12 Golden Rules to Effectively Handling Enquiries

The more I show clients how to handle enquiries from new prospects over the phone, the more I find myself coming back to the same dozen 'sobering' truths … truths that help you understand the mindset of the caller.

These truths may at first appear negative.  They’re not.  They are simply a realisation that everybody – including your prospect - sees life through their own ‘eyes’.  And having an insight into how they ‘see’ (and feel) can help us to better relate to their needs.  So let’s consider the following:

1. The enquirer, regardless of what they say, isn’t just after ‘information’.  They HAVE a problem or a need.  Often a problem/s so complex they don’t fully understand it themselves. They crave to have it solved, and they’re looking for a solution.

2. Just making the phone call can sometimes be a big thing for them, because they have their own uncertainties and insecurities to contend with.  You need to be empathetic and make the process painless.

3. They’ve probably been disappointed by past efforts to find a solution.  So expect them to be distrusting until they know you are ‘real’.

4. They ARE going to buy.  Whether it’s from you, or a competitor, whether it’s today or in six months’ time, they WILL ‘buy’ something. Your task is to educate them to why your solution is best for them  (That is of course, IF your solution is indeed the best one for their particular circumstances.  Otherwise, you should guide them ethically to an alternative.)

5. They will have pre-conceived ideas of what’s ‘expensive’.  BUT on the other hand, when they find their ‘answer’, they will pay whatever it takes.  So it’s your ‘duty of care’ to ensure you ethically educate them to your solution, AND to show that your solution isn’t expensive, but is good VALUE.

6. They will initially have little or no concept of what your business does, and will tend to pigeonhole you with other firms who appear to deliver what you do.

7. They may nod in agreement at things you say in the initial discussion, but in truth, they’ll understand and absorb only a tiny fraction of what you have said.  Which means you need to go slowly, never assume.  And most importantly, through questions, do a regular ‘temperature check’ on their understanding.  CRITICALLY important.

8. When it comes to the Information Pack, brochure, or perhaps even DVD you send them, remember they have no basis for appreciating the VALUE, or of the decades of research and development behind this information. So unless positioned correctly, there is a very real risk it will simply sit unopened for weeks, until they’ve lost interest.   And when you try to follow up after their interest has waned, you become a ‘pushy’ salesperson, not a professional with the answers to their perhaps years of frustration.  What’s the solution?  You must position the value of the pack correctly UP FRONT before you send it.  Again, they won’t give any priority to the pack unless you position it correctly on the phone.

9. Remember that the person who has the information IS IN CONTROL of the transaction.  If you give it (the Pack) over to the prospect prematurely, without first gaining a firm commitment that they’ll review it, you lose the control.

10. Getting that firm commitment means getting their undertaking that they will go through it in a pre-agreed timeframe, in preparation for a follow up discussion.

11. Even after all the above, they’ll often say ‘yes’, but then nothing will happen.  In 95% of cases, you WILL have to follow up.  When you follow up, even after all the great positioning, there’s a chance they’ll say they can’t go ahead ‘just now’, for any number of reasons.  Often these reasons are NOT the real reasons.  You need to get as many of these potential issues on the table and out of the way as possible, before you hand over the information.

12. Remember that none of this is ‘manipulative’ or unethical.  It is simply acknowledging the foibles of human nature, and helping (ethically leading) people to come to an informed outcome.
 
Some of these 'golden rules' may not apply to your transactions with new prospects.  However, that said, I’d be very surprised if you didn’t get some real distinctions out of these 12 points for you and your own frontline people.

Let me know your thoughts …
Chris Newton

If you know anyone who would find value in reading this article, please forward (or tweet) this link on to them.

The Power of Expectation... Miraculous?

I remember reading an article in Inc. Magazine about General Schwarzkopf.  When taking over a new command, Schwarzkopf questioned what proportion of the helicopter fleet was ‘battle ready’ on any given day.  “75% Sir!” was the answer.

Wondering why it was 75%, and not 74% or 76%, he put out an edict that, forthwith, the new fleet readiness was to be 85%.  And no doubt there were rumblings within the ranks that it could never be done.



But sure enough, operability MIRACULOUSLY rose to 85%. And stayed there.

The message in this little story? NEVER underestimate the Power of Expectation.

Another of my favourite anecdotes is of a new manager in a factory.  On his first inspection, he enquired of the day shift supervisor what their production totals had been for the day. 

Without any further comment, he took a piece of chalk and wrote that number on the concrete floor and moved on.

You can guess what happened when the night shift came on duty, can’t you?

Yep, they asked what the number was.  Next morning, when the day shift arrived, the number had been rubbed out, and a BIGGER total had been written on the floor!  And so it went each shift, exceeding the previous ‘norm’. 

Interesting isn’t it?  Set expectations low, and that is what you’ll get.  Set them high, and MEASURE the performance standards, and again - that’s what you’ll get.

Benchmarking is the key.  Just verbalising expectations won’t cut it.  Expectations need to be very specific, easily broken down into their components, and attributable back to those involved. 

And as the saying goes, “If you don’t INSPECT, don’t expect!”.

Until next time,

Chris Newton

How to Make Sure Your Invoices Get Paid

As the economy continues to splutter, more of your clients are going to struggle to pay your invoices.  No surprise there.

In fact, those who’ve long been in the habit of using YOUR money to run their businesses (or their lifestyle) will stretch things even more now.  Some will default.

This begs the question... 


How do you make sure you get paid in full, on time?

The best solution of course, is to get paid UP FRONT.  And more on that in a moment.

Regardless though of what your payment terms are now, getting to the front of the payment line is a function of how well you’ve set up the expectation of getting paid. ‘Laying the ground rules’ on being paid.

If, at the beginning of the business transaction, your client senses a casual approach to being paid, that’s what you’ll get.  In contrast, by firmly but nurturously explaining your terms BEFORE providing the service, and then following up immediately if the client misses a due date, you have a far higher likelihood of being paid.

‘Laying the ground rules’ on being paid is something many businesses are uncomfortable with.  And they pay the price later in tardy collections, which then create their own cash flow crises.


Why not get paid up front?

Our own invoicing policy is an agreed first monthly instalment paid before we begin a project, and further instalments at the start of each month.  If it’s a ‘lump sum’ project, we require 50% of the funds upfront.

Of course, to be paid up front, clients need to trust your capabilities to ‘deliver’.  And trust that you’ll go all out to give them an amazing result. 


But the key point is this. 

Create the expectation of being paid up front, educate your clients to the value you’ll deliver, and most will accept this graciously.

On the other hand, if you present your product or service merely as a ‘commodity’, something your clients can get anywhere, you’ll simply invite them to shop around for another supplier who will give them 90 days … or 120 days.


Bottom line?

Be passionate about what you ‘deliver’, and about the value you bring to the table … communicating your ‘value package’, your legendary service, your responsive support, your problem solving strengths and so on … and you’ll create the right expectation in your client.  They simply won’t go anywhere else. 

The alternative is to be a commodity.  And that means, getting to the back of the line!

4 things to do immediately when sales start drying up

FOUR things to do immediately when sales start drying up (and a personal invitation from Chris Newton at the end of this email) ...

The current economic conditions are a fact of life.  But it’s no time to curl up in a corner in the foetal position.  

Now is the perfect time to be actively looking at new (or old) ways to turn things around.  Smart players boom in these times.

Let me give you four basic action steps to get sales pumping through your business again.

1. Tighten up your sales processes.

OK, I rant about this regularly.  But I get to look inside lots of businesses, and I have to tell you ... SALES are being lost every day for the want of some simple changes. 

• What about when the phone rings with a request for information?  Realise it’s NOT a request for information!!  It’s someone wanting to BUY.  Organisations are so laid back, they accept sending of a brochure and bland form-letter as handling the ‘sale’.  It’s NOT.  You need an elite team of trained ‘green berets’ hungry for sales, who make sure every possible (ethical) avenue has been covered, systematically and consistently, to get the sale.  And you need to track what’s happening ...

• What’s going on in the business?  In the ‘good times’, it’s so damn easy to ignore things that make you cringe, and be too busy to do anything about it.  Times aren’t ‘good’ right now.  FIX these things internally that eat away at your market share.  What sort of things?  Customer enquiries sitting for days unattended to.  Poorly worded letters going out, often with grammatical or spelling errors.  That square peg in a round hole person who should never be handling sales enquiries, who is still there.  I could go on.

• Sales skills.  Presenting at a conference recently, I invited a gentleman up on the stage.  Like most of the people in the room, he thought he was pretty good at selling.  But about 45 seconds into our role play (with me as the customer), he was stumbling, uncomfortable and disoriented as to how to handle my basic questions on price and why I should buy from him and not his competitor.  To relieve him of his discomfort, I switched roles.  With limited knowledge of his products, I showed him and several hundred other business owners how easy it is to keep control of the sale.  The whole room agreed this change in approach would work for them.  But up until then, almost NONE of them did these things.  Bottom line, if your ‘green berets’ aren’t seriously honed in the skills to handle a prospect’s enquiries, you are losing market share.  And with the “shrinking pie”, that’s a luxury you simply can’t afford.

2. Mass Marketing vs Boutique. 

I’ve talked a great deal in the past about ‘mass marketing’ strategies.  It’s time to think about ‘Boutique Marketing’.  This is awesomely powerful. 

There’s a wonderful story about how David Ogilvy arrived in New York, from the UK as an unknown, and went on to build one of the largest and most successful ad agencies on the planet.  How?  He focused in on exactly which companies he WANTED on his client list. 

He wrote a list of the FIVE ‘blue chip’ companies he wanted to get.  We’re talking Shell, Lever & Kitchen, Rolls Royce.  The big guys. 

He stuck his list of these five giant corporations on his bathroom mirror.  And every day, would not leave that bathroom until he had at least one initiative to get one of those companies one step closer to being a client.  The rest is history.  

He ultimately got all five. 

You see, when you break your market down into small ‘boutique’ numbers of prospects, you can bring enormous focus and energy to bear, just on them!   You can ‘afford’ to stand out and be noticed.

Fed Ex a package to the 5 decision makers, find ways to add value to them, create a dialog with them.

In tough times and in the ‘good times’, almost no one goes to this effort.  If you can be a bright star on the horizon for your prospect list, odds are you will ultimately win the prize.

3. How many ‘dead leads’ do you have? 

Just like some ancient reptile in Jurassic Park waiting to be reawakened, many of your dead leads may not be dead at all.  Chances are, they’re just waiting for someone to come along and poke them into action. 

One business owner said to me the other day that he has 50,000 unconverted leads in his database!  It’s taken the tight times for him to think about re-approaching these people. 

What if he can stir even 2% of them into life and they buy from him?  For his business, the recession would be over!  Do you have leads and past client names that are really just dormant, waiting to get a great offer from you?

4. Remember ‘Shoe Leather’? 

I love this story.  One of our clients is a very successful chiropractor. 
We’ve been writing his ads, supporting collateral and client referral and reactivation pieces on and off for years.  But he has just pulled off a coup of his own.  With ‘shoe leather’ marketing. 

No, he didn’t go door to door in desperation.  He leveraged himself.  He secured an invitation to go to the local gym, and for a nominal fee, offered to give the members a spinal check. 

The result?  Out of ONE visit, he’s gained 25 new clients.  A good morning’s work?  You bet!  His ‘lifetime value’ of a client is worth some $4,000 to him over the next four years. 

That’s $100K in new future business in a morning.  Now that’s inspiring.

What’s the bottom line on all of this?

Tough times are not for sitting in an ivory tower and worrying.  They’re times when different strategies, including well thought through ‘shoe leather’ marketing, can pay massive dividends.  May you boom in the ‘tight times’.  

Personal Invitation from Chris Newton:

Okay, this next bit is an invitation to work with us on your marketing ... if it's appropriate for you right now.  Go to the link below to hear:

www.resultscorporation.com.au/offer.mp3

(If you have trouble with the link above, you can also listen to the offer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agQgmvuGiM&feature=channel_video_title)

Chris Newton

Short business development Video from our UK colleagues

 Our colleagues in our UK office of Results Corporation have put together an excellent video that really encapsulates the basics on how we create a solid plan for optimising sales and client acquisitions.

To watch it, just click here. It may take a little while to load, but it is well worth it.

Or copy the URL below and paste it into your browser's URL address:

http://www.resultscorporation.co.uk/MARKETINGSALESMACHINE.asp?S=1

Enjoy,

Chris Newton

If you know anyone who would find value in receiving the recession proofing white paper or indeed to receive Strategy Briefs, feel free to email Daniel at: daniel@resultscorporation.com.au, and he'll organise to include them.

“Please don't hesitate to throw me in the bin”

So you've written an awesome sales letter. Spent hours sweating over every sentence. But does it go out to the prospect with a closing line that says, “Please don't hesitate to throw me in the bin”?

Of course you won't have used those words, but if it says “Please don't hesitate to call me if you have any further questions, or for more information” ... or words to that effect, you may as well have said “throw me in the bin”!

Wherever possible, say something PRO-active like: “Because this is so important for your business and I know you’ll have some questions, I’ll call you in the next four days ...” Then call. Will this make you more sales? You bet!

For more great small business strategies, ideas and tips go to MarketingHelpOnline.com

Record your gems!

If we had a dollar for every time a client has called me, or come up to me at a seminar saying, “I can't write a good ad or a sales letter. I just go blank” ... and then, when I ask them what it is they do, they proceed to articulate beautifully a string of powerful selling points about what they do! My usual advice is, go write that down now! There’s your sales presentation right there.

Here’s an even better tip. Grab a friend and a voice recorder. Your friend must be someone who's prepared to listen to your ramblings. Then, with the voice recorder set, proceed to tell them why they should buy from YOU, why your product is better, more efficient, longer lasting, more durable... whatever ... and mention all the extra special things you do that customers love you for.

The point is, you KNOW what sells. It’s just that often we get a mind melt when we try to write it down. Also, record yourself actually selling your product or service, perhaps on the phone. Having done that, you'll have the seeds of brilliant copy!

Sign up to my free strategy briefs for more small business tips.

Check out my sample articles.

Bouncing back to even greater profits.

When you have just delivered a product or service to a client, this is the best time to invite them to buy again. For example, someone who has just had a great time at a resort is hot to re-book. Someone who has just bought landscaping supplies is hot to build a barbecue or a pergola.

People are BEGGING to be led, to have someone show they CARE. And inviting them to again enjoy a purchase is a great way to show you care. It can be as simple as a brochure for your next product inserted with the purchase they’ve just made, or a follow up letter or courtesy phone call.

Hard as it is to accept, the most RECENT purchaser is the most likely to buy again.

Sign up to free Marketing Strategy Briefs like this one, or check out my sample Marketing Articles.

The hidden profits in a Multiple Contact Strategy

At one of our ‘boot camp’ workshops, presenter US marketing guru Jay Abraham had the entire audience stand up. Then he said, “Please sit down if you responded to Results Corporation’s FIRST letter inviting you to be here”. Some 15% of the audience sat down. “If you responded to the SECOND communication, please sit”. Another 10% or so sat.

After he’d repeated this several more times, there was still some 35% of the people standing! What he had so graphically demonstrated was that unless you have a MULTIPLE CONTACT STRATEGY, you are going to MISS OUT on a massive amount of sales. Especially if yours is a high ticket item purchase. (Our boot camps were $4,500+)

Also, vary your communications. One might be a letter … another a letter and CD, another an email … You might include a series of testimonials, samples of your product or special report, an ‘act now’ offer … and so on. You can have a lot of fun with this and you’ll boost your campaign results!

For more great gems like this one, sign up to my free bi-monthly strategy briefs at: http://www.marketinghelponline.com.au/enterprise/3-membership-sign-up-options.html

You can also find some great 'sample' articles on my website: www.marketinghelponline.com.au

Improve your business' conversion rates

This riveting interview reveals how one business owner improved his company’s sales conversion rate from 1 in 19 … to 1 in 4 …

The interview is just over 12 mins in duration, and chock full of profit making insights to have you challenging YOUR sales processes.

Click here to hear it now: www.marketinghelponline.com.au/1.mp3 (12 mins 18 secs)

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief emails.

Also check out the great sample articles at my website: www.marketinghelponline.com

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%?

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%? In a word, your OFFER. But what constitutes an offer?

It can be a myriad of things… a price reduction, a free trial, a discount coupon, a free information kit, an extra strong guarantee, a free survey or consultation, free seminar, easy payment, small gift, creative ‘value add’ …

One swimming pool company once offered ‘An extra 5ft of pool if you buy in the off season’ …

You need to test different offers for different markets. But they are an easy and simple way to get up to 300% more of your prospects to ACT NOW.

Compare ‘50% discount’ with ‘Buy one, get one free’. Same intrinsic value, but the ‘Buy one get one free’ proposition has performed better time after time. Yes, by up to 300%.

But there’s a catch. Even with a seemingly good offer, all too often the initiative underperforms. Why might that be?

Typically, it’s because the value of the offer is not developed correctly. Or more accurately, the perception of value isn’t fully ‘dimensionalised’. If the promotion simply states: ‘Send now for a free information kit’ … there’s no perceived value. However, if the promotion explains that this free information kit has 14 little known ‘trade secrets’ revealed by leading experts, or that it reveals the 8 most vital questions you must to ask before making a buying decision … or whatever … THEN it becomes more desirable.

By painting the picture of its usefulness and value, it’ll have highly qualified prospects beating the door down… eagerly giving their name and a whole lot of other vital information to get hold of the offer. Which means you’ve now got a database to nurture into customers.

In summary, what separates a ‘good’ offer from a poor offer has a great deal to do with PERCEIVED VALUE you build around it. In some instances, I advocate devoting almost as much space to describing the benefits of the free information kit as to the product or service itself. One ad we ran for a client was all about the information kit offer, and boosted responses 3,000%.

You can check out my website for some great sample articles at: www.marketinghelponline.com

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief.