Howard Feiertag is a leading writer in the hospitality industry. He wrote that there are six main reasons why a company will lose a customer and why that customer will never return.

The six reasons he lists are death, the fact that they move away, they buy from a friend, they prefer a competitor, they are dissatisfied with the product, or they experienced an attitude of indifference from the supplying company.

Now these reasons will naturally affect you and your customers, too, but which reason do you think is the main reason for the defections? And what percentage applies to all these reasons.

Feiertag’s research shows that, in the hospitality industry, one of these reasons stands out by far. And I would guess that these figures pretty much apply to most industries. Let’s take a look:

Death – Sadly, some of our clients will meet the reaper sooner than we would like, but they only make up 1% of the total defectors.

Move Away – Our clients may move their businesses, or the main buyer may leave the company and the new buyer may not use you. According to research, this accounts for about 3% of clients

Buy from a Friend – Some other clients may actually buy from a company because they know the supplier personally. You might be a friend, too, but 4% will still leave you for this reason

Prefer a competitor – Your competition may come up with a special offer to lure your client away. If you haven’t built up a close relationship with them, the last you may hear from them is their answerphone, as they don’t pick up the phone to your calls any more. This accounts for 9% of the defectors

Product dissatisfaction – We can’t please everyone all the time. Sometimes our products are simply not good enough, or something happens that causes them to be dissatisfied with our offerings. Another 14% leave because of this.

That leaves one last reason. And you’ll probably notice that the previous reasons, in the majority of cases, are outside of our control. However, this main reason is certainly within our control, and it’s the attitude we show to the client. A whopping 68% of clients, according to Feiertag, leave because of apathy by the supplier.

O, brother, that’s more than 2 out of 3 of your lost customers!

What can you do to ensure you don’t suffer from this experience?

Ensure you know the level of service your customer expects. Some customers want you call every other day. Some want only new updates. Others want a visit every three months. Find out what your clients’ expectations are in this area of contacts. Then match them.

Be the first port of call when your client has a problem. You might not be involved in shipping, but you want to know when your customer’s delivery hasn’t arrived. It saves you having a big shock on your next visit.

Use personal follow-ups, thank you notes, phone calls or other ways to make sure your customer knows you appreciate their business. These personal touches can mean a lot. Find out the buyer’s birthday and send them a personal card, not an email. It will make an impression.

Remember: Your clients want and need reasons to keep the partnership going. Don’t neglect them while seeking out new clients.

Your attitude is contagious…is yours worth catching?

Happy selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

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Psst want to know a secret?

Your prospects don’t believe a word that you’re saying!

After all, you’re a sales person right?

I might jest and mock about this but you’re guilty until proven innocent in sales!

And it’s your job to build the trust with your prospects, to build the value of what you sell and to make it easy for them to buy but in a lot of cases because they have been “sold to” in the past or they might have been “promised the earth” by a sales person just like you and then let you down, they’ve had their fingers burned!

And they don’t want to make the same mistake twice.

That’s why some buyers put you through the ringer!

Now one way to build up this trust and to put their mind at ease is by supplying testimonials and case studies.

But 90% of the case studies and testimonials that I see are a complete waste of time.

You know what I mean, ones like this:

“I am so happy with my Super Mop that I would recommend it to everyone.  ABC company really looked after me and provided me with a fabulous level of service”

So what’s what wrong with that I hear you say?

We’ll, apart from beating on your chest your prospect is not going to connect with it.

Remember, they don’t believe you so hypey statements like that are only going to build up more distrust.

And don’t forget that you need to follow a sales process with your  prospects first and in short that is:

* UNEARTH PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
* PRESENT YOUR SOLUTIONS TO THOSE ISSUES
* BUILD UP THE VALUE
* REVEAL THE PRICE
* CLOSE

So how does that testimonial above help you with that?

In short it doesn’t.

Instead, your case studies and testimonials need to follow a similar structure so that the prospect can see the problems that someone was experiencing and then how your products and services and helped to solve them.

They need to connect with any case studies and testimonials that you show them.

So, our sales person asked the company to re-word the testimonial into the sales format above and look what they come out with:

“Having a large office meant that we went through cleaning products and especially mops at a rapid rate. We were getting through 34 mops a year due to the heavy industrial waste that they need to wipe through. We’ve tried all sorts of other solutions so when it came to trying the Super Mop I must admit I had the opinion of “Here we go again”.

We tried the Super Mop and have been doing so for a year now. Our savings have been in excess of £240 for the year.

We’ve used 2 Super Mops whereas we’d have used 34 of the standard mops on the marketplace. This really is a no brainer and if you want to save money on your industrial cleaning then I would look no further than ABC’s Super Mop”

Now, can you see the difference?

It included the problem:
“Having a large office meant that we went through cleaning
products and especially mops at a rapid rate. We were getting
through 34 mops a year due to the heavy industrial waste that
they need to wipe through. “We’ve tried all sorts of other
solutions so when it came to trying the Super Mop I must admit
I had the opinion of “Here we go again”.

Then the solution to the problem:
“We tried the Super Mop and have been doing so for a year now”

Then the pay off (value):
“Our savings have been in excess of £240 for the year.
We’ve used 2 Super Mops whereas we’d have used 34 of the standard
mops on the marketplace. This really is a no brainer and if you
want to save money on your industrial cleaning then I would look
no further than ABC’s Super Mop”

Now your industrial prospects can resonate with that and if they are in the same boat then BINGO!

So, when collecting case studies and testimonials please ask for:

What the problem/situation was?
What had they tried in the past?
How your product helped?
What the benefits were?

The benefits don’t always have to be in terms of money either.

They can be saved time, clarity, effort etc

I hope that helps you!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

If you give demonstrations of your products or services then I recommend that you give this closing line a try:

“Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Try” is a very powerful word in sales as it seems to reduce the risk of the purchase to the buyer.

“Why don’t you buy it?” may seem a little heavy handed to some purchasers and may seem a little front on.

Whereas the word “Try” sinks into our minds as though there are no long term commitments and that we’re “having a go” with the product or service to see how we get on with it rather than purchasing it although you are purchasing it!

Why don’t you give it a try?

Happy selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

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As 2009 draws to a close it’s important that you schedule some time in your diary to review your sales efforts during the past 12 months.

I’m not just talking about going over your sales figures here.

Here are some areas to review for a starters:

* Your sales figures
* What activity and actions you did to drum up new business
* The effectiveness of each activity and action
* What did you learn in 2009?
* What did you do well in 2009?
* What did you do for existing clients?
* How many sales books did you read? What did you learn from them?
* How many sales audios did you listen to? What did you learn from them?
* How many sales courses did you attend? What did you learn from them?
* What did you learn about your marketplace?
* What did you learn about your prospects?

There are others!

Armed with this information, work out what you are going to do in 2010 in terms of what you will:

Start Doing
Stop Doing
Do More Of
Do Less Of

It’s not only cheesy home improvement tv shows that should get a makeover you know!

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training
MTD Sales Blog

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

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I bet you’ve heard a million times that you need to build the value first before revealing your price.

And whoever told you is exactly right!

But how can you build this value?

Well, the overall objective is for you to cover the benefits of what you are selling so well that the prospect has built up a figure in their mind of what your product or service is worth and this figure is way above the amount that you tell them.

That’s value.

So you need to work really hard at layering the value. Both tangible and intangible benefits. Both USP’s and ESP’s (unique selling propositions and emotional selling propositions).

If you mention a feature you then need to cover “What’s in it if for them”

“What this means is that…”

If a prospect asks for the price before you have revealed the value and you tell them, then you are sunk. You need to side step that question immediately.

So how are you currently building the value of what you sell?

Make sure you put a lot of time and effort into it and it will pay big dividends for you.

Hepp Selling

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training
MTD Sales Blog

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Can you back up the claims that you make?

I’m not just talking about factual data here. But what about actual case studies from happy clients?

“ABC did a great job for us, if I were you I’d use them immediately”

So what? That’s an awful testimonial!

Here’s what you should do…

Approach every happy client and ask them if they wouldn’t mind drafting a testimonial for you. When they say yes, send them these three questions to shape their answers…

1. What was the situation like BEFORE they used your product/service?

2. Why did they choose your company over the rest and what’s it been like to work with you?

3. What actual results did they get in terms of increased profits, cost savings, staff morale, time etc

So you might end up with something like this:

“We had been very inefficient for years and our widgets had to be replaced every 2 months. We choose ABC company in-front of 5 other suppliers because they seemed to give a personal touch which was 100% correct as they have always been there for us. The results we have had have been amazing. Instead of replacing our line every 2 months, this is now up to 5 months and have saved us £20,000 in the first year.”

Now that’s social proof! You can go one further and then ask them whether they would mind acting as a reference to call should anyone wish to do so and in return you’ll give them some discount off their next order for their time.

Just imagine that you had 20 quality testimonials to show your prospects? How powerful would that be?

Get to it! If you are not using them then it’s costing you sales as you read this!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

“Sean, what does it take to be a good salesperson?”

Funnily enough, I get asked that question a lot!

Want to know what I reply back to people who ask me that question?

And this may surprise you but I reply back with:

“Why do you only want to be a good salesperson?”

I know that sounds pedantic but I’m telling you now and you need to listen up here but if all you’re going to do is settle for being good then you might as well forget it.

Most people are “good”. Your competitors are “good”.

“Being good” is just “not good enough”

You need to be excellent and outstanding and stand head and shoulders above everyone else.

You need to have more knowledge, more training, more “streetwiseness” (if there is such a word!), you need to know more about the competition than the rest, more about your prospects and clients than the competition do – you get the picture here!

You need to raise your standards as a salesperson. Don’t view it as a job, view it as a career.

I’m very proud to call myself a salesperson. It’s my profession and you should be proud too.

I was working it out the other day…

The average doctor spends about 10,000 hours of study to perfect their craft.

How many hours do you put into your studies? The study of selling?

So no matter how serious you take your sale career at the moment, start to take it even more serious.

What can you do to raise the bar even further?

Don’t just beat the competition by a short head. Expect to win and win big. Believe in what you sell so much that you just can’t understand it when someone says no.

Ok, I’ll get off my soap box now!

As of today, what do you need to:

Start doing?
Stop doing?
Do more of?
Do less of?

Commit yourself to excellence and to be the best that you can be and you’ll surprise yourself how “good” you can actually be!

Rant over!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

I was on the way to meet with a prospect yesterday when one of my team called my mobile and asked me to pick up some A4 jiffy bags from Staples on the way back because they’d forgotten to order them in.

So there I was 5 deep in a queue and only 2 sales assistants serving.

Then, all of a sudden, like a Genie from the lamp, the manager appeared and stood in front of me and the other 4 people in the queue and said:

“I’m really sorry that we’ve kept you waiting, please have a 10% discount on me for the inconvenience”

Everyone was happy and were talking amongst themselves about how nice the manager was and that the level of service was just great irrespective of us all having to wait 10 minutes to get checked out.

The manager then went to the front of the queue and as one sales assistant because free he’d say:

“Dave will now give you your discount sir. Please just put your name and address down on that form on the counter so I can give you your discount” And he ushered me to a till.

As I went up to the counter I realised that it was a storecard that I was signing up to and with your first purchase (i.e this one) you receive 10% discount.

And each of us signed up to it.

Now, how many times do you get asked to sign up to a storecard when at the checkout?

Lot’s I would suspect.

And I’d bet that most of the time you say no don’t you?

So here was a sure fire way of getting sign ups. Now I don’t know whether that was all done on purpose to get sign ups but it definately worked.

It certainly got me thinking about how an offer can be reframed.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training

Telephone: 0800 849 6732

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have.

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

During the past 12 months I’ve been completing a special research project and have been interviewing hundreds of buyers and sales people from all over the world. I’ve been analysing trends, data, the latest technology – you name it!

I wanted to see with my own eyes as to what was going on in the world of sales. Not just the downturn, but I wanted to analyse the very latest buying habits and how buyers will make their purchasing decisions in the future.

As a sales person you need to know these!

If you don’t, it will threaten your very existence!

So click on the link below to download my latest F R E E special report:

“The Sales Person’s Crisis”
http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/crisis.html

What contains within the report will not only give you that competitive edge now but it will also give you the heads up as to what will be happening in the world of sales in the future.

Here’s the link again:
http://www.mtdsalestraining.com/crisis.html

To your continued success

Sean

_______________________________

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training International

Telephone:
0800 849 6732

Website:
http://www.mtdsalestraining.com

Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

As a salesperson you’ve always got to appreciate and understand that the majority of people that you will sell to just hate any kind of risk.

They will also most likely not trust and believe a word you say too! Well, at least not in the beginning!

So to counter this you absolutely MUST have a wad full of client testimonials, client letters, comments, case studies – you name it!

You must also have names, numbers and email addresses of clients whom your prospect can contact to hear it “straight from the horses mouth”.

Prospects always want proof and by you providing them with third party evidence you’ll be doing a lot to break down any of the mistrust that they might have on their minds.

So my question to you is this: what have you got to hand that will help you in your selling to provide the social proof that you need?

And I mean LOTS and LOTS of evidence.

Just imagine that you were meeting with a prospect and they said “Who have you worked with?”

Now instead of you going on and on and talking their head off….

You instead reach into your briefcase and pull out a folder. On page 1 of the folder are 3 columns and a list in alphabetical order of over 600 clients who you have worked for. The folder contains about 200 pages and each one is a personal letter on the companies letterheaded paper with a testimonial about how well your company did for them. You pass this to the prospect to let them browse through.

Now can you see how powerful that would be?

If you haven’t got this reference library in place already then just ask your clients. If you’ve done a great job for them in the past I’m sure they will have no problem in helping you with this.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
The UK’s #1 Authority On Modern Day Selling
MTD Sales Training

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Have you downloaded my latest report yet? “The Sales Person’s Crisis” has been downloaded by over 10,000 sales pros and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this unique report that lifts the lid on modern day selling!

Click on the image below to find out why you’re very existence as a sales person is in doubt…