In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell makes the statement that people form opinions of others in the the first two seconds of seeing them. These impressions may or not be accurate. How accurate they are is irrelevant because people act on their first impressions.

I know this is stupid and doesn’t make sense. Heck, I am the same person whether I am wearing a pair of shorts and a tee shirt or if I am wearing a Tuxedo. It’s the person on the inside that counts right. Wrong, according to research that Gladwell points out. Knowing this you would be wise to package and present yourself in the most attractive manner possible. That means dressing in traditionally accepted business attire. Think banker here.

For years I had a full mustache. And a nice one if I do say so myself. I was proud of that mustache and considered it part of my personal identity. However, when I got in sales I read somewhere that 10% of prospects distrusted men with facial hair. So I shaved it off and have had a clean lip ever since.

If you desire to become a powerful person of influence in business you will ignore your personal preferences by packaging and presenting yourself in a manner that will be impressive to the people you are trying to influence and persuade.

In selling it ain’t about you it’s about them.

By Mike Dandridge

Some people aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy. These are the volatile handful known as “difficult customers.” Constantly looking for a flaw in your service, they’ll take advantage of your policies by making requests that sometimes border on the absurd. But, they can also teach you how to deliver the service that you promise. You learn more from the difficult customer than you ever learn from your most loyal. Difficult customers tell you where it hurts.

Listen closely. They’ll tell you what’s missing from your business and might even suggest what you can do about it. Their feedback can be the most brutal, and the most honest gauge of your success. For example, if a customer tells you, People come here as a last resort, consider the accuracy of the statement before immediately dismissing it.

If you have an abundance of difficult customers, it isn’t because you’re unlucky. It’s because you’re doing something wrong. The sooner you figure out what it is and fix it, the sooner you will bring your business back from the precipice of disaster.
Most of the time, you can resolve the legitimate complaint and the absurd demand by using the following strategy.

1. Never argue. This seems to be the toughest rule for salespeople to accept, so let’s repeat it. NEVER ARGUE. Even if you win, you lose. Especially if you win.
2. LISTEN between the lines. Is there an underlying message to your customer’s complaint? Does she feel cheated, ignored or unacknowledged?
3. Appeal to your customer’s nobler motives – his or her sense of fair play. Let the customer know that you trust him or her enough to do what’s fair and right. A question you can use that takes the fire out of most irate customers is, “What would you have me do to make this right?” Most of the time, they will live up to your expectation.
4. Tell the customer what you can do. Never say, “That’s against company policy.” If someone in authority within your company tells you to say that, then you need to reconsider your career with that company. Most customers don’t like rules. Suggest alternatives.

Most salespeople promise great service, but how many actually live up to the promise? Your customers don’t care what you have to say. They’re watching to see what you do. The limiting factor for most of us is that we don’t practice what we preach. Then when a customer calls us on it, we group him into the “hard-to-please” bunch.

The truth is, no matter how good your customer service, there will always be someone who is unhappy about something. The more unhappy customers you turn into happy customers, the more word will spread that you deliver the great service you promise while others only talk about it.

The best advice ever given to me for dealing with a difficult customer, I pass on to you. “Keep your temper and, above all, let your customer save face.”

Mike Dandridge is a marketing consultant and customer service expert. He can be reached at mdhot@mac.com.

The biggest reason may surprise you

According to well documented studies your business loses customers for the following reasons:

1%   die

3% move away

5% leave because of a recommendation from a friend or relative

9% leave because they percieve that another company has better products, serivces or prices than you do

14% leave because they are dissatified with your product or service

Add all of those together and you only have 32%.

That leaves 68% of the customers who defect to your competitors unaccounted for. What other reasons could there possibly be for why customers defect?  It is not what you think.

Buckle your seat belt because the answer will knock your socks off. Here it is. Sixty-Eight (68) percent of customers who leave your company and start doing business with another company do so because they feel taken for granted by employees who display an attitude of indifference.

That’s right they don’t feel appreciated, valued or cared for. It is the same reason why many employees leave jobs and why many wives leave husbands. William James, the father of modern psychology, said that the greatest human emotional need is the need to be recognized and appreciated.

In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the need to be loved and cared for is the third most basic human need behind the physiological need for food and water and the need for shelter and safety.

In our fast paced dehumanized world employees and customers are starved for a little personal attention that validates their existence.

What are you doing to teach your employees how to value and appreciate your customers?  Do you have a customer and employee appreciation practice at your company? Do you really care enough about your customers and employees to make the effort to change?

Recent research and field data from Princeton University support the premise that Emotional Intelligence is a major contributing factor to sales success. Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss in their book The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace evaluated three predictors of job success; Relevant Experience, Emotional Intelligence, and Outstanding IQ. They found that job success could be predicted:

> 71% of the time by the candidate’s Relevant Experience
> 74% of the time by the candidate’s Emotional Intelligence
> 48% of the time by the candidate’s IQ

Goleman and Cherniss go on to say that the higher and more significant the position, the greater the role Emotional Intelligence plays. In fact, at the Top Sales and Senior Executive level, EI factors are as much as 80% responsible for long-term success.

According to Stephen Blakesley, President of Management Systems, Inc., numerous studies specific to sales and Emotional Intelligence found:

In one organization, sales reps with high EI were 127 times more productive than sales reps that had average EI.
 
In another large, multinational organization sales people selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence sold, on average $91,370 more annually than other sales people in the organization.
 
Additionally, those selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence had 63% less turnover during the first year than those selected based on experience.
 
No doubt about it. Emotional Intelligence is more important than experience when it comes to success in sales.
 
Want to find out how to Hire Sales Superstars?

Good Selling

Steve Clark
 

Twice in the last week insurance clients have called to say that they lost their number one account. In one case it cost the agent $80,000 in lost commissions and in the other the loss was over $50,000. In both cases these agents had maintained these accounts for several years. So what happened?

We could speculate as to why these agents lost this business, but we will never really be sure. However, both cases share some common threads. Both accounts originally started with the agent dealing one on one with the owner. As time passed and the businesses grew, the owners became less involved in the insurance decisions and delegated those decisions to a staff member. The agent was essentially handed off to someone with whom they had little or no relationship.

As each of these agents related their side of the story to me, it became apparent that the agent had mistakenly assumed that they no longer needed to nurture, strengthen and grow the relationships within the company. They essentially had taken the existing relationship for granted and had failed to realize that they needed to continue to “court and woo” their client. It is the same mistake that marriage partners make when they begin to take their spouse for granted.

A parable explains this well. A man who was dying was presented with the option of visiting both heaven and hell to see where he would like to spend eternity.

When he visited heaven he observed a very serene and peaceful atmosphere. The streets were paved with gold and angels floated through the air playing harps and cellos. People munched on nectar and fruit and were friendly, though somewhat sedated and tranquil. Not a bad place at all.

When he visited hell he was shocked. Instead of fire and brimstone there were people dancing and partying and drinking. There was a great variety and abundance of sumptuous and delectable foods. People were laughing and telling jokes and it reminded him of his college fraternity days.

When it came time to choose, he chose hell. You can’t really blame him can you?

When he died and got there it was horrible. People were wailing and screaming. It was miserably hot and not a drop of water to be had. The only food available were scraps that people fought over viciously.

Unable to comprehend what had happened he asked his host, “When I took the tour there were people dancing and partying and drinking. There was a great variety and abundance of sumptuous and delectable foods. People were laughing and telling jokes. What happened?”

With a grin on his face and a gleam in his eye his host responded and said, “before you were a prospect now you are a client.”

The moral: The way you keep clients is to treat them, after they become a customer, the same as you did before they became a customer.