Well,


Here I am stuck at the airport. Doesn't seam to matter what time of year I come to Cleveland, there is always a delay that threatens my ability to get home that evening. Don't get me wrong. I love the town, just don't want to fly here anymore. Clearly my luck has run out.

As an aside, I was in Cleveland for a great event. The B to B connect Professional Development day. If you are in the Cleveland or Akron area you should look them up and join a chapter. If you are outside the area and are looking for a great B2B lead sharing group, you should contact them to start a chapter.

Back to the airport. The funny thing about this delay is no one knows why we are delayed and there are no AA staff around to tell us. Maybe the missing gate agents are the reason for the delay? Ahh, finally someone to talk to. Let me go see.....

OK - Air Traffic Ground delay. At least we know its not THEIR fault. Sheeeze, doesn't make it any easier to take. What I do find amusing (and sad) is that the friendly folks at AA don't seam care to tell anyone what is going on. We have been delayed 20 minutes..in fact the TV monitor shows our flight is still in final boarding stages....and no one has bothered to make an announcements. Odd.

It strikes me how many companies create customer service problems for themselves through lack of communication. If the agent would make a single announcement stating. "there is a ground delay. Our estimated wheels up time is 7:45. Sorry about the inconvenience".....

...well wouldn't you know it. It must have been the power of my suggestion...they just made the announcement (25 minutes after our original departure time). I guess the never ending line that started to grow at the counter caused them to take some action.

Back to my previous thought. In sales and service there is no such thing as over-communication. Especially when your clients are faced with a crisis, or problem, you must communicate often. Not communicating is in fact even worse then communicating bad news. When you don't communicate, customers always assume the worst and then are mad about 2 things:

1) the fact you aren't saying anything, and

2) what they assume the problem is.

When you under communicate during a crisis you force the customer to make assumptions. And let's be honest. When the customer makes an assumption during a stressful time are those assumptions typically positive or negative? Negative.

By under communicating you create a worse customer service problem for yourself. Not only do you have a frustrated customer because the original crisis, you have a doubly frustrated customer becausese they are left in the dark.

In a crisis, tell the customer what is going on, and provide regular updates. Even if that update is to say "We have no new news. Just wanted to let you know I am on top of your situation" , your customer will be more at ease, and less likely to lash out at you, or your front line staff.

Sitting here i noticxe that the longer AA takes to make another annoucement the more frustrated the passengers are becoming. I can see it in their body language, and their tone of voice. Its going to get ugly before it gets better and that's sad because it didn't have to be this way.

Communicating is simple. Just tell people the facts, be honest, and genuine and they will responded with more patience, than you expect.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Casey and I recently hosted a group of clients at the habitat for Humanity Women's build Gala in Ottawa. (That's me in the glasses and Casey with the long hair) The event raised money for a house to be built in August for a family in need in our community. What's unique about this particular project is that the house will be built predominantly by women....offering many the chance to pick up a power tool that they might not have ever had the chance to do before! Engage is currently putting together a team of women and men to help out. If you are in the Ottawa area and want to build a house with Engage please email us!

Being a top 10% performer in sales is not just about collecting money from customers. Its also about giving back to your community. In my studies of the top 10% over the past 15 years I have found that well over 95% give back with either time or money. Almost without exception the top 1% have well developed foundations that run events and support many organizations worldwide.

How can you give?

This year during holiday season perhaps consider making a donation in your clients name to a charity of their choice, or organize an event with clients and partners in your area to provide needy families with food baskets. One Engage client puts together a team people each year to serve meals at a local homeless shelter. Participate in the habitat for Humanity Gingerbread house contest I your area, or decorate a Christmas tree for a Ronald MacDonald House or a local Hospice.

If you have a holiday party, ask for food bank donations, or snowsuits for a local children's group.

There are plenty of ideas that are simple to coordinated yet have powerful and lasting results. I encourage you to try one.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Words from the wise

Kevin Dee is the newly minted, and much deserving CEO of the year in Ottawa. You can read about Kevin on his blog.

I wanted to point out specifically to a great posting "What kind of mood are you in".

Here is an excerpt I found powerful. Be sure to read the whole posting.....

"The mind can impact us in so many ways and often we just let it! Are you the kind of person that just explains it away by saying “That’s who I am, take it or leave it?”, or maybe, “ I’m just a moody person … that is who I am!”

The reality is that we all have the ability to influence our moods and to “snap out of it” which is obviously better for us, and for all around us. Yet too often people wallow in their own self-pity and everyone associated with them is supposed to just take it"

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Have a team member that's in a slump?

Here is how you can help.

1) Don’t accuse blame or get mad. Never start the conversation with threats or ultimatum or a “performance improvement plan” The only way you are going to turn your rep around is by showing a genuine interest in helping them through the slump. It’s during this conversation that you must let your empathy shine.

2) Ask questions. Find out what they think is wrong. Ask for their opinion and then genuinely listen to the answer. What obstacles are they facing? Why do they consider these obstacles? What are their customers saying? Doing?

3) Dig deeper. Use your consultative selling techniques to get to the root of the problem. Ask expanding and clarifying questions such as: “What have you done so far to try to resolve the slump?” “How have you handled this situation in the past?” and “How has that worked for you?”

4) Get their advice. Again, more questions. This time aimed at a solution. Specifically, “What do you think we should do to resolve these issues?” or “What suggestions do you have to get you back on track?” Once you have their ideas, you are in good shape to offer your own advice. Your team member will more readily accept your own advice once their ideas have been listened to and acknowledged.

5) Be proactive. You can help avoid sales slumps by regular (monthly at least) listening and coaching sessions. I suggest routinely listening to sales reps calls, or attending client meeting with to get a first hand look at what is happening in the territory. Regular coaching and joint meetings allow you an opportunity to proactively coach your team away from bad situations, and reinforce good behavior. Be sure to reward the positive as often as you coach the negative and you will develop a team that produces consistently and profitably.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen Francis
P.S. Not yet a lead-up(tm) coaching member? Here's another chance to see what you have been missing. www.lead-up.com

A Winning Email: Comments from an Engage Reader!

Hi Everyone,

Congratulations Erik on restarting a stalled deal by doing something unique and different to get the prospects attention! I love this email.

Bloggers: Please note that the red italic font is my editorial as I didn't want to reveal any company secrets in this thread!

Enjoy and apply it to your own business. Remember, you can't win a sale until you do something different!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen Francis

***************************************************************************************


Colleen

I had to share this with you. I took one of your tips (I think #8 from a week or two ago) and it worked like magic. Check out my email, and my prospects response below.

Thanks!!!

Erik
*****************************************************************************************

Hi Prospect X

On the October 19th, I sent you an email with all the information about XXX that I promised to send to you. As I haven't heard from you, I can only assume one of the following:

1. You're now not interested and I'm reduced to the status of an annoying piece of spam clogging up your email;

2. or You desperately want to contact me, but you're trapped under a fallen filing cabinet and can't reach your phone or PC.

Your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Erik

P.S. If it is #2, please let me know and I'll send someone round to help you out.

*******************************************************************************************
(The prospect's same day response.....)


From: Prospect X
Sent: Tuesday, November 07 2006 2:37 PM
To: Erik
Subject: RE: Thank you for the call

Hi Erik,

Ok that was quite possibly one of the best emails I have ever received. It totally deserves a great response but sadly I don't have it in me today! So how about I just give you a straight up answer... :)

Currently (and for the past few weeks) I am not planning for... (great sales intelligence here) We are entering into planning for... (great needs statement here). I am not... (great decision making information here).

So bottom line, you are not 'annoying' nor is your email 'spam clogging' up my email. Lucky for me, I was also not tragically stuck under a file cabinet! Feel free to continue to contact me and send materials my way. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Best,
Prospect X

Planning to succeed in 2007

Dear Colleen,

Do you have any sales time management tips for me. My goal in 2007 is to double my sales quota and I know that in order to do this, I have to sty focused on doing the right things during the day and not get distracted.

Dear Amy,

Great question!. You are smart to be guarding your time because losing control of your time is the worst mistake a sales professional can make. You must jealously guard your time in order to stay productive. Here are 6 ideas to keep you focused in 2007!

1. Set a monthly sales target, and calculate how many prospects you need to talk to each month in order to generate enough business to hit that target. Once you have those numbers set, your priority becomes making the calls.

2. Block time off in your calendar everyday to make calls and prospect. Don’t just make a mental note – actual block the time off physically so you and everyone else can see it clearly.

3. In a place you can easily see everyday post your revenue goal in big, bright numbers. Staring at this number everyday will remind you what you need to do first thing every day.

4. Stay away from the "Life Suckers" in your office. They are not customers, and they will not buy from you. Your customers are on the outside (or the other end of the phone).

5. Close your doors, hide, or work from a different office! As Dan Kennedy says: “If they can’t find you, they can’t interrupt you.”

6. Be on time. Show respect for other people’s time and they will eventually show respect for yours. Its reciprocity at work.

If you are waiting to get motivated before you make calls remember this: Motivation comes from action not the other way around. Most sales people wait to get motivated before they take action. You must do the opposite. Take action now! Regardless of how you feel. Simply pick up the phone and start making calls. Your activity will motivate and focus you to keep going. You will always feel better after you accomplished something profitable.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Lazy and Selfish Gone too Far

Sadly it's not uncommon for people to rip off your stuff. No matter how you protect it, what copywrite you have, or how strong your trademark is, there will always be someone too lazy, or too stupid to have a thought of their own, who will steal your ideas and pass them off as your own.

Last month this happened to me. Thanks to a couple copywite vigilantes - whose names will remain hidden to protect their great work! - we were informed that Robert Paisola was stealing our articles and passing them off as his own on other sites. Sure, he made a couple small changes, like replacing the names in stories, or replacing the title. Largely the articles remained un changed with his name in the "by line". We quickly and easily put a stop to this by contacting the publishers of the sites, and they were all too happy to remove the stolen works. Thanks to ezine articles for responding so quickly.

Funny thing though...Robert is not just stealing my articles. He is also stolen my bio! Makes me laugh in a sad pathetic way that he won't even create his own promotional material. He has to steal mine, add his name and change the client list....WOW now that's plagiarism gone to far! Perhaps verging on identity theft?

I have always argued that humans were lazy and selfish. I mean that in the nicest way. Simply we love to get things the easiest way, and we love to talk about ourselves. Remember that and you can sell successfully everytime. Just let people talk about themselves and make it easy for them to buy. That's it, nothing sinister really.

Robert Paisolo hit a new low in laziness though don't you think? Come on Robert....If you can't think of anything unique and exciting to say about yourself, at least pay a real writter to come up with something you can call your own.

Colleen answers a Question from the the trenches

Hi Colleen,

I have heard you have between 4 and 30 seconds to make a good impression on a cold calling. Taking that into consideration what is the best way for me to open my call....and what should I avoid doing?

Thanks
Erick

Thanks Erick,

You are right - 4-30 seconds is all we have before a prospect thinks to him self either "oh darn, it's a sales person, how do I get them off the phone," or "oh, this is interesting, I think I should stay and listen!" I think you would agree that we prefer the later.

In order to ensure your prospect wants to stay and listen you need to start with openings that create a relationship, rather than creating resistance.

How do we create resistance?

Generally speaking, resistance is created by openers that start with a cliché, such as: How are you today? Or Is this a good time to talk? Or Could I have a few minutes of your time?
How can you use your first precious few seconds to cut through the resistance, and begin building a relationship?

First - get rid of the clichés!

Cutting cliché statements out of your calling script will instantly increase your success rate by up to 20%. This is especially true for the ubiquitous "how are you?" Every customer on the planet has heard that exact phrase at the beginning of a sales call they didn't want to take, or which was interrupting their dinner.

Believe me, you don't want to get lumped into that category. What you do want is to sound different, more interesting, more professional - and more relevant.

According to a study conducted by the American Association of Professional Organizers, the average executive has 52 hours of unfinished work on their desk at all times. Why should you care? Because this is proof that they're not sitting around with nothing to do, just waiting for you to call!

At the exact moment you call them, your prospects are 99.9% likely to be busy doing other work - which means that, when you call, you're 99.9% sure to be interrupting them. Instead of ignoring this fact, I recommend that you use it to your advantage, by trying something like:

"Mary? This is Colleen Francis. Have I caught you at a bad moment?"

Or

"Did I catch you at a bad time?"

Be careful with these statements, and be sure to use them with precisely the wording given above. My own experiments have shown that "is this a good time?" and "is this a bad time?" are far less effective.

Why does this work? When it comes to receiving a sales call, it's always a bad time, so having the person who's making the call recognize this upfront is a refreshing change. 95% of the time that we use this statement at the beginning of a cold call, we're met with the same answer - a laugh or chuckle, followed by either: "It's always a bad time, but what's up?" or "Sure it’s a bad time, why are you calling.

Hope that helps!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen