Catalyst QUE

I was having a chat with a friend the other day, they asked me in my view what was the single most important area a company could improve to increase their profit?

The answer to this was a simple one – improve your customer service!

Surprise and delight your clients with exceptional customer service and they will continue to buy and be sold too. Everyone loves a great sales experience! One that is truly pleasant and not over powering will create solid repeat business, but most importantly your clients will refer you to others and business will grow.

So what makes for great customer service?

That’s also simple … its in the name: 

Customer – that’s your client 
Service – is what you are there to provide!

When you are in sales you are there to serve your customer.

So keep the experience positive, keep the energy high and make sure your sales staff know their product, know how to listen and how to have a conversation. Most of all make sure they love their job!

Ensure that you are using language that resonates with your potential clients.

Are you using the right words to excite them, or to show that you can fix their issues? Often slightly changing how you describe a product or service can completely change how people view the service.

Keep it professional. There’s no need to swear and curse – as my father always says people that use foul language in business discussions have no grasp on articulation and delivery of a message. Funny thing my Dad is bang on!

Using well-constructed language that reflects you and your company’s goals is critical for the elevator pitch to the discussions with clients and prospects. Language is just as important as marketing or branding. On the same topic of language, in the game of sales one of the greatest tools is the language of positives. This is simply speaking in positives so the message is always encouraging and exciting.

An easy example of this is: “that’s no problem to do” can be rephrased to “Yes we can absolutely help to achieve this for you”, same wording but avoiding using the double negative of NO and PROBLEM. Simple changes like this can have a huge impact on your results – and the motivation of your staff!

A further example using language in sales is to simply use last weeks tip (listening) to their issues then adjusting your language and how you describe your product or service to include the key “trigger” words and the sales process will be much smother.

I had great success with this when I was working for Calcium – the way the sales team was told to sell the product was on the merits of its marketing ability – these were fantastic solutions to problems most people did not know they had. After asking a number of prospects what issues they had with email, then changing the language I used to describe the same services, clients instantly understood how the tool could help them and sales took off!

“Sales is not the art of making people buy, but the art of conversation”
– Tom Reidy Catalyst90

For more tips – check out The Conversation of Selling.

Listen to your potential clients.  Just as in any conversation it pays to listen, as often it’s in the subtle comments that your potential clients make where the key to unlocking the sale can be found. In order to sell you need to know when it’s important to shut up and listen! 

I used to work with a sales person who had a habit of talking to fill the gaps in a conversation and had the view that he must drive the client to purchase.  He once asked me why it is I would always beat him in sales – my answer was simple, I listen to the client and act  like more of a Sheppard than a captain. 

What does this actually mean acting like a Sheppard? The client should always follow a process of being sold to, but they should have the freedom to explore and talk about their issues. In this you are able to guide them in the direction of how your products or services resolves their issues. 

For more tips – check out The Conversation of Selling.

Talk – don’t sell, have a conversation that is interactive with your audience. Clients should become friends so treat them like one.

The quote from the Godfather, “It ain’t personal… its just business”, could not be further from the truth. Having a conversation with a potential client is the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship – so the business of exceptional sales is personal.

No doubt you are thinking, how can clients be friends when I have a web based business and no face time with people, they are just users?

Treating them as friends is still just as important but the language is different.  The interactions they have with your technology becomes the conversation.  Is the software something you’d have your friends use?  Will it cause them any issues?  If it does how are these issues solved?

Deal with these as you would for a friend and you will have a long and prosperous relationship with them.

For more tips – check out The Conversation of Selling.

Welcome to 2009! The year ahead we are told will be a tough one with many challenges for business growth!

2009 is also going to be a year full of opportunity, which is why I started CatalystQUE to help companies manage their quotes and Catalyst90 to help companies develop sustainable sales and marketing protocols to assist grow and market development.

Here are a few tips I’ve put together on sales best practice and I’ll be writing in more detail about each of these over the next few weeks.

And remember – the best way to succeed is to work hard and work smart!

Tips for increasing sales in 2009 

Talk - don’t sell, have a conversation that is interactive with your audience. Clients should become friends so treat them like one.

Listen - listen to your potential clients, just as in any conversation it pays to listen.  Its often in the subtle comments your potential client makes that the key to unlocking the sale can be found. In order to sell you need to know when it’s important to shut up and listen!

Language - ensure that you are using language that resinates with your potential clients. Are you using the right words to excite them, or to show that you can fix their issues? Often slightly changing how you describe a product or service can completely change how people view the service.

Look - make sure you and your staff present yourselves in a manor that is a reflection of the business, product and service. And keep it consistent!

Keep calm - never be too pushy or keen for the deal, people love to be sold to but not forced into signing. A great sales experience for both parties is one that ends with both people being delighted by the outcome.

Memorable - this is not just your product or the service that you are offering but the experience with every point of your business. The sales experience is not just about getting the deal! So make sure all your staff understand how important it is that they embrace the conversation of selling. They don’t have to close sales or make deals – but all employees should love the company they work for.

Know it - know your stuff! But don’t feel you have to be an expert even if you are. Often it is good to have the need to refer to an expert and it’s great to engage the client into solving their issue with your product or service. If you can solve their specific issue then they are much more likely to buy, if you can’t, but can make a recommendation then they are much more appreciative and the process of engaging with you and your company has just become memorable, and they are more likely to purchase from you in the future.

Passion - love your product. You must be passionate about what you do and don’t be afraid to show it or get excited. Just don’t forget to stop and listen!

CatalystQUE is a quote tool (not a CRM) but happens to do a damn fine job at managing client details and keeping notes on them at the same time!

A number of clients and friends have been asking why did I create CatalystQUE, as it runs very close to a CRM and I always said I’d never venture into the CRM market as it is exceptionally crowded and more often than not most IT companies go down the path of building a CRM at some stage or another – so why did I venture in to this realm? 

Its quite simple really. CatalystQUE is not a CRM.

It’s a tool that is designed to produce exceptional quotes in a consistent format with all the correct details and legal stuff that sales people often forget or feel the need to change to “get the deal done”.  Of course it does a great job at maintaining client information, their mood on the experience of the sales process and has great sales reports so could very easily be mistaken the best CRM tool for a sales person in the world! 

CatalystQUE has been designed around the quote as that is the most commonly used part of a CRM by sales people and the most overlooked.  Most tools priority is building great reports for the management team not the actual users.

For this reason CatalystQUE was built to be as simple as possible.  Sales people, in most cases, are notoriously lazy when it comes to reporting or paper work and will avoid putting in to much information (just enough to satisfy management and to close the deal) so CatalystQUE is nice and simple with as few “clicks” as possible.

To sum it all up a few years back a number of my friends and employers would often joke about my client management – which in effect was a pile of business cards scattered on my desk.  In response to their light hearted jibs I created Table top CRM – the Wolds best CRM for small business ever!  Check out the site for more information and a laugh. 

This time around I thought I’d build it properly as the demand is still there for a sales tool designed by sales people for sales people! 

So … get in the que!