Smile, its your most valuable asset…
March 24th, 2008
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… said the sign at the McDonalds at the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre (on the Sunshine Coast in Australia - where I have been holidaying the last few days). Pity about the four staff on the front counter (including the manager) who didn’t believe that they needed to show off their most valuable asset.
Same thing goes for your vision or mission statement… it is all good having it up on the wall in reception.. but are ALL your staff living and breathing that statement, or the core values it represents?
Just because you have a sign up doesn’t mean it is real… especially for your customers.
Your challenge this week - make it real.
Are you selling the problem first?
January 9th, 2008
Being the first week or so back after the Christmas/New Years, many folk at work have been taking the opportunity to take a fresh look at the way they do things… looking for improvements to drive towards their end of financial year targets.
We sat in a workshop yesterday, with one of the most profitable sections of our business. You would think that if they were one of the most profitable teams they would have their sales pitch perfect. As a matter of fact it was one of the worst I have ever seen!
It is a problem that I would say (gut feel) 80% of all sales pitches I have seen suffer from. Going straight for the features and benefits, the speeds and feeds. Sure, you will snag a few people that fall for the hype (or just the big numbers), but you can be so much more successful by doing one small thing. In fact, if you get this bit right, you probably wont even need to worry about the speeds and feeds…
Sell the problem first.
Here is something to live buy - if you are in sales (especially B2B)… unless the prospect has budget they have to burn on that day… if the customer is not convinced that there is a problem, a risk, or a significant opportunity cost… then you have next to no chance of selling them something that solves it.
Simple.
The best part of our workshop yesterday is that the team we were talking with… they are actually solving a problem which if it occurred would cause significant business interruption.
That 2 hour workshop simply to refine a sales pitch (at next to no cost to our business) I expect will improve their hit rate quite substantially. Conservatively by 40-50%. Now that is Marketing making a difference!
2008 is still young… take the time to talk to your sales folk… ask them to pitch to you… and then play devils advocate… I mean the customer 
Your sales people will thank you for it (maybe!)
