For the Smart Money Cookie

In a separate article, I wrote that if you truly know your job, you probably are aware of 1,000 more things than somebody else, who doesn’t.

This definitely applies to managing call centers, and especially to overseeing telemarketing units.

For example, we know from experience:

(1) Louder voices sell better than softer ones.

(2) Callers are more robust, extroverted, and successful pitching from a bullpen than a private office.

(3) Informal leaders, usually your top reps or those with the longest tenure, will be more influential than the formal supervisors and managers in the phone unit.

(4) Scripts are inevitable, but to succeed they need to be enforced, strictly.

(5) Turnover is part of the telemarketing beast, that can be tamed, but usually isn’t.

If you want more information about these ideas, please see my articles that provide details.

In this piece, I want to bring up a sixth piece of knowledge: If you want peak performance from your telemarketers, keep every seat in your center occupied.

A full room is necessary for these reasons:

(1) Voices are louder and the collective loudness emboldens every individual in the group, creating peer pressures to perform.

(2) A full room means you can and will replace every vacant seat, immediately. Nobody’s seat is sacred. Only performance will secure it for the occupant.

(3) This is a desirable job, and there’s competition to come aboard.

(4) If you like the people around you, and want them to make it, help them whenever you can.

(5) Per capita achievement is raised in a full room; you’ll get disproportionately more sales than when fewer seats are occupied.

So, keep recruiting until you reach 100% capacity, and keep recruiting after that, to maintain it, dropping the worst achiever when you need a desk.

Anything less than 100% occupancy means you’re not doing your job as a manager!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone®, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Developing an abundant supply of targeted referrals is the
number one lead generation system used by top sales people.

The first step to implementing any successful lead generation
system is to get your attitude right. Becoming a “Master of
Referrals” requires the proper referral attitude.

Many sales people believe that by asking for referrals they’re
putting people on the spot or being pushy. “I’ll wait and if
they want to refer someone to me they will”. If this is your
attitude you need to change it.

Do you care about the people you do business with? Does that
caring come “from the heart” instead of from your pocket? Do you
care about the products or services your client’s friends are
buying? Do you believe your product or service is the best?

I figure your answer is yes!

If you truly believe your product or service is the best money
can buy and you care about your clients and their friends,
you’re doing them a disservice when you don’t implement this
lead generation system of asking for referrals. If you don’t
they may end up with one of your competitors who offers less
benefit, protection and advantage as you do.

Your job is to make sure everyone in your client’s network is
looked after by the best. So make sure that’s you!

You see, your clients are probably too busy to continually think
about helping people in their network. By using a lead
generation system of asking for referrals you’re giving them an
easy way to help their friends. You’re making sure they get the
same top quality products and services.

You’ve Got to Create a WOW Experience

Most sales people only try to satisfy their clients. Statistics
show that two out of three consumers that were merely satisfied
with a company will never return. If you only meet the client’s
expectations, you’ll never see two thirds of them again and you
won’t receive an abundance of referrals.

So how do you get a client to come back to you again and again?
How do you get your current and past clients to give you a
personal endorsement to their friends and relatives?

By implementing the second step of this lead generation system
and creating a WOW experience! Make every clients experience
special!

How many of your friends, family and business associates would
you refer to a company that…

•Takes care of your needs better than you ever expected
•Delivers more than they promise •Makes you feel special every
time you communicate with them •Delivers amazing results for you

If you take the time to create a WOW experience for your
clients, it’s very possible every one of them will be selling
for you.

One of the easiest ways to get referrals is too continually over
deliver. If you give much more than you promised, people will
want to help you in any way they can.

Over delivering should be the way you do business. The
referrals, thank you notes and new friends you make are the
bonuses you receive for doing your job.

Make a genuine difference in people’s lives and you’ll always
get lots of referrals.

Make it Easy, Fun and Enjoyable to Refer People to You

People don’t like doing difficult things unless there’s an
incredibly rewarding benefit in doing so. Even then many people
still won’t do something that appears too difficult.

Many salespeople’s clients are unsure about who to refer. Which
means they have to do all the work by figuring out who to refer?
So they may end up referring no one.

Make sure your clients know exactly who to refer. Otherwise
you’re not going to get a high quantity or quality of referrals.

The third step of this lead generation system is give each
client a good idea of who they could refer.

For example, The Realtor you recently purchased your home from
could say to you…

“Do you know anyone who recently had a baby, got married or
received a promotion and might be thinking about buying or
selling a house?

If you do, I’m sure they could benefit from my services. After
all you know how good my service is. So, please introduce them
to us. If you do I’ll be sure to do something wonderful to thank
you.”

You can see how this helps you know “exactly” who the Realtor is
looking for.

So make sure you show a genuine interest in your clients, their
families and friends. Make it your business that they receive
the best products and services available, YOURS! Create a WOW
experience for every client you do business with. Make over
delivering your way of doing business. And make it easy for
people to refer new clients your way by telling them who to
refer.

Follow the three steps of this lead generation system and you’re
on your way to creating an abundance of new target clients and
becoming a Master of Referrals.

You pick up the phone, the decision maker is on the line, countless letters and attempts have been made to get to this point, your great benefit line comes out, response; “not interested, click”.

Want to be able to “engage” customers with out creating resistance? Here are 2 vital elements everyone needs to be influential and persuasive.

Now it does not matter if we are using the phone, walking in cold or in a retail setting. We need to avoid adding any additional resistance in the other persons mind. There is this avoidance of “sales people” in 80% of our population including other sales people. This is mainly because of product pushing, “I don’t want to be sold something”.

Here is the key; do I understand what the other person really wants? Do I have an idea of how to talk in their “language”? Can I ask a question that will drop resistance and engage them in conversation?

It has been proven time and time again that shoving your product in front of someone will create resistance to you and your product. Review the first and second key from the last article (4 Keys to Selling), your customer buys the “results” of your product/service/idea because it fixes, fills or satisfies their perceived needs or wants. This means your product/service/idea is just a means to and end, not the main issue.

1. Our first action is to take the time and determine just what is it that our product/service/idea does for the other person. Determine what the real results are from using your product/service/idea. Here are some examples.

A business owner might be looking for more time, better productivity, reducing hassle in some area, freeing up capital for something else.

A young mother with 3 toddlers might be looking for best value, more time, better direction, safety, even just a listening ear.

A plant manager might be looking for ways to get better compliance, reduce down time and get his numbers up, keeping his boss off his back.

Think of your past and current customers, what is it your product/service/idea did for them? What did it reduce, take away, eliminate or create? Also keep in mind that people have a tendency to avoid loss more than obtain gain. This means if you can provide a better “today”, it generally has more power than a better “tomorrow”.

In a recent training program we worked with a real conflict situation a participant was involved with. We ended up with over 50 “what’s in it for the other party” points that could be used to engage the other party in a positive way! It took 5 minutes!

2. Second you want to “engage” your prospect or customer in a positive way. The best way is to develop questions that can “engage” rather than repel.

Before we start, we have to understand what results your product can potentially provide for your customer. Here are some examples.

Office equipment: Reduce work load, eliminate paper, eliminate errors, streamline process, reduce labor expense, free up time, create in-house opportunities, and eliminate daily frustrations.

Real Estate Agent: Eliminate wasted time, reduce the stress of selling/buying, assure legalities are covered, target the market, professional image, experienced input, negotiations services, and eliminate the hassles.

Now there are many more and I suggest you create at least 20 for your product. Here is a hint, list the facts about your product, then all the benefits related to that fact and then ask, “What are the results to my customer/other party because of these benefits”.

Let’s now apply these to questions that “engage” our customers. We want to use “open” type questions that get people talking. If we don not have them talking we have only partial engagement. Open questions use what, why, how in their structure.
“Mr. Jones, what effect would a reduced work load have on your staff?”
“If you could eliminate both paper and errors in your current procedures, what would happen for you?”
“Just suppose the frustrations you face on a daily basis were gone, how would it change things for you?”

Now put yourself in the customer’s shoes, how would you react to the previous questions versus this?

“We sell copiers and office machines of the highest quality with excellent service, when could we meet to determine your needs?”

How many words are in this question that create resistance or could be rejected by the customer? Compare that to the three questions above, which ones “engage” and which question repels.

Now if your customer is a “D-I”* type you usually can ask for appointments or get quickly to the point. If you have an “S-C”* type they may want more info which you can give in the form of a quick example of another application you have done, not a litany of your products facts and benefits.

This has proven to be a much more viable way to engage customers and people in general than talking about your “stuff”. People are concerned about their issues and problems, not your product or you. Engage them by asking about what a “result” might do to their concerns and issues. You will find them much more open and willing to talk.

One of our participants in the Internet Technologies asked only one of these type questions and 20 minutes later closed on a million dollar deal! Just one question! The customer did all the talking and sold themselves. The power of engagement!

For more on building these skills and thinking patterns, check out the Influence and Persuasion Program and Reverse Engineered Sales at our web site www.hgoergerassoc.com
* DISC Behavior Patterns, ask us about how this can help you sell, manage and engage people.

.

Harlan Goerger has been in the training, sales, management and self development field for over 25 years. Currently he is president of H. Goerger & Associates.
http://www.hgoergerassoc.com

Questions or comments:
Contact Harlan a tHarlan@itstartswithyou.net cell phone 701-799-1972

Here’s a simple secret. Infact there is no secret, it is so
simple that many sites fail to utilize this tactic to boost up
their sales, profits and conversion rate.

I did this same mistake but fortunately discovered it and ended
up using this simple trick to increase my subscriber and
customer list.

You might have the best quality product on the earth, a mind
blowing customer service and you might be the most honest person
on the web, your visitor will experience all these benefits only
and only if your site converts your visitor into customer.

In short, your site is between your visitor and your product.

Your product will sell only if your site presents it in a way
that clears all his psychological blocks that stops him to
purchase your product.

So you need to improve your website PRESENTATION. Here are 3
most important blocks that you have to keep in mind to improve
your website presentation…

1. Website Design. 2. Website Copy. 3. Website Graphics.

The simple but misused tactic that charged my lead capturing
minisite to pull in 30% more leads is using killer, eye
catching, amazingly stunning benefit laden graphics on my site.

You might say, it is common sense, but it is a shocking fact
that majority sites fail to use this simple but powerful tactic
to its fullest extent.

Here’s my story…

I learned to design simple benefit laden graphics for my
minisites, salesletters and lead capturing page. I learned these
tricks within one hour watching some amazing graphic design
videos.

As soon as I pasted these graphics on my site, I noticed an
instant jump in my…

1. Sales - My visitor to sales conversion ratio increased by 45%.

2. Leads - My visitor to subscriber ratio increased by 30%.

3. Traffic - It might sound insane, but the fact is I started
getting repeat traffic to my site.

4. Credibility - Visitors started trusting my site due to its
professional approach. Some of my site visitors visited my place
and called me up complimenting my site.

5. Profits - This finally increased cash in my bank account.
This is what we all are waiting for.

I noticed that many visitors subscribed to my list only by
viewing the killer graphics on the page. They did not even
bother reading the entire copy on the site.

The secret is to create simple graphics that locks your visitors
eyeballs.

Create killer ebook covers, box covers, magazine covers, report
covers, video graphics, etc and stick them on your site.

With graphics on your page visitors can see your product right
in front of their eyes leading to high conversion ratio.

Then plug a benefit on your graphic that wets their appetite.
Boom, this simple approach will increase your profits without
putting any additional efforts on your site or increasing your
website traffic.

Just do what this article says and watch your profits EXPLODE.