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Sales Rev April /May 2011 Welcome to the April / May issue of Sales Rev!Keep up to date at: |  |
Hi and welcome to Sales Rev for April/May 2011. While Australia appears to have dodged the GFC bullet, it is acknowledged by many commentators that we live in a two speed economy. We have on one hand a strong economy being powered by the resources industry which is affecting all of us and on the other hand we have our manufacturing and retail business which is operating on a much lower level. Recent natural disasters in New Zealand, Queensland and Japan show just how vulnerable our world is. What effect this will have on our economy is yet to be seen but we must remain optimistic.
Expect to win and believe your best is yet to come!
Rob
Retaining & Growing Your Key Accounts
To achieve collaboration and customer focus that will ultimately result in more effective management and retention of your strategic accounts, focus on these activities:
- Understand your strategic accounts. Does every member of every team that touches your customers (sales, marketing, customer support, operations, finance, legal) understand why your customers do business with you? How else can your organisation uniquely service them?
- Build a robust account plan. The initiative must be owned, driven and overseen from the top. The objective is to understand how your customers are structured and how that might be changing, and to create a plan that will give you a structured process to pursue additional viable sales opportunities within your existing accounts.
- Eliminate single point of contact relationships. Not just from the client side but also from your side. Make sure you have multiple points of contact so your organization is able to continue the relationship when one or more players from either side leave the company.
Hiring Great Staff
Your high performers are your most valuable asset. They are your goodwill ambassadors, your spokespersons; they create your image and your fine reputation. They build relationships with your customers and they can turn them into customers for life. They sell your products. Because of the impact they have, you owe it to yourself and your business to hire, train and evaluate people with the utmost care and attention. The bottom line is you have to be very aware of people performance issues and you have to be equipped to deal with those issues.
One of the best and easiest way to hire, retain and evaluate your team is through the use of personal profiling tools that are mapped to your best people. This allows you to benchmark new hires against your current best performers. Extended DISC is a cost effective, easy to use tool that is used by some of the world´s best companies to do just this.
See more at www.extendeddisc.com
Networking with Confidence
Nicholas Boothman international author and speaker has some excellent tips on getting connected when you know you are going to a function of mostly strangers:
Wear great clothes - more people will take you seriously (don't overdo it - don't be better than anyone else).
Head for the middle - (popular people always go to the middle of the room in restaurants, parties, classrooms, etc).
Move more slowly than usual - People who move fractionally more slowly than others tend to get noticed and come across as confident and sexy. Get into the habit so it becomes natural: otherwise don't bother.
3-second rule - Notice someone and within three seconds go over and say something. Do this several times.
Ask "Talk-show" question - The best way to start a conversation is with a statement followed by an open question. "I hear Seattle's a fantastic place. If I only had 3 hours what should I see?" Remember to give feedback.
Email Insight
Today email is a common communication tool as we all live busy lives. However today more and more people are accessing emails from smartphones or devices such as Blackberry´s, I-Phones and I-Pads. This means that you have to consider how you write an email. In this age of "email skimming" you must focus on the subject line or the header, as the most important part of the email. Then make the body of the email clear and concise with what next step you expect.
Upcoming Events
Kochies Business Builders - Business Boot Camp
Friday 8th April 2011 Darling Harbour
Secrets of World Class Sales Organistions - Melbourne April 19th 2011
Breakfast Presentation CBD Melbourne
Melbourne
RSVP scoppin@millerheiman.com
Secrets of Winning Sales Organisations - Big Ideas for Small Business
June 2nd 2011
Blacktown, NSW Venue TBA.
Reading recommendation
Life Without Limits - Nick Vujicic
Many people have probably seen Nick Vujicic the young Melbourne born and raised 28 year old who was born without limbs. Nick is now an international speaker and author. This book is inspirational yet down to earth. Believe me when you read Nick´s story any issues you have become very small.
Getting Naked - Patrick Lencioni
Getting Naked is a parable by Patrick Lencioni one of the foremost writers on management consulting. It is all about the important of having a point of view with customers and having the intention of adding value to their business without the fear of failure or embarrassment. A must read for anyone involved in business to business selling.
Selling Strategies Office Numbers
Office Phone 03 9887 6967
Office Fax 03 9886 7460