Symptoms:
Kenny was feeling the pressure. His sales manager was looking for a big quarter after his rep agency had added three new lines and two of their existing lines had rolled out two new products that needed to launch successfully. All these opportunities looked great on paper, but Kenny was already buried by the service that he was required to deliver to his wholesale partners in the marketplace. It seemed every time Kenny felt he had finally gotten out from under all the service work on his plate that a new pile came his way. Did his sales manager honestly think there was time to prospect these new lines and products? There is only so much time in a day, Kenny thought as he read the email with the sales goals he was expected to hit.
Diagnosis:
Kenny’s situation is happening out in the world of selling every single day. Sales success creates service expectation, and to many salespeople it means something must give. To those that have not figured out how to balance service and prospecting the expectation to keep growing sales and keeping customers happy seems to be an impossible task. Kenny felt he was already stretched too thin with the time he was devoting to work and the fact that he had a new child at home and a wife that needed a hand with their three other kids. To say he felt like he was stuck between a rock and hard place would be an understatement to describe Kenny’s plight.
Prescription:
There is no better time to prospect than when you’ve been successful dealing with a service situation at one of your existing clients. They see the value you deliver after the sale, and you are already in the building, so you don’t need to ask for another appointment. Your other products are right there so it is much easier to cross sell the products that make up your line. Cross selling is exponentially more efficient than looking for new customers because the trust is already there with both the salesperson and the products. Developing a plan to prospect on every service call is just good business strategy. Use that valuable access to ask for an appointment to sell on your next visit. Don’t let problems that require service derail your efforts to maximize your time and selling energy by failing to plan the new products or additional products you want to sell to your existing customers. Time is too valuable to waste these abundant opportunities to grow your business.
Critical Thinking:
An existing customer is 3-8 times as likely to buy as an identical non-customer. Someone who has responded to a promotion is twice as likely to buy. Anyone with any relationship with you, however slight, is more likely to buy. Evaluate your current calls for the week- are you missing an opportunity to cross sell?
The Drill:
Final Thought for the Morning:
We must stop regarding unpleasant and unexpected things as interruptions or real life. The truth is interruptions are real life." C.S. Lewis.
Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week
LAST WEEK:
Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.
THIS WEEK:
Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.
