Be The Bridge

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to build influence with others so quickly?  That they just seem to gain engagement without much effort?  

Today let’s talk about one of the concepts that I teach in my Unmatched Influence training, and is also part of my online Trustworthy training below.  It’s called being the bridge. 

This concept was something I stumbled onto when I was new to a particular sales territory that I moved into for one of the organizations that I worked for in my career.  I was not the only part of the organization that was new to this territory.  The entire organization was new.  

We had no previous relationships in this territory so we were starting from scratch.  We were hustling to get the business growing and fast.  This part of the United States was also considered a good ole boy network.  If you were an outsider, good luck…

I started building relationships with customers and prospects as fast as I could.  I was working extra hours and getting to know the territory and who were the top prospects.  While doing so I was building my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database as I went.  I was asking all sorts of questions.

There was a lot of caffeine and memorization as well.  Back when my memory was great…

One day I was calling on a customer that was asking me about a software they were looking at using for their business.  I knew nothing of the software and was curious as to why I was being asked.  It was because I was an electrical engineer by training.  Like just being an electrical engineer made me understand all types of software.  

Granted I could probably debug some software issues and fix windows issues, but know all software was not something that I could sign up for.  What I did know is that another customer about three hours north of this customer actually used this software.  

I reached out to this other customer and asked if they wouldn’t mind answering some questions for another customer not in their territory.  The answer was yes and they had a call which resulted in the customer asking the question to avoid some pitfalls that the other customer had.  They switch over to the new software was a success.

What I didn’t expect is that the customer that I helped get in touch with this other customer was grateful and started confiding in me more and more.  Asking me questions about more business solutions and ideas and telling others that I was the go to person for help.

This began a snowball effect which resulted in me getting more phone calls from potential customers than me having to chase them down.  I was building influence faster and faster.  Now the initial help that I offered by connecting the two customers did not result in sales that day, but it did build a relationship and influence in the entire territory fast.  

I call this “Being the Bridge.”  By connecting others that are able to help each other I am also granted influence and credibility as well.  By being the bridge, I was able to gain much faster influence in my territory that I actually was being asked to stop in to help.  It also netted me a great deal of business.  I was growing my territory at a fast pace, I won the award for top sales person for the United States, and grossed more income all by serving the customers by bridging them together.

To build influence, we need to serve those around us whether they be customers, or team members.  We need to use the open hand and not the closed fist when interacting with them.  If we do so, we will be successful in building unmatched influence that will allow us to go further faster with others.

I hope this helps you on your journey to building influence.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What is Your Why For Your Marketing Strategy?

Welcome back.  Today I’d like to talk about what a good marketing strategy is in order to increase sales.  I will also write about what doesn’t work and why so that you can figure out how you want to move forward with your strategy.

Since the creation of mail advertising, tv, and the internet there has been a great focus on marketing.  Now that we as a society have evolved and become smarter, the old way of marketing features and benefits has had to evolve. Just buying the biggest ad in the yellow pages will not work these days.

When people meet us as sales professionals, organizations, institutions they are asking three questions.  Today let’s focus on the third question with the assumption that we have answered the first two correctly.  This third question is “How Can You Help Me?”  If we are going to market to people about us being the best option, we better be focused on answering that question correctly.

If we don’t answer that question, well they will move on down the road to the next person in line.  They will also start thinking about what we offer as a commodity if we are not answering that question.  If we become a commodity then the only differentiating factor is price.  There is no winning strategy for commodities.  We need to differentiate ourselves from the competition.

People do not buy features and benefits as the answer to the question above.  We must focus on answering the needs of the customer.  That is right customers want a solution to their needs.  To figure out what needs our offering answers, then we need to ask questions, but to who? 

The answer to that question is ask our current customers why they buy from us.  What is it that made them desire our offering?  Why do they stick with us when there are other offerings out there?  Why do people still flock to Apple for their products when there are other products out there that compete on the same performance as Apple?  We need to understand why our customers love our offerings and stick with us as repeat customers.

To do that there are tons of tools out there, but I recommend two.  Surveys and testimonials are what I recommend.  Surveys upon purchase helps in the later steps of the sales process as I teach, but also help get fresh feedback at the time of purchase as to why the customer decided to do business with us.  This is fresh insight without outside influence and time that will allow our customers to forget.  The other is testimonials.  These testimonials work so great because of the law of “Social Proof” that others will follow because of that influence. 

That is right, we need to be asking our current customers why they are doing business with us because this is the key to understand how and what we should be marketing.  We will see a trend as well with all of the surveys and testimonials that will show us the path to our marketing strategy. 

I know this seems backwards in the process, but our customers are the ones that can tell us the why so that we can structure out strategy.  Many organizations fail to understand why the customers do business with them and march in a totally different direction leading to mediocre results.  We need to understand so we can chart out course correctly to attract more of our tribe.

Answer that third question by asking questions to current customers will allow us to win at this marketing game.  Especially when there is so much noise out there to confuse and turn off customers. 

Start today to understand your  current customers and then you will overcome the competition and stay out of the commodity arena!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is the Best Sales Strategy

Welcome back,

Today we are going to go through what a good sales strategy is because this comes up quite often with sales teams.  What is your strategy to win the sale?  Most of the time the sales person is thinking on the fly and often falters when pressed for details.  This is also when the sales person is confronted that thinking on the fly is not going to work.

With the sales landscape ever evolving, sales people need to have a good sales strategy. 

Here is what I have use as my sales strategy: 

Have a plan to serve the customer with a process that walks with them through their five buying decisions

That’s my sales strategy.  I want to serve the customer and walk with them through their five buying decisions in a way that allows them to buy the best product that meets their needs.  In order to do this. I must do a few things.

I must build rapport and trust with the customer.  If I know who I am meeting with, I can do research on them to learn about them and their families.  If I don’t have that option, or want to learn more, I can ask questions.   A great deal of questions to understand them and their needs.

The easiest way to build trust and rapport is to learn about customers.  We need to make sure we are learning about the customer because if we are not doing so, the three major questions that the customer has will go unanswered.  Do I like you? Do I trust you? How can you help me?  These three questions if unanswered spell defeat for a sales person because the first buying decision for a customer is in fact the sales person.  If we do not know, like, and trust the sales person, we are not going to buy from them.  Especially when there are so many options out in the marketplace.

The sales person is essential in growing the product line.  People buy from people. 

To help sales people I have created “The Sales Process Uncovered,” to help the sales person use the roadmap on how to sell effectively to customers.  It starts by asking a great deal of questions and the different types of questions needed to uncover the customer’s needs.  This process has worked in different industries, in different markets, and B2B as well as B2C sales.

That is right I use a process to solidify my strategy.  All the successful people use a process whether it for championships, expeditions to uncharted territories, or business.  Even those amazing Navy Seals that are the elite of the elite use a process for preparing for a mission.  Those individuals use a process to plan, action, review, and do it over again. 

If you want to have a great sales strategy, you need to implement a sales processes that will help us walk with our customer.  By doing so influence actually increases with the customer and if we do a great job selling, the customer will start telling others why they need to do business with us.

Who wouldn’t want that? 

If we want to gain sales success, and achieve great goals, we need to have a plan and the easiest way to do that is have a process in place that is simple and repeatable for success. 

If you want to gain some more insight about the sales process uncovered and how it can help you, click here.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Does Your Organization Answer The Second Customer Buying Decision?

Have you been disappointed by the lack of customer service lately?  Has it affected your decision to buy from this place of business again?

Have you ever decided not to buy a product or service because of the reputation of the organization?

I recently ordered some workout gear from an organization that I often do business with.  I ordered the products and received the shipping information and for a week with no shipment info.  When I reached out to this organization, they informed me they would ship out a new order for me.  A week later nothing.  I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but after weeks of trying to figure out why my products were not shipping, I reached out once more to find out that the replacement order was never placed.  This was exhausting follow up that was very discouraging.

If an organization builds a reputation of poor customer service, unethical practices, bad quality, etc., they are not going to be the organization with the large value proposition to customers.  Organizations often try to cut corners to save a few dollars, that end up sacrificing millions in the long run.  Truth be told that if organizations are not providing exceptional value they are a commodity.  There are other options to buy similar products and services.

With the onset of Millennials in the workforce we are seeing a trend of them working for organizations that align with their values more so than just to collect a paycheck.  This same demographic is also the largest demographic of individuals in US history.  This demographic of individuals stive to work for organizations that align with their personal mission statements.  Millennials want to make sure they are going to help society by working with and for these organizations.  It is imperative that organizations recognize this and make sure they are selling themselves as well as their products.

These same Millennials are also purchasing products and services from organizations.   If the organization does not align with the Millennials goals, guess what, they won’t buy from these organizations.  Again, the largest demographic in US history means the largest buying power.

How do organizations make sure they are selling what makes them unique to the customers?  Organizations should use the same process they use to sell their products and services correctly.  They answer the needs of the customer.  What does the organization offer that will help the customer “WIN?” 

When we look at our organizations whether they are for profit or non-profit, we need to see what we do well.  Do we offer online SEO plans to help customers get quicker growth on the internet marketplace?  Do we have solutions to handling ecommerce for the customer’s products and services online?  What does our organizations do to enable personal growth of our customers?   Do our organizations donate a large part of our profits to help society?  Each of our organizations offer solutions that are vital, but it is up to us to define those game changer answers to the customer’s needs.

What does your organization do well to help the customer?  It just may save your organization in the long run. 

Put your answer in the comments below in this blog as I love to hear how organizations answer the customer’s needs.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Short Term Profits, or Raving Fans, Which Do You Prefer

Good morning everyone. 

Last week we spoke about customer loyalty.  Today let’s talk about how to generate “Raving Fans” which is what we all want.  Have you ever been to a concert standing next to thousands of other people singing the same lyrics as you as the band performs on stage?  Have you ever been to a sporting event where you and the people around you are cheering for your team and sharing memories of how WE beat the rivals?  How about a restaurant experience that you couldn’t help but tell others that they need to go to?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had that kind of following for our businesses? 

In today’s world it is easier to get a company launched and with social media it is even faster to come to market with new products.  Business owners are trying to find the quick ways to generate profits and return customers.

Here’s the secret sauce for doing this.  It takes time!  Sad, but true it takes time to generate loyal customers and raving fans.  As a business owner we need to define what we want.  Do we want short-term profits or long-term success?

When customers buy a product / service from most organizations that is the end of the transaction.  Unfortunately, the 90 days after a purchase are the most crucial for the customer.  They need our help to be successful with this new investment.  If we simply take the payment and say, “Good Luck!”  we’ll be looking at lower sales in the future.  Without repeat customers and customers reaching out to others on our behalfs, we will have to keep pushing hard with effort to grow sales.  We need to serve our customers well, or suffer the consequences of burn out and becoming a commodity. 

The 90 days after a purchase are crucial to make sure the customer is using the product or service to its full potential.  Think about some of the products / services we have bought only for them to be collecting dust because we did not know how to use them properly.  We fell that infomercial we watched late at night lied to us. 

Today with social media being easily accessed a small business owner can reach all customers with emails, videos, and webinars at the click of a button and with low cost.  Why not make sure the customer has all the tools to help them be successful with our products?  What about group events when we travel to a city to invite those customers out to network and offer support?

No magic, just simply focusing on the customer to make sure they are successful.  They are investing their hard, earned money with us so we need to treat them like they are making an investment in us.  Customers are taking a risk on our products / service so let’s help them be successful.  Constantly reaching out with successful tips and trick and not just selling the customer something else is how we serve them well!  

I have read a great book called “Fanology” by the David and Reiko Scott.  They have great insight on how organizations have generated awesome fan bases that sustain long-term success.  One part of the book that really stopped me and made me think was this quote:

“The relationships we build with our customers are more important than the products and services we sell to them.”

If we want to generate more “FANS” for our products / services we need to focus on how we can make them successful with our products / services that we offer.  If we are not focused on serving the customer and building relationships with them, then our products / services become a commodity.  The only differentiating factor in a commodity is price.  It’s also not sustainable for long term growth for your organization because each day there are similar products coming to market for a cheaper price.

Focus on making the customer successful and building a relationship with them.  Wouldn’t it be awesome serving and connecting with customers so well that they become fans and sell our products / services for us?  Who wouldn’t want that a sales force that we don’t have to pay because they are so passionate about our product / service?

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com