skill, it must be learnt, it isn’t natural and yes anyone can do it.  There are plenty resources out there to help you learn the basic (and more advanced) principles of management, some of which are as follows:

Time Management - Plan your day, week, month and year.  Know what you need to be doing and when you need to do it.  Schedule your regular meetings, plan some time for the paperwork, plan regular time to work on your business as well as in your business.

Man Management - Know the true cost of a single man hour of work, how does that differ amongst your staff, do you have the right staff member doing a particular job, could another do it that does not cost as much.  Know how many man hours it takes to do key tasks or provide your customers with key services and understand how you can manage your staff to get the greatest productivity for the lowest man hour cost. Are you doing too much, can you delegate to others, indeed should you delegate to others.

Delegation - Know how and when to delegate, take into consideration, who has the proper skills to do the job, who has the time to do the job, if I give the job to that person how will it affect their stress levels thus their ability to do the job?

Motivating Your Team - What makes your staff tick, how do you find this out, how will it affect how you work with them and incentive them.  what works for some may not work for all so how do you keep all your staff happy and motivated.

There are many other aspects of managing your business and the people in and around your business so don’t be upset if you don’t know how to manage but do take the steps to begin learning how to become an effective manager.

Unique to Dave Sewell Training & Support for Retail & Small Business are a series of management training courses designed to be held at your work premises, each lasting no more than one hour and collectively are designed to take you and /or your staff through a broad understanding of management  processes, giving tips and skills to ensure you can maximise the general operation of your business

Training your staff ensures that you business stays up to date in these areas, with that comes increased efficiency and all going well increased turnover & profit. For this to happen all that is needed is a little bit of time and money to organise and carry out the training, it’s like everything else in the business you put resources in to get more resources out!!

How many training courses have you been on in your life time that quite frankly have not been interesting or maybe you have fallen asleep during them.  As a business owner there is no point in investing time and money in training your staff for this to happen, training people, like most other things we do in this world is a learned skill and one that continually changes and improves with use and time.  Here are some tips for those business owners who want to continuing training their staff but can’t afford to put them on courses away from the business.

Attention - Help the learner understand why today’s training session is important to them. Why should the learner work hard to master the content of the training; if you can answer that you will be well on your way!!

Information - Most adults have a variety of learning styles so for that reason your training should be delivered in methods that suit the learners.  Think of utilising methods like, written, visuals, live action, audio and practice to name but a few.

Process with Experience - All adults compare new information with their previous knowledge and experience.  As a trainer you need to give them the chance to reflect, question and compare.  Group discussions are great for this process, drawing on experience from several people in the group can really help re-iterate the point of the discussion or put it into perspective for the business.

Conclusion & Understanding - It is the learner`s job to draw conclusions for themselves about how the training will be used. All learners have their own unique perspective, experience, and learning style, and that will affect how they finally understand the training. The trainers job is help the learners move through the material in an orderly and effective way, giving them time to practice new skills, and draw their own conclusions.

Do you want to be able to train your own staff, now you can….

Unique to Dave Sewell Training & Support for Retail & Small Business are a series of management training courses designed to be held at your work premises, each lasting no more than one hour and collectively are designed to take your staff through a broad understanding of management  processes, giving them tips and skills to ensure they can maximise the general operation of your business; Training the Trainer is the last of eight modules taking your staff through that process.

Want to know more, contact me for more information and a free consult to discuss your business’s potential needs.

Not that I’m trying to make excuses for my [then] foul mood but my day started at some god awful time in the morning around 4.30am when my [normally] wonderful 8 week old son wakes me up with a couple of good ear splitting screams, apparently he was getting all pissy because mum interrupted his early morning breakfast to wind him – mental note mum – DON’T interrupt our son when he’s feeding, like his father he gets rather upset – it’s a blokey thing!!!

Anyway, I manage to get another couple of ours before getting up to get on with the usual Saturday chores, you know the ones, washing, hoovering, gardening (grass cutting week this week) and oh yes almost forgot the dreaded supermarket shop!!  Now in days not long past my wife and I would go and do the food shopping together, neither of us liked the job but we would often have a laugh when we both went but since little Lachlan arrived into this world and mum has been recovering from that traumatic arrival it has been down to me to get the food.

Trolley tunnel vision!!

It’s early afternoon (mistake number one), what was I thinking, every man and his dog (sorry, I should say every granny and her trolley) are out shopping at this time of day, but it would be okay I brought along my MP3 player, yes that’s right people I have an MP3 player I have up until now resisted buying an iPod although I have to say I would love an iPhone … sorry I deviate … focus!  So I put on my MP3 player (mistake number 2) and march into the super market like a man on a mission, I grab a trolley but unbeknown to me it has a dodgy front wheel, had I not had my music on I would have realised this straight away cause it was the one with the proverbial squeaky wheel and it stuck intermittently!!

I get through the fruit and veg section at the start, turn into the second aisle, nothing, no fizzy drinks, no just juice, no V8 fruit and veg juice (it’s nice try it!!), I’m thinking great, it’s a busy Saturday afternoon and some idiot has decided to re-merchandise the store, hello, someone needs to take my course on Prioritising Your Day because a big re-merchandising move on one of the busiest days of the week really is not a priority!!!

All was not lost I found what I was looking for on the next aisle, but what used to be there, oh no I can’t remember I knew at this point I was going to forget things and there was no way my wife was going to believe they changed the store round (the fact that the shopping list was still on the fridge was definitely going to work against me), never mind press on.

Now I often look at the younger generation and think, your ears are going to be shot by the time you’re my age why?  They all, almost without exception walk round in their own little world with there music blasting in their ears and now I know how that felt, it was okay, I’m walking down the baked bean aisle and I’m hoping I’m not singing out load “… down at the bottom of a pit in a blazing storm, torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike…” (10 points if you can name that song!!) when I hear something for a split second I was going to dismiss it but that little voice in my head is shouting “pay attention”, I remove one of my ear pieces and this little old lady is trying to have a conversation with me, “have you found the tinned soup” she says, what tinned soup, don’t you know the best bit of the song is coming up, can’t you see I have things plugged into my ears which means go away I ain’t in a good mood!! …. “yes, they’re back there on the left” I said all the while my MP3 player is screaming “…. and I think some body, some where must be towing a bell…” (got it yet!).

Coming through, get out of my way!!

I plug myself in having helped the old lady, feeling good that I helped her, feeling bad that I found her annoying and on I went, on to the aisle with the pasta, now parents listen up, if you think your child can drive a trolley and you let them, for crying out load keep an eye on them because tired, grumpy fathers pushing dodgy trolleys will mow them down like a rugby player, shunt them out the way or at the very least catch their heels!!  There is just no need to be taking up an entire aisle whilst you are deciding to go for twisted or shell shaped pasta!!

Several aisles later it’s getting to the end of my song, it’s building up to its finale “…like a bat out of hell I’ll be gone when the morning comes ..” (yes I know you knew), I’m thumping away lost in the moment when yet again, the same little old lady asks me something, I’m thinking, what’s wrong with you woman, can’t you see I am building up for the songs finale, cant’ you see I ….. steady, she just needs your help; “have you seen the bread son?”, bugger me she’s right I have come to the end of my shop and there is not a loaf in site, what is going on!!!  I replied “no sorry I haven’t maybe it is next to the bakery?” a logical place you might be thinking, but not in this store (normally) but today it WAS next to the bakery, right back at the entrance to the store , so off I trot back to the beginning trying to get through the till queues, they are like the Christchurch drivers, no-one ever gives way, sorry I wont get started on that subject!!!

I manage to get my bread, get through the tills and home, and yes I forgot my wife’s yoghurt for her cereal!!!

My therapy session since has gone well

I don’t know how many times I here a business owner or manager say “if it wasn’t for the staff this job would be great”, like it or not most of us need staff to complete the work we do for our customers.  Generally speaking the type of business owner or manager that comes out with a comment like this usually struggles with the concept and the importance of motivating staff.  Think back to a time when you were happy in your job, that may be now or it may have been in a previous job but ask yourself what type of environment did you work in?  Did you have a great boss?  Did you have a genuine interest in what you were doing?  What were your colleagues like, were they more like friends?  Did you have a better salary?

Toys are what makes me tick!!

I’m going to stick my neck out on the proverbial chopping block and say that you will have positive responses to all these questions except the last, the pay, thus we break the greatest assumption that money buys happiness in the work place.

Let me give you a couple of example of what I’m trying to get at; other than what I am doing now, my best job was when I was 17 years old, I worked for a sports retailer on a government scheme designed to get school leavers into work, the money was terrible (I was on 50 pence (UK) an hour even in that day it was very poor, so why do I look on it with fondness?

Firstly I had a great manager, Andy Croney, I still remember his name, he was good at managing the store but he kept the atmosphere a happy one, I received a lot of training both in sales and product knowledge which allowed me to develop very quickly, we had a small team but a great team, the dynamics worked well between us which flowed into a good social group out of work.  My manager left and his replacement Kenny Donaldson took up where Andy left off and continued in a similar management style, Kenny was a bit more adventurous in some of his methods of stock management which very much rubbed off on me, because of my rate of development Kenny shortlisted me for management training (age 18), I was accepted and within a year was managing my first store.

One of the worst jobs I had was my previous one, the pay was obviously significantly better, but there was no personal development, my manager was never around to pass on his wisdom and advice, I was left to my own devices in an office which surrounded me with staff that had been there for years and never stopped complaining, my bonuses were good but it did nothing to stop me feeling insecure and unhappy in my job.

When it comes to staff it is essential that the business owner of manager understands what motivates in and outside work, this information can be used to devise incentives, it may be used to help develop them further within the business, it will lead to a happier work place, increased sales and a lower staff turnover thus costs to the business.

Let me be very clear about something, the manager or business owner that thinks giving a staff a pay rise is the best way to motivate them, is wrong, a pay rise is only good for about one month, why, because the vast majority of us adjust our life style to suit our means and once that adjustment has been made the novelty of the pay rise disappears.

In my experience the best way to keep your staff motivated is to identify what makes them tick, is it money, do they have a specific interest, do they want rise through the ranks in your company, maybe they are about to buy a house (stability of job may be the key motivator), may be they are about to start a family (flexible hours may be their key motivator), what ever it is there is a duty to all managers and business owners to find out what they key motivator is.  Once it is identified then training programs, incentive schemes, working hours and general work conditions can be refined to ensure your staff are happy and motivated and most importantly loyal.

Want to know learn more about techniques to motivate your staff …………..

Unique to Dave Sewell Training & Support for Retail & Small Business are a series of management training courses designed to be held at your work premises, each lasting no more than one hour and collectively are designed to take your staff through a broad understanding of management  processes, giving them tips and skills to ensure they can maximise the general operation of your business; Motivating Employees is the seventh of eight modules taking your staff through that process.

Want to know more, contact me for more information and a free consult to discuss your business’s potential needs.