Good morning everyone,
I can not believe that we are already into August and soon the weather is going to start its decent into grey and cold. We will still have a stop in fall for college football and apple orchards for cider and donuts! I really need to not be so excited with food. Well lets preface that with bad food such as donuts and cookies that bring relatively no nutritional value.
Enough about the weather and the some of my bad habits. Let’s get into good habits. Let’s talk about a habit that all sales people need to be thoughtful of when they make the sale. It’s the habit of the next 100 days of life after the purchase that the sales person needs to be focused on. The next 100 days after the sale is crucial to the effectiveness of your product and the success that the customer has.
The sales process does not end just with signing on the dotted line and never speaking to the customer again. This is where the real hard work starts. This is where all the words about how great your service, organization, and you are. Unfortunately, most sales people do believe that once the customer signs on the dotted line then that is it and they can move on to the next conquest.
When I started out in sales I was under that assumption. I would make the sale and believe that the internal ordering team would take over and I could move on to more sales activities. One instance that comes to mind of the many was when I had just started out in sales and set up my first lawnmower shop with a new product line of stand on riding lawnmowers.
It was in the Detroit area and the shop was smaller in comparison to some of the other shops in the Detroit area. The people were good and they were generating pretty good sales with the product lines that they had. They had a market for the stand on riding lawnmowers due to the properties in the area not having a great deal of room between them so the landscapers would be able to get between houses without having to use a push mower or weed trimmers.
The issue came after I had worked for over a year getting the dealer convinced that this product would work well for them and they finally agreed. I set up the date for them to receive their first shipment, confirmed that they would be well taken care of by the inside staff, and trained their staff on how to sell the product. After that, I was off and running after new sales. I was pumped and ready to take on the lawnmowing world.
After a few months I stopped back in and the original order of lawnmowers was still there meaning they had not sold any. When I asked how it was going they said good. When I asked how the sales of the new line of lawnmowers was going, they said, well not so good. Evidentially, the equipment did not ship on time and they did not know how to maneuver the equipment like I was able to do, and customers wanted to sit while cutting.
Months later I was back at the dealer picking up the equipment and having to find a new home for the it at another dealer for a discount. I failed! I felt like crap and was not looking forward to telling the owner of our organization that I lost my first new account. How would you feel if you had to tell your boss that you lost an account and when probed to understand why it was because you did not follow up and help the customer.
I have since learned that 24 hours after someone learns something if it is not applied they forget about 50 percent of the new knowledge. The next day another 50 percent of that 50 percent that they learned two days ago and so on and so forth. Without follow up and reinforcing that decision someone makes to buy your product will not help them as well as advertised.
I have since made it a matter of discipline to make sure that I become intentional for the next 100 days and longer if they sales is in the millions of dollars to reinforce everything that I have advertised. I train the operators, sales team, learn more about their customers, find new ways to help the customer use the product efficiently, etc. I have become so intentional that if I have any kind of doubt that I may not have set the customer on the best footing I keep going back to them to make sure they feel like they have got this and the product or service is second nature.
Do not be afraid to ask the customer to tell you where they are being hung up or not seeing the improvements that they were expecting. At a bare minimum it will help you refine your sales process in the future to address such issues. Most of the time it will enable you to grow your relationship with the customer because you are coming along side of them to help them grow and you are not like most of the sales people that they have dealt with in the past that are no where to be found.
Focus on being intentional with the customer no matter what product or service you offer to them after they have made the purchase. Follow up and make sure the product ships on time and that you can be there for set up. Get dirty with them if needed running wiring for new internet routers, grab a prybar and open up the crates with them, run them through the new software package, and sit with them and ask more questions about what they may not understand. You may also share a few items from your blooper reels so that they are more comfortable sharing what they do not understand. Be intentional after the sale and help your customer. You never know what will happen after. One thing that happened for me is that I had more customers calling me to meet with them because of the value that I brought not just in selling product, but helping my customers in any area of their business that I could from the knowledge and no fear of getting dirty with them to help.
I hope that this blog had helped you and if you have any questions know that I am here to help in any way that I can.
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises