American Express

Posts Tagged ‘Customer’

Here are my recommendations (and it will be great if your list and mine are similar),A smiling face. This should be genuine. We have all been told that people buy more with their eyes than they do with their ears. If you were welcoming a friend into your house, you would quite naturally smile. It is also pleasurable when walking into someone else’s premises to be greeted with a smile. If you are lazy this should appeal, as apparently it takes less muscle power to smile than it does to frown. Eye contact. It is so important to look people in the eyes.
Not only do you convey body language when you look someone in the eye but you also are subconsciously registering
that person’s body language. We have become conditioned to believe that a person who looks us in the eyes is more trustworthy. Be pleased to see the customer. This is harder to describe, but it is a combination of facial expression, body language and tone of voice. We have all experienced, at some time or another, sales people who give us the impression that we are a nuisance and are interrupting their day.

This really is irritating when we as customers, should we make a purchase, are actually making a contribution to their pay packet. I have often longed to say ‘I help to keep you employed, so be nice to me.’

The proposal therefore should be a stand-alone document that, when picked up and read, follows the classic sales presentation format and also the mnemonic AIDA. So right at the beginning there should be a section putting your neck on the line by stating and declaring the result of your product or service if the prospect should proceed and you should win the business. Thecustomer is buying the result.

The ‘how to’ will be explained in the proposal, in other words what you will be doing or supplying that will enable your company to give the customer the result that the customer is seeking. Let me again remind you, you are the solution specialist, and in this instance you do not start with the problem but give the solution first and then present the problem and the detail.

It is of course quite right and proper to supply and to present your suitability and your credibility. This can be at the end of the proposal. The majority of the proposal should be very logical. The logic must be convincing and justify the buyer’s decision to proceed, even though that decision may have subconsciously been emotional.Whenever you have had an estimate or quotation, what have you looked for first? No doubt you are exactly the same as me and have looked at the price. Some people try to hide the price (no doubt because they are embarrassed). Some people attempt to make it complicated. Therefore, make it easy for customers. If they are going to look for the price first without reading the document, I suggest that you put the price in at the beginning as well as at the end. If you follow what I am saying, you should put the price immediately after the section where you have put your neck on the line and stated the result of what your product or service will deliver to the customer.

E-mail and the internet are a vital element of business and a brilliant sales tool. It must be accepted that e-mail enquiries can happen 24 hours a day. But the rule of thumb is to respond quickly with the information requested. If customers place an order – and put yourself in their shoes here – they will want confirmation that the order has been received, and they will want dispatch information as well.

May I remind you that every enquiry could lead to a customer becoming a brand ambassador? If you are unable to meet their request, how about:

1. Offering an alternative or even ?
2. Recommending a competitor ?

It is fascinating where this can lead you in the future. I personally recommend, as we do in our office, that on the back of an e-mail enquiry you always endeavour to speak to the customer. This does prove that in many cases business can be won as one gleans more information from customers as to the problem they have that they need to solve. Most sales result from a customer problem. Remember, as I stated in the Introduction, you are a solutions specialist.