Want Customer Loyalty? Then Change Your Focus

Just about every major retailer has a loyalty program.  Offers are given with point systems in hopes of retaining customers.  These are all great things, but there is one area that businesses are falling short when they try to build customer loyalty.

All of us are familiar with Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A who both host lines for the drive through wrapping around parking lots and disrupting street traffic flow.  What we need to do is think about ways to serve customers so well and consistently that they want to keep coming back.

Both Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A do one thing really, really well.  It’s customer service.  That’s right, they are always going above and beyond the call to serve the customer. This is resulting in customer loyalty, a Fanocrocy, and great business success even during pandemics.  People will literally wait in 20 min lines for a cup of coffee, or a chicken sandwich (with waffle fries of course.) 

Chick-Fil-A also has one thing they do every time they serve us when we say thank you.  They respond immediately with “it’s my pleasure.”  They literally ingrain each employee to be customer service focused.  It does not matter which location we to go, we still get great consistent service.

When an organization focuses only on profits and not on serving the customers it never ends well.  Doing the right thing consistently over time creates brand loyalty.  Making sure we have set up a customer experience mindset, we will see customers return again and again.  Even if we sell and inferior product / service, by serving the customer we will see returning customers.

Too many organizations focus on short term profits.  One main driver for this is publicly traded companies focusing on making their stock holders more money as their main goals.  All organizational goals serve this one main goal.  How do we make shareholders more money?  Unfortunately, these large organizations forget about the investments needed to keep the customers happy who are actually paying the bills.  Investments to maintain quality, delivery, and customer focused service.

Organizations should consistently do the right thing for the customers to generate loyal “Fans.”  When “Fans” pledge their loyalty to us, they tell others how awesome our organization is  They share stories of how we have helped them and rave about our service.  We have sales people selling for us that are not on our payroll.  Wouldn’t you like that?

Do not take the customer’s payment and walk away from the transaction waiting to see if the customer will buy from us again before we give extra effort.   Give the extra effort up front and every time we engage people and we will be rewarded! Consistency over time equals more profits and more customer loyalty.

I am also not sponsored by either organization discussed in this blog, but if they want to give me free food, I fat Kevin would be glad to accept it :)

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Why Leaders Know Sales

When I first started in sales it was on the premise that if I wanted to be a great manager, business owner, lawyer, president, I needed to know sales.  That is what a successful business owner told me after I had told him that I wanted to be a manager.  He was a great leader and still has people working for him that were with him since he opened his company in the mid 1980’s.  I was not sure why I needed to know sales to be a good manager to be honest, but I knew I would figure it out. 

At first, I was hesitant to change careers.  Six months of hesitation and discussions to be exact.  I did not want to be a salesperson because all life had taught me was that they were evil.  All I had ever been told was bad and experiences were also proof to that same point. 

When I did decide to try this sales thing out, I quickly learned that there was a key ingredient to being a successful sales professional.  Once I figured out that ingredient, customers started opening up to me and sales increased.  I was awarded the prize of top salesman for the United States and had taken the territory to where it had never been before.

I literally had customers asking me about what software would work best for their business and other things that had nothing to do with what I sold.  They trusted me and were asking for my insight on various things that they were struggling with in their businesses. That key ingredient is Influence. In sales the more influence you have the more you sell.  The same is said for leaders.

 As influence increases, people trust us more and are willing to go deeper in relationships with us.  This can be in business ventures, nonprofits, community support, etc.  The more influence someone has the more they excel in whatever they are doing with others.

What I found is that the sales process that I keynote and perform trainings on helps people build amazing amounts of influence fast!  That is right, selling correctly helps us build high levels of influence! 

Keep in mind that selling is not just a product or service.  It can be selling a vision, idea, or that we are going to lead those that report to us.  Building influence using the sales process, leaders gain more engagement from those around them.  Utilizing the sales process to sell our vision and our mission will grant us more influence and greater buy in from those around us.

As you look around your organization look at those relationships of those that go out of their way to help you and those that don’t.  See how much influence you have with these relationships.  Ask yourself, “Why do I have more influence with this person as opposed to another?  What is different with each of these individuals?”  What you’ll learn is that the level of our influence determines how much we can say and do with each individual.

The more influence you have the farther our organizations can go.

“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

The Sales Process Uncovered Membership Page

Why We Need Relationships In Business

Good morning everyone,

I remember a story of a successful business owner that had sold his company and stayed on to support the transition.  This owner had a pretty large company that was sold to an organization with a Chief Operating Officer that hated salespeople.  This COO also believed anything done by salespeople could automatically be done through a business transaction from an internal call center.

This same CFO also discussed that business school professors from some of the elite universities even teach that relationship building outside of the professional transaction are not a good idea.  People that are scholars in theory, but unfortunately not life application.

Golf outings were not allowed, customers meals were frowned upon, and basically anything that was not transactional was outlawed.  I have also worked for companies that the focus was purely transactional and there was no focus on growing customer relationships, unless they had a purchase order attached.  Now I am not saying you have to validate a golf outing with this blog, but the fact that relationship building is important. 

If you are not meeting with customers regularly to learn about their needs, then how are you going to build influence?  Sales is influence and the more influence you have the more sales you make.  A lack of influence will quickly turn you and your product into a commodity!  The only differentiating factor for a commodity is price.  Then starts the race to the bottom where there is no margin and likely no quality.

Some of the most successful business owners that I have had the chance to sit with state that it is imperative to build the relationship with the customer.  I have also been able to visit some of my old customers that I have not called on in years. They will smile, ask me out to dinner, and sit with me for hours to discuss where they are at with their current business situations.  They even have asked for insight on what I might recommend still to this day!  It is a great feeling that I was able to influence individuals enough that they will take time to catch up as well as look for my advice.

These conversations would not have happened had I not worked on the personal side of the business as much as the transactional side.  Knowing your customers on a personal level and understanding their aspirations is a huge benefit.  People want to know that they matter to you.  Building that relationship is extremely important. 

It is almost an art form watching an old sales professional work the personal relationship and send birthday cards for the customer’s family, as well as celebrating wins that the customer has had.  Meetings on the golf course have transacted in large business deals that cannot be instantaneously measured.  Looking back on the sales process and building relationships will allow your business to grow with your customers.   The transactions do happen, but after work on the personal side.  People will not buy from you if they do not know, like, and trust you. 

I encourage you to leverage the personal side of business along with the professional side.  If learning about people was not important than why do Amazon, Facebook, and your smart phones listen in on your conversations as well as track your searches?  Statistics have shown that when there is a relationship in place between organizations a great deal of growth has happened as well.

Send a card for your customer’s birthdays, kids’ birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.  It is a great feeling to celebrate with your customers and form lasting relationships. 

Remember the first buying decision a potential customer makes is the Salesperson.  Grow that relationship!

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

Please Don’t Use The Elevator Pitches!

Have you ever been subject to an elevator pitch?  You know where the person says all these great things that they do and how you need to do business with them.  Some time ago elevator pitches came into existence because business people needed to be able to tell someone what they did in the time it took to reach your destination on the elevator.  Quick and be effective were the requirements of an elevator pitch. 

When I think about an elevator pitch, I see a picture of the old sales guy wearing a three-piece suit and playing with his pocket watch.  For those of you younger readers, a pocket watch is not your phone that is in your pocket. 

I remember when I first got into sales this was the language you needed to use when someone asked what you did.  People came up with all sorts of weird pitches.  After a few years came the unique selling proposition that you needed to craft so when you talked to customers you could use this to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Now there is a new approach that is called positioning statement.  I have used this approach when speaking to organizations for speaking and it goes like this:

“I work with organizations just like yours who want to increase sales and influence, so that they can improve profits and elevate their people.” 

This positioning statement is to position yourself as an authority and how you actually benefit people at a 10,000 ft view of what you do.  This positioning statement is to also pull the prospective customer into asking more questions to learn a little more.  This is a way to start the conversation to learn about the customer which is a better way to approach selling.  I mean how do you know what to sell someone if you don’t know what they need?

This Positioning statement flows well with my company which  “Sales and Leadership Enterprises.”  I emphasize the fact that I help people walk through the sales process and how salespeople can intentionally understand where they are at in the process.  Using the same process helps leaders gain influence with employees and customers. 

Today we no longer use the elevator pitch, and as we move into the positioning statement where we want to be in our customer’s minds.  We want them thinking about how they need more help and how we can help them through conversation.   We are not making quick closes, but we are having the conversation to help our customers move forward to a better place.

What is your positioning statement? 

Leave a comment below and tell me what your positioning statement is.  I like learning about my readers and how I can help them achieve more.  I will give a free signed copy of my book to the winner the best positioning statement!

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

Not Customer Service, But Customer Experience

Have you ever had to wait an extremely long time for your food at a restaurant when you were starving?  Asking the wait staff for an update on the food seemed to bother them from their already busy agenda.  Meanwhile we believe that death is at our door. 

Upon asking the wait staff for an update, they seem not to care sometimes.  Sometimes we might get a part of the order taken off our bill.  Maybe the manager has to get involved to resolve the issue.  Tips are dwindled and the likelihood of returning to the establishment decreases by the second.

I was in Franklin Tennessee which is about 30 minutes south of Nashville this past summer.  It’s a great city where a lot of country singers live and other wealthy individuals.  It is a great little downtown filled with restaurants and shops.  There is one establishment that people rave about so the group of us decided to stop in.

We weren’t starving, but we decided to venture in and check it out.  I won’t give the name away, but they have these things called BONUTS that are delicious.  We ordered a set to go as well as some sweet tea.  You can’t go south without having sweet tea! 

After we ordered the person taking the order advised us to wait at a table in the middle of the room.  After about 15 minutes the waitress came by with a plate with BONUTS on them and we were confused because we asked for “to go”.  She dropped these off and then said she would get us some to go.

Another 15 minutes went by and nothing.  Now we had already paid so we were getting ready to just stand up and leave.  Figuring we had gotten what we paid for so no really harm done just some time spent waiting. 

We had asked someone working there to see if the order was coming soon and they went to check.  When they came back, they gave us a refund, gave us the to go order, and then another order because we sat for so long.   They also refused repeatedly to take the money back.  I mean we got what we paid for, but they were insistent that we be refunded. 

The running total now is three orders of BONUTS and a full refund because they were sorry for the wait.  I mean that is over and above customer service.  Not just here is your order, but here is your money back as well and oh let’s give you another order.  That is exceptional service and that is what drives customer loyalty.

When we go back to the Nashville area again, where do you think we will be going.  When I hear friends and family are traveling there, what do you think I will tell them when I mention places to stop?

When we are serving customers, we need to think about the customer experience.  Not that others should perform the job that are supposed to, but if we come in contact with the customer and they express a need we need to serve them well also.  We need to make sure we do our best to give the customer a great experience. 

If we do serve the customer well and provide an exceptional experience then they will be like sales people for us.  Just like I am writing about my story to share with all of you.  Our customers will share with all of their friends and family about the exceptional experience. 

Keep that in mind when serving customers and how we approach them.  We need to give them an exceptional experience if we want to drive customer loyalty.  Not just a punch card, but experience is what generates customer loyalty.

Now the flip side to that is if we underserve and provide a poor customer experience, what do you think they will say about our organization. 

We reap what we sow.  Plant seeds of exceptional experience and we will reap a great harvest in the future.

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

Business Decisions Through This Filter

When I first entered the sales force, I was instructed to view my territory as if it was my own company and make decisions as such.  This was hard for me as an engineer because I was used to thinking about projects that someone else told me to work on. 

I didn’t have a business degree.  I didn’t have any understanding of how a business functioned outside of my little box of fixing and redesigning things.  This was hard for me to wrap my black and white, ones and zeros mind around.  What was this grey area people talked about?

As you can see thinking about my sales territory as if it was my own company was not an easy task for me.  It took me really making efforts to learn about business and learn from a mentor before I was able to wrap my mind around the concept.  This was not an over-night thing either.

I started reading books, taking trainings, and constantly learning so that I would be able to apply this concept.  That is why I am able to run my own company.  Without that prior training this would not have been possible.

Far too often people get into business by making a product / service and learn from one hardship after another.  Yes, it is okay to learn from mistakes and we typically learn more than when we have successes.  We should start out taking a business class when we start to go out on our own.  Not a full four year degree, but learning about business terms.

Not only will it help us learn more about business, but it will increase our capacity at our current job helping us to understand decisions better.  This makes us more valuable at our current job, and then helps us start out better on our future careers.  It’s like deciding to put on shoes prior running over rocky terrain. 

So how do we wrap our minds around this?  How do we decide our current position in finance, or materials would be our business.  By simply filtering our decisions through  this statement. “If this was my business would I make this decision.” 

Most people function as this is someone else’s pocket the cost is coming out of so they don’t think twice of spending the money.  I remember a conference when the speaker stated that we are to reach into our pockets to give something to charity, then follows up it by having us hand our wallets to the person to our left.  Now we are asked how much we would be willing to give to charity. 

Everyone erupted in laughter because we would empty the other person’s wallet without thinking, but when it was our own wallet… 

If we start filter business decisions through this filter as this is my company before we make the decision, we will make better decisions for the organization.   We will be more connected psychologically to the decision as well. 

Next time you are to make a decision in business, frame it in this mindset and see if your view changes.

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

Profitability vs. Revenue

I pride myself as being a dumb sales guy.  I do that as joking with customers when we have talks to lower the bar so when I over deliver, I look better in their eyes. 

One thing that I had to learn as I played in larger value discussions is understanding that more revenue did not make the organization more profitable.  That’s right, just selling more stuff does not out sell our costs sometimes.  When we are setting up sales prices to drive our revenue, we really need to study the P and L.  That’s profit and loss.

As I have grown my capacity as a sales professional, I have learned that profitability is more important than sales revenue.  If we sell at negative profit margins then we will soon be bankrupt.  Unfortunately, I did not understand this concept when I first got into sales.

I was constantly frustrated when we would have a sales program that would have iteration 4 by the time I booked half of my customers.  I would have to keep changing my prices weekly so some customers would get a price increase, or decrease and there was no way I could control it.

Let me share a word of advice.  If you think customers don’t talk to each other even though they say they are adversaries, you are wrong.  They talk and usually are more friends than we realize. 

What can we do as sales professionals to understand the profit and loss better?  Why not ask questions and continue to learn how the organization functions?  If it is an organization that fosters a culture of growth and service then they will likely see this request as a way to help groom a future executive. 

We need to understand the basics of our profitability if we are going to sit with a customer because they will always ask for a better deal.  We do it whenever we go out and shop, so why wouldn’t our customers ask.  When we understand our profitability then we can truly know why we can or can not drop the price.  We need to understand this if we are going to be successful.

If we go out and sell a bunch of products / services at losses we will soon be “promoted to customer.”  That’s just a nice way of saying fired.  We need to take pride in understanding our profitability if we are going to succeed. 

This does not mean that we need to go to college to get a financial degree to understand terms.  I haven’t done that.  We should learn about those terms and understand a P and L sheet as well as ask questions.  Yes, we have to be vulnerable enough to ask for clarification and understanding.  This is hard for sales people because we want to think we know everything.  The truly smartest people are those that know their limits and are okay with being vulnerable to learn.

Knowing our profitability will allow us to gain more success and a better future.

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

It's Hard To Move Away From The Cheapest Price

Have you ever wanted to win business so bad you felt compelled to drop your sales price?  Was there a customer that seemed so good to be true that you needed to decrease the price to secure this new business?  How about a large organization that would be the largest sales volume for you and your organization that you wanted to win it no matter what.

These are some of the stories I hear all the time and then when the win misses the volumes that were guaranteed the sales team is accused of missing the revenue.  Then the sales team is informed they need to get a price increase not tool long after the business is secured.

I have had to do this a few times in my history in sales.  One occasion was when business was won prior to me coming aboard and it was done so at such low profit that when we looked at the financials we were actually losing money every time we shipped something to the customer.

Guess who got tasked with a 20 percent increase.  Before you think 20 percent is not that much, it was on items that cost over $3000 per item.  That impact would affect the customer my millions each year.  Especially since they had orders already secured by their customers.

Typically, there are increases of a few percentage points, less in double digits, and very little that have a two in front of them.  The customer relationship was stressed and that will likely lead them to find ways to sell product for less money.  That is usually done by resourcing product.

I say this to highlight when we are selling to customers, we need to make sure that we stand behind our value and not just try to sell a product / service.  If we stand behind the value then we can have a conversation up front with the customer to let them know that we can offer a product / service for this investment.  We can stand firm in the value we offer and not have uncomfortable discussions in the future. 

We may lose some opportunities, but we will be known to the marketplace as the higher value option and we will still have customers that want to invest.  This also helps us really find who our ideal customer is.  Do we want someone that will try to decrease our price at every turn in the future and treat us like a commodity, or do we want someone that will want to partner with us and invest in the higher value product / service.

Sales teams sometimes forget that we offer value and we should know that we are not willing to lower our value for a new customer unless we have calls to action in the agreement that if the customer does not hit volumes, then we are able to come back for discussions.  We need to stand by our value we offer.

Without setting value for ourselves, the customer won’t either.  We need to make sure that the relationship is a mutual one and not just a one-way commodity purchased.  When we can achieve these kind of customers that view us as true partners that are not just trying to cut out pricing at every turn, we will be more profitable and have less of these price increase discussions in the future.  Both parties will function well and make profits.

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

How Are You Managing Your B-Word?

I have posted multiple blog posts and Youtube videos on the B-Word.  That word that people often think about as a curse word, but one that used properly will help you succeed.  Yes, I’m talking about budgets.

Using the B-word sounds like it is taboo and most people don’t talk about it much.  The issue is because people don’t like talking about how much money they have.  They don’t want to risk others looking poorly on them because they make more or less than the others around them.

People do however like to talk about their cars, extravagant vacations, large homes / kitchen renovations, and other stuff.  They like posting to social media about all their stuff and experiences, but not how they are paying for it.  Budgets have become a taboo word just like talking about paying with cash.  People talk about cars and reference their monthly payment instead of the total cost.

I used to do this too to impress all the people that I didn’t like just to show my status.  What I found out though is that the really wealthy people actually use fundamental financial terms when they talk about doing things.  What is the budget for doing thing?

The really wealthy don’t even reference the financial part of budgets.  They refer to the time investment for this new venture.  The really wealthy actually talk about time as a part of their investment criteria.  Time is one of those things that no matter how much money we have, we can not add, or multiply time.  We can not add more time.  We can minimize the time required for a venture, but not buy more time.

We should be using budget into our vocabulary if we want to get to a better quality of life.  Whether it is a time commitment, financial investment, or energy commitment, we need to make sure we are budgeting for all aspects.  This will help us understand if the cost is worth the investment. 

I recently detailed my wife’s and son’s vehicles.  Total investment on a nice warm Saturday was about four hours.  Their vehicles are smaller than my truck and are easier for me to do.  I decided that I would work on their vehicles because combined it would cost me about $250 for five hours of my time to do both.  The cheapest detailer I could find would cost that much for one vehicle.  

The investment of my time was good and my son actually helped so it was a teaching moment.  For my truck that would take me at least four hours to do, I am going to pay to have that done.  The reason being is it will be able to be done while I work and the trusted individual doing the work will do an amazing job for me.  

I grew up with not a great deal of money so I value being able to do things with my own hands, but as I have gotten older and make more money I am realizing that by outsourcing some things it will free me up to do more meaningful tasks that will provide me a better return on investment. 

I will be allowed more quality time with my wife and kids by having someone else do some of the work as well as possibly skipping the potential for a harmful accident.  Another example is cutting down a large evergreen tree in my back yard.  I have the tools to do this, but paying someone to drop the tree that is in a tight spot will likely cost me a great deal less than dropping the tree on the neighbor’s fence, sending me to the emergency room, etc.  I would gladly pay someone the few hundred dollars to avoid a ride in an ambulance and potential to damage property.

Just because we can do something, does not mean we are less of a man or woman because we chose to let others perform the work.  By using budgets to figure out the payoff and decisions we will be able to make the most impact with our resources.  

We need to use budgets in our vocabulary in order to get to a better place.  

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

Celebrate Good Times!

This is. The time of year in the US that people are out enjoying the warm weather celebrating independence.  BBQ’s are fired up cooking all sorts of meats, beverages are flowing, and people are getting tank top tanlines from not applying sunscreen.  It’s a great time of year!

We all enjoy the celebrations that we get to attend.  In sales it’s when we win that $100 million contract for our organization, the new platform launch that has finally rolled off the manufacturing line, or any other large event that we get to celebrate all of the hard work.

Everyone likes the celebration, but often complains about the work to get there.  Work is often thought of as an obstacle to get to the celebration.  We want the easy life, we hope for a restful relaxing retirement, but don’t want to spend the years of working to get there.

I sometimes get caught in this rut of complaining that I have yet another task to complete before the business award.  I understand it.  I’d love to just have everything handed to me sometimes when my pride is high.  I’d like the easy road in those moments.

What I have learned though is that we actually find a great deal more satisfaction in the achievement when we work towards it.  If we have hours of blood, sweat, and tears in the gym we are a great deal more grateful for the process when we look in the mirror of our accomplishments.  

When we are just handed things, we typically do not hold them as close as when we have some skin in the game.  

I started to realize this when I viewed how my son takes care of the things that he purchases than what is given to him as gifts for Christmas or birthdays.  When he has to work to earn the money and save, he takes a huge pride in his possession.  I mean making sure they are in tip top shape.

He works hard and enjoys the things he worked for a great deal more.  

The same is true for when I work on these large multi-million dollar deals.  They take a great amount of time and effort to capture, and when the day to celebrate arrives, I am able to really sit back and enjoy the accomplishments.  I find more satisfaction when I work for things than when they are just given to me.  It gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

I know that is different than what we may think, but really take stock and look at the things that you find more valuable to you.  Are they the simple gifts you have received, or the things that came from the accomplishment of hard work that you poured in?  

We are wired to work and we should celebrate those wins when they come.  We need to not just hope for easy life, but to enjoy those accomplishments.  The United States when through a great deal of struggle to become free so we could enjoy our freedom.    

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

Do You Know The Situation?

Ever wonder why some people just don’t follow our direction?  Ever hate having to interact with some people because you just know they are going to sabotage your plans?

In sales and in leadership, we have to deal with a lot of people.  Some might cringe at that and want to just order people to do something, but unfortunately when people are involved it is messy.  We can’t just simply demand things.

People have many things they are juggling on their day to day plates and we need to understand why they may be acting a certain way if we are going to be able to work with them.  I’m not talking about gossip stuff, but finding out what is going on.  Peel the onion to get to the less superficial level.  In cooking we learn that the deeper layers of an onion are the sweeter and most flavorful layers.  The same thing happens for learning more about people.  

If we simply put a label on someone because they are acting a certain way without know the facts behind the situation, how can we be justified in that?  We need to do better!

I have had a manager that has checked in with me periodically when they found out about a situation I was going through.  This meant the world to me as I was in the struggle of emotions, mental fatigue, and stress.  It affected my work, my attitude, and my success.  It actually kept me working for the organization instead of leaving because someone showed they cared.  This is how our employees and customers feel as well.

I have had many customers that were struggling through situations that I have been able to lend an ear to, a helping hand to, and simply showing that someone cared.  This helped them see that they were not alone in the situation and that others would lend a hand.  Even if it is just an ear to let someone vent.  People are meant to be around others.  We need others to know that they matter.

Ramsey Solutions in Tennessee mandates that managers know what is going on with their subordinates so that they can help, rally the team around the individual, and to mitigate pitfalls.  They know if a family member is going through a severe illness, if a baby is on the way, or some other major event.  This way they show that the team member is valued and cared for.  Showing people we care is vital for trust and influence.  It’s called empathy which unfortunately is in short supply lately.

Understanding the situation is crucial to helping solidify any issues that are popping up and so that we can move forward together.  If we don’t, we lose time on an already limited clock that is ticking down.  Gain more engagement and influence by understanding the situation that others are in and learn more about them so that they know they matter.  

Wouldn’t you rather associate with an organization that you feel values you?  Why not be that person that reaches out to customers and team members to let them know they matter as well.

Have a good 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

The Power Of Your Clothing and Scents On Others

Have you heard the saying, “ You only get one chance to make a first impression?”   It is actually very difficult to change this impression as well.  

Did you know that the color clothing you wear can affect this impression?  Did you know that scents can actually trigger anxieties in people?  There are several factors in building trust, but these two are the most subtle that people miss all the time.

I have been in sales for what is closing in on two decades at this point and it is interesting how much I have learned throughout this career. I didn’t intend on this becoming my career either, but was one of exploration as my career aspirations was to manage people.  Yes, I wanted to be a manager and an advisor informed me that I needed to learn sales if I was going to lead others.

That is what kicked off my career in sales and I am glad I did venture into this sector of business.  Many believe we need to be a certain kind of personality, good looking, have a strong sense of humor, etc, yet time and time again I have proved that to be incorrect.  Yes, we need to have interpersonal skills and yes, we need to be able to laugh with others, but we need to do so much more and it does not mean we have to fit into one mold.

Since beginning in sales I have learned that there are some factors that impact likability and trust.  The two I’d like to talk about today are clothing colors and scents.  These don’t seem like they are impactful, but check out this data.  

The Harvard Gazette posted an article in 2020 about how scents are associated with memories.  Click here for the article.  Basically, smell is the only sense in our body that does not have a filter to the brain.  When we smell cut grass, we typically think of warm summer days.  Unfortunately, some people like me are highly allergic to cut grass and the chemical released by the grass clippings.  I go into sneezing fits and want to gouge my eyes out when I am around cut grass.

Others have scents that take them back to bad memories that when smelled make their body’s fight or flight mechanism jump into action.  That means anxiety goes up.  Now if we are the ones wearing that scent, then the people start associating the anxiety with us.  They will associate us with danger and that first impression goes right out the window. Keep that in mind when you are spraying on your favorite cologne or perfume in the morning.  We still need to smell clean though!

Colors are also associated with trust and likeability as well.  Robert Caldini wrote a great book called Influence that depicts what each color does, why certain organizations used colors for their logos, etc.  For help today know that light blues and whites promote trust and dark red power ties promote authority.  Black typically means we are hiding something.  Keep that in mind when trying to gain trust and likability.  If we need to build trust and influence, we should be wearing light blues and whites when engaging others.

We do not need to be wearing power ties to show we are assertive and have authority.  That does not lower anxieties.  Power ties drives anxieties up.  When leading people and trying to sell to customers we need the anxiety levels lowered. The lower the anxiety levels, the higher the likability and trust levels.  

If we can not get past those two questions:  Do I like You? and Do I Trust You? We will never obtain buy in for our cause, customers for our products, or an engaged staff for our cause.  We need to take the focus off our wants and needs and focus on how we can connect with others.  

I hope that helps!  Have a great week and good luck shopping!

“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

How To Answer Your Customer’s Three Questions

Last week we talked about the three questions that our customers ask at every interaction.  If you have not done so, feel free to go back and read that post.  It should only take about 3 minutes.  A quick read.

Today we are going to answer how we the professional sales person will answer these questions.  We do this by uncovering needs.  Yep, we are going to ask them questions.  There has been a great deal of study on what questions to ask and old sales techniques always told us to ask open ended questions that are not answered with simple answers like “yes”, or “no”.  What I have found is that there is no correlation to success with asking all open-ended questions as opposed to closed ended questions.  Obviously if we ask all closed ended questions, we will lose interest from the customer and they will move along.  

I choose to use a mixture of open-ended questions and close ended questions.  I let the conversation flow well and make the customer feel relaxed.  Keep in mind when we are asking questions, the customer is likely to have their guard up.  Making the customer feel more relaxed is key at the beginning of the sales process.  Making sure where we meet, colors we wear, and scents we spray on is also important.  For today, we will focus on the questions.

In the Uncover Needs of the sales process we are looking to draw out information from the customer so that we can sell them the best solution.  We need to find out their needs.  Needs are grouped into three areas and I use the acronym SIR:

1.     Situational 

2.     Issues

3.     Ramifications

Situational needs are questions we use to draw out where the customer is.  This is where they are at in the buying process, where they want to get to in the future, who is the decision maker, what is their process for making a decision, what is driving their need for looking at options, etc.  These are very probing questions and customers are usually not wanting to discuss for hours on end.  The more questions we ask that are situational the more risk we have of the customer becoming anxious.  We will want to limit the amount of situational questions that we ask so make sure we are asking the best ones.  

The larger the transaction there are likely more than one decision maker.  I have had to address large teams of decision makers for deals in the multi-million range.  When I was selling outdoor power equipment to landscapers it was usually one or two people.  Keep that in perspective when you are in the situational questions to understand if you are speaking to the correct decision makers.

Issues are the needs we really need to focus on.  They are the limiting factors for organizations that want to move forward, or the reasons why organizations may fail.  These are highly motivating needs that we need to address with our product or service.  Pain is a large driver in making changes so find out what pain they are experiencing and why.  We also need to understand why these issues are causing them limits or pain.  Asking what success would look like to the customer here would help them think in depth and confide in us a little more.  They may also bring in the people that are actually experiencing the pain to help describe to us the issue not just the symptom of the issue. The key is to find the issues that we can resolve with our product or service.  

Ramifications are also highly motivating needs that we need to know.  If the customer is unsuccessful in finding an option to mitigate the issue they have, what does that look like?  Does the organization have to close its doors, does it lose a large contract, or is it smaller to where the customer can not find a special gift for someone special?  Husbands do not buy your significant other a treadmill.  That is not a special gift.  

When the stakes are high people are very motivated to find a solution and are more open to options.  Make sure when asking ramification questions that we are building up the problem in the customer’s mind to drive a sense of urgency so they open up, bring in others that can help provide information, and help us find more information to drive the best solution.  The more we elevate the issue the better influence we can have on helping our customers.  Understanding the ramifications well will strengthen our sales presentation later and can move the customer to action.  

Be careful not to jump into your presentation just yet.  If we do not uncover all of the needs prior to presenting they we will miss the target and then we risk devaluing our solution.  When I do half and full day trainings on the sales process I walk teams through the entire process including developing the questions that will derive larger impact with their customers.  We really need to  invest time to develop great questions for the sales teams to make greater impact which results in  becoming the brand of choice.

“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 Are They Expecting?”

If you have followed my blog posts for any length of time when we talk about what the Customer wants.  You should know that the customer wants to have these three questions answered. 

Do I like you?  

Do I trust you?    

How can you help me?

These three questions may seem simple and redundant, but if the customer does not know, like, and trust us, then we will not be doing business with them.  Customers want to know that they will be served and helped to a better future.  This is not just some thoughtless process they go.  It is crucial for survival.

These three questions have been with us as part of our fight or flight mechanism to keep us alive.  It has served us well and is a continued mechanism that has helped us as we evolve into better cultures.  Having this mechanism work for us helps us stave off making poor decisions on products and services that may not meet our needs.  It also keeps us away from those not so helpful individuals that just care about making money no matter the cost.  

Customers are not just people who buy products and services either.  They are the people we lead, work with, and interact with in social settings.  If we use this filter in our view of others, we see that everyone is a customer and we are sales people.  Even leaders are sales people.

We need to treat those that we interact with as customers of our own personal brand if we are going to be successful.  Whether it is a sports team, political, non-profit, or a for profit organization we all need to serve each other and let others know that we can be liked, trusted, and help others.

If we focus on those three questions, we will be able to grow influence which is key in leadership and sales.  Without influence we go nowhere together. 

Our customers need us to help them solve their issues and move forward.  They key is identifying that issue and how to implement the correct solution to help our customers.  If we don’t then we risk being thought of as a commodity and low trust levels.  That is why so many people do not trust governments anymore as politicians have forgotten who the customer is.

We need to serve our customers well and provide them answers to those three questions if we are going to move forward no matter what profession, position, or status we hold.  Everyone needs to serve each other and then we can grow more trust with easier transactions.  

Just remember the last time you had an amazing experience at a restaurant.  What did you do?  You likely told others why they needed to go visit the location.  Just think what would happen if we served each other so well that they told others they needed to work with us.

“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

Why Your Team Needs Investment

Have you ever wondered why your team just seems to be stagnant?  As the years go on the growth of the organization seems to hit a ceiling?  No matter how you as the leader push, the sales and growth just seem to flat line?

When I first started in sales, I was thrust into learning by so many different programs to get me up to speed with the rest of the sales team.  We had annual trainings that we took part in as a group every year.  Most of the sales team would groan about the annual sales meeting that took them out of their market from seeing their customers.

It was odd because the owner of the organization would basically have the sales trainer from outside the organization come in and train us with basically the same message the owner constantly presented us with.

It was odd that someone would do this, but as I learned when sales people hear the same thing over time it becomes real.  I’ve since learned that with all areas of our life that the more we hear the same message, the more it becomes truth.  Having an individual come in from outside the organization annually that aligns with the organization’s goals will help solidify with this. 

We would spend a couple days in sales training and at the end of the training from the individual outside of the organization, we would then be held back for a debrief.  Now the organizational leader was ex-military, but it is the same thing as watching the game film from professional sports teams.  The team discussing what they learned and what they can add to their tool box for becoming better is very useful.  

When we discuss with others on our team that we trust and they give perspectives and items they learned that we may not have caught from the training it is very helpful.  We are typically drinking from a fire hose with information that we cannot capture everything, so discussing with others will help us catch some things we missed.  

By discussing this information, the team will form bonds and will become stronger together.  This is crucial as the team will start calling each other instead of the leadership when the trust levels are high between each other to bounce ideas off of each other before bringing to leadership.  This is crucial because as the team unites in trust, it becomes more efficient and drive faster sales growth.

The last thing we did was do competitive analysis and each person from the group chose one specific area to teach on.  The easiest way for us to learn is to actually teach.  It took time to prepare for this, but was very beneficial for all of us to learn.  

Yes, this took us out of the market for a few days, but it was sharpening out axe to chop down the tree.  If we sharpen ourselves, we will be able to cut mor efficient.  Sales organizations need this investment to become better especially since they are so limited in actually selling these days.  Typically, only 36% of sales time is actually spent in the sales process with customers with all of the other activities that are required.  Sales teams need to be invested in if we expect them to grow sales!  

Do you team this favor and invest.   By doing so, you will benefit greatly!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  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

Don’t Forget About Customer Service

I have walked into a local package delivery service and the customer service representative was obviously not having a great day.  I was talked to as if I had just spilled my sippy cup all over their carpet.  I was questioned as if I had put something inside that might explode with a raised eyebrow.  Finally, after the interrogation I was politely asked if I wanted to complete a customer service survey.  

I have been placed on hold and bounced between multiple departments of call centers and treated as if I was a burden on the representative from the other side of the phone.   I’ve been rudely supported and told to have a great day in a sarcastic tone as well.  

I have also experienced great service at organizations from IT people and have bought their product by the referral from that IT person.  They walked with me through the entire purchase and guided me away from extras that were not needed.  They did not leave my side until I was fully satisfied with the product and thanked me.  That is right they actually thanked me for spending time with them.

The interesting thing is though is that does not matter what the position in the organization is whether it be CEO, a sales person, an engineer, or a janitor.  We are a representative of the organization to the outside world.  We have the opportunity to build up or tear down the reputation of our organization by how we treat others.  We are ambassadors for the organizations we represent.  We need to keep that in mind when we are sporting our organization’s name, at events, and even what we post on social media.  We are all in customer service.

It also does not matter if we are not a paid employee of the organization either.  When people see us representing an organization, they are making the association no matter our affiliation.  People will make their perceptions based on the people they interact with.   

I have had people in organizations tell me they don’t care if a customer likes it or not because they don’t have to interact with the customer regularly.  It’s frankly, not their job.  Unfortunately, what these individuals don’t understand is that the customer is buying products / services that are in turn funding the individual’s paycheck.  Make enough customers stop buying from you and then you are looking for other employment. 

When the customer has a bad experience now, they are able to send all over the world in a matter of seconds.  The customer can influence their friend network faster than ever sharing their story.  Organizations do not have the ability to respond to every negative comment on all of the social media platforms.  There is just too much area to cover, but we can make sure we do our part and give the customer a great experience each and every time we interact with them.  

No one is above customer service.  We are all serving customers.  Whether we like it or not, our organizations are judged by how we interact with others.  Make the interaction a positive one.  Be courteous, helpful, gracious, and humble. 

Have a great week!

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 higher 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

Influencer or Influence, What Do You Want?

Have you ever thought about how to build influence in your marketing efforts?  Have you ever thought about using an influencer to endorse your product / service to gain more customers?  

Marketing has made a shift in the past few years relying on those social marketing influencers to endorse their products / services.   Marketers believe that followers of these influencers will buy whatever that influencer has mentioned.  Unfortunately, there is a limit to this theory?

By using an influencer, we are essentially using social proof with customers.  That is the basis of gaining trust from someone else’s endorsement that others trust their recommendations.  It’s literally a exchange of trust.  This will work for commodities, but if you are offering a service, you may find it difficult to capitalize with this type of marketing.  

When it comes to influencers, they hold up products, but to show how a service works it may be difficult and take time for them to really show how it works.  When getting our marketing plans secured, we really need to understand what we are offering before we just throw money at the effort.  If we believe we have a commodity then we have already lost because a commodity is only differentiated by price.  That is why we need to make sure we have figured out how we are different from others in our same product / service demographic.

Successful organizations that have focused their efforts on customer service have secured reoccurring customers.  That’s right the customer experience is more impactful than having a super star wear our products.  We need to focus on building customer service and trust with our current customers and yes this takes time.  We live in an era with two-day shipping, moves on demand, and grocery shopping online world, but the one true way to gain reoccurring customers is to serve them consistently over time.  

Ever try to get a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A at lunch or dinner?  It’s a chicken sandwich, not a new cure for cancer, but because they have focused on customer service over time, they have passed up the other fast food competition with fewer locations.  That’s right the golden arches which have been a staple were passed by Chick-Fil-A.  Their customer service has accomplished this cult following.

We need to focus on the long-term vision of building trust with our customers.  Without trust we will not gain influence with our customers.  We need to have high levels of trust with our customers before they will tell their closets friends and family members to use us.  That is also still the best form of referral.  I am also not talking about bribing the customers with a coupon if they share with others.  

I am talking about natural raving customers that can’t help but tell others to do business with you.We need to serve our customers well consistently if we are going to having reoccurring customers and eventually partners that will only buy from us and all that we sell.  Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to market because our customers are buying everything we sell and partner with us?  

That is why I consistently post blogs every week for over three years and consistently post videos online to help customers gain more knowledge and understanding about sales and influence.  I am here as a guide to help you become successful in your endeavors. 

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

Why all successful leaders know sales and how it can help you gain momentum

Have you ever wondered why certain friends, managers, executives just seem to have a certain way about them that people engage and follow them so easily?  Ever wonder if you could have people working with you to that capacity?

Did you know that all the successful leaders know sales?  Now before you stop readying because you got a cold shiver about sales people, let me ask you this.  Have you ever been on a job interview, or a first date?  In each case you were selling yourself as the best option.  See that phrase, “selling yourself”.  That is right you are selling during those two examples and many more scenarios.  We are actually all selling anytime we are interacting with others.  Whether it is our ideas, a product/service, or that your son to not stick his tongue to a frozen metal fence won’t end well.

I know the persona that is out there about sales people.  Unfortunately, a few bad seeds and various movies have bruised the sales persona.  Not all sales people are bad, just look in the mirror after an interview J  We are not inherently bad are we?  Most of the not so successful sales people is just plainly, they just don’t know how to sell well.

I am not what some people would think of as a sales person.  Most people think of sales people as the life of the party, extroverts, and people that like attention.  I am an introvert and hold an engineering degree.  Not what you would think about when you think of sales person right?  I can tell you that I have secured multi-year multimillion contracts in my career and all the way down to thousand dollar deals.  Anyone can sell and everyone sells all the time, including leaders.

Here is how I got into sales which was something that I never thought I would do.  I was sitting on a boat on one of the great lakes when a well-known business owner that wanted to have “the talk with me”.  See I was dating his daughter so he was wanting to know what my intentions were.  The question started with “where do you see yourself in five years.”  I know, not the kind of question you’d think a father would have, but as a business owner and successful person he thought about business al great deal. 

Being fresh out of college and in a job… I thought about it and said, “I want to be a manager.”  I know high aspirations right…  What he said next was definitely not what at the time I wanted to hear.  He told me that I needed to know sales if I wanted to cast my vision and get people to follow my lead.  I didn’t like that idea because I had that same mindset when it came to sales people.

What I learned through the process of learning sales has actually helped me to understand why people can build high levels of momentum in movements.  It’s because they had influence.  A great deal of influence.  In fact, the more they have the more people wanted to follow these individuals. 

What does sales have to do with influence? 

Sales is actually the art of building influence.  Not in a sleezy way, or creating leverage over people either.  Selling is about helping people with their current situation and understanding their issues as well as helping to avoid the ramifications with not making the best decision for them.  That’s right, sales is about helping people get to where they want to go.  Helping them make a difference in their lives and others.  I know at this point you may be thinking that this guy is on something, but hear me out.

People ask three questions at every interaction.

Do I like you?  Do I trust you?  How can you help me?

It has been programmed into our brains since the beginning of time.  Not for selfish reasons, but for survival.  We ask these questions and form answers in the first seven seconds of every interaction.   

If we want to be successful and have momentum with others we should at least learn about sales.  We should understand why certain colors, the environment, and how we interact with others affects trust.  In the sales process uncovered training that I teach it is how we take the focus off ourselves and focus on helping others.  Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” 

That is what sales is meant to do.  Help people find solutions to their issues and avoid the ramification of making the incorrect decision.  That is what a true sales professional is supposed to do.  Help others and not focus on just selling something.

Selling well will start building influence with those that we help.  It has worked for me with over 15 years of sales experience in multiple industries, in different demographics, and different regions. 

If we focus on helping people through the sales process, we will gain influence and momentum with people.  I’m not sure where you are and where you want to go, but if you want to go anywhere with others, you need to learn sales.  There are tons of books, podcasts, and blogs out there.  You don’t need to know everything, but having a basic knowledge will help you grow your influence levels and lead well.

Have a great day and if you need anything feel free to reach out with any questions!

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 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

Why You Need Customer Trust

Have you ever bought something from a salesperson you just didn’t like or trust?  If you did, how did it make you feel afterwards?  When is the last time you made a large purchase from someone you didn’t trust?  Likely never.

Today we are talking about why building trust with the customer is important.

There are three questions that everyone asks themselves about us when they meet with us.  Every time!  These questions are:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

See that second question?  Trust is a highly important question that has to be answered by us for the customer.  If we don’t answer that question with our actions and words lining up, then the customer will move on down the road to our competitors that offer similar products / services. 

Trust is extremely important with most of our major decisions.  I define major decisions as decisions that cost over $500, or life changing decisions.  Some use gut feelings, some use research, and some use advisors.  The fact remains that trust is a part of every major decision.  If we do not have trust, we do not act.  This is why most consumers ask friends and family who they should talk to about a product / service.  They are searching for a trusted advisor.

Today it is so easy to find options for a product / service that we need.  Just hop online and do a quick search.  When the customer is coming in to talk to us, they are trusting that we will help them.  We need to make sure that we have that in mind when we serve the customer.  We as sales professionals need to be showing up to serve the customer and being open and honest of where we can and can not help them.  Focusing on how we can better grow the relationship and trust with that individual / organization. 

Customers are not just looking for a transactional experience.  They want to be known and heard.  They want people that will advocate for them to find solutions that will benefit them the best.  Customers want a relationship.  We as humans are born to crave a sense of community and value.  Customers want that as well.  Why do you think there are so many Facebook groups out there today?  People want community.

When people trust us, they share more information with us.  Not their deepest darkest secrets, but they will share more and more as trust is built.  I have had customers tell me about future RFQ’s that I could look forward to and worked with my teams to be more prepared so I was able to achieve success.  That would not have happened had I not built great levels of trust with these customers. 

To build trust I use a simple equation that I call the Trust Equation.  It uses variable such as credibility, reliability, vulnerability, and selfishness and puts them into a simple equation to help us build trust effectively and quickly with customers.  This equation also focuses on a long-term approach to building a great amount of influence with the customers. 

Now, there is a great deal to discuss on trust such as how to build it, the different levels of trust needed depending on proximity to others, and how to keep growing trust.  That is why I created the “Trustworthy” training to help people like yourself understand and build trust quickly. 

If you’d like to check out it click here to be taken to the training.  It’s worth the investment. 

Today, lets make sure we are focused on building trust with our customers. 

Build trust with your customer and you will reap greater rewards! 

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