Great Customer Service = Easy Next Sale! Duh!

If you want to sell more of your products and services, whatever it is that you sell, then you need to make sure you are joining all the dots to make a picture that makes sense.

One of the easiest things to do, but something that many people and businesses FAIL to do, is to look after their existing customers.  Your after sales and customer service performance is the key to longevity.  The ONLY companies who can survive with bad customer service and bad after sales are compnies that have no competition.  If they have a monopoly they can do what they like.

So...

Look after your existing customers and they will buy more product. 

Here's a secret: Looking after and selling to existing customers is far easier than looking for new customers.

In doing so, here's a few tips from the Dynamic-Life Academy Sales course.

1. Be clear about the benefit.  I don't care what country those wellington boots were made in, or the moulding process, or the fact that there are 7 ridges in the sole and four in the heel...I am buying DRY FEET.  So TELL ME that my feet will be dry!

2. Make it simple and easy to buy from you.  Don't get caught up in red tape and BS with contracts.  Make them clear, easy to read and quick to complete.  Swap the small print for big print and show that you are hiding nothing.  If you tell them they are getting X, then make sure they get X.  Throw in a Y for good measure.  DO NOT give them Y IN PLACE of X!  If you do you can expect your customer to give you the finger!

3.  If you don't enjoy what you are doing then nobody else will either.  You can quite easily transmit your boredom, disbelief and lack of confidence in your company and products if you hate what you do.  Hating what you do has a direct correlation to how much you earn.

4. You only need one golden apple. Doing what others do is fine but do it differently. Be You-Nique http://themooreconsortium.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/you-nique.html

5.  Who you surround yourself with is who you become.  Choose your staff and associates carefully.  Don't be chosen by those you would not choose.  Be very careful about your associations. 

6. You have to be so visible that everyone associates you with what you do. That's a great position to be in.  Immediately, people know your company by your image or name.  There is a downside to this though.  If you become indispensable, if you ARE the company, people expect to get you.  Thats great but you will never ever be able to sell your business should you want to.  You ARE the business.  Don't run a company that you cant sell to someone else.

7. Communicate clearly and simply but do it with the RIGHT people.  It sounds mercenary but why waste your time with people who are not going to buy from you?  I know associations are great but if your business needs to make money through sales, talk to people who have the authority to say yes. 

8. Your best salesperson is....drum roll....no, not you!  It's your CUSTOMER.  Nothing attracts people to your company better than raving fans so get your customers to write a testimonial and put it on your website or in your literature.  Better still, film them talking about how great your product is and put that video on your website and youtube.  Video tesimonials are gold.

9. All the work you did in aquiring your customers? Multiply it by 5.  multiply it by 10!  That's the amount of work you need to do to keep them.  Never leave trap doors open for your customers to slip thru.  You MUST have a commitment to your customer. They do NOT have a commitment to you! You need to create their commitment to you!
Make sure you leave your footprint in cement and not sand. The tide of your competition will not wash it away!

10. Employ people who are smarter than you.  Don't fear it.  You need them.  Once u compromise on the quality of ur people, compromising becomes the norm. Pretty soon u have an average company full of average people

And one more thing...

It's clear that if all you are doing are things the way you always did, you're doomed

Credit crunch

AS the recession continues to bite, fans of bargain bakers Greggs are going dough-nuts for the High Street chain.
The credit crunch-busting business aims to open 600 more shops in the coming years after selling a staggering 130MILLION sausage rolls last year.
Rising to the top ... Greggs favourites. While other High Street firms have suffered, the Geordie-based bakers have recorded a 3.8 per cent rise in sales over 12 months. Greggs' Meal Deals - any bloomer sandwich, a cookie or doughnut and a drink for £2.99 - have undoubtedly helped in these tough times. But it is their "iconic" 57p sausage roll which has led the way. There is now even a Greggs Sausage Roll Appreciation Society on social networking site Facebook. It is, according to its founders: "A group for all those people who find it difficult to walk past a Greggs without nipping in for a sausage roll when you can smell the aroma of the freshly baked sausage meat in pastry". One member, Travis Grant, boasted: "4-a-day. Love it!" And David Bradford rated them: "Best edible item in the world!" Greggs dates back to the late 1930s, when John Gregg started a business delivering yeast and eggs in the north east of England. He was called up to the Army with the outbreak of war in 1939, but his wife Elsie kept the business going. In 1951 they opened their first shop on Gosforth High Street - and it is still there today. Over the next 30 years the firm grew steadily, numbering 261 shops by 1984. Now their "Ready when you are" slogan and reasonably priced butties and pies have proved a winner in troubled economic times. Not everyone is happy with them, however. David Barling, senior lecturer in food policy at London's City University, is one food expert who has criticised their products. He said: "Sausage rolls wouldn't be ideal in any nutritional diet. "In the case of industrially produced bread, a lot of the nutrients are removed from the grain and then reinserted later as added-value extras. It is less healthy for us." Others have hit out at the levels of saturated fats, salt and sugar in Greggs' products. But the firm's marketing director, Scott Jefferson, has hit back. He said last night: "We sell 2.5million sausage rolls a week - at 57p they're one of life's pleasures. "As with all the food we make, our sausage rolls are free from hydrogenated fat, added trans fats and artificial colours. "We will be providing nutritional information for all our nationally available savouries and sandwiches in January so customers can make an informed choice." Clearly Mr Jefferson has plenty of satisfied customers in his corner to help him win his bun-fight with the nutritionists. One fan, builder Ryan Payne, 21, from Bampton, Devon, said last night: "Greggs is comfort food. When you've been out working hard on site all morning in the cold it's just the job. And it's cheap." Here are a few food facts about just how many Greggs goodies we munch through in a year:

Enough steak bakes to place 329 on every seat at Wembley Stadium.
Enough sausage rolls laid end to end to reach from Newcastle upon Tyne to Sydney, Australia.
Enough jam doughnuts to give seven to every person who went on the London Eye in 2008.

I don't know what you think but, although Greggs is not part of a staple diet of mine, this is very impressive.
Have you ever worked out figures like this for your business? Have you worked out a metaphor for your company? Greggs could say that they sold a shedload of food and made a lot of profit but by using the metaphoe of Wembley Stadium, Newcastle to Sydney and the London Eye you really appreciate the size of the turnover rather than just facts and figures. Can you do the same with your company and make the point of how successful you are really hit home to your customers? Think about it!