Have you ever thought about your sales staff as customers? Henry Ford thought of his employees as customers for his cars. He wanted to pay them enough and charge the buyers so little that his employees could afford to buy the cars that they made. However, what I am suggesting here is that we should go even farther with the sales staff – we should literally treat them as customers of their company’s management.
Many sales people are incented to sell. They often make a percentage of their income based upon how well they do in sales. There was a recent Dilbert cartoon strip (2004) which focused on strategies for selling without a sales staff. The pointy haired boss thought he could reduce headcount by eliminating sales. All he needed was for marketing to find a way to get customers to select their products, pay for them and pick them up at the warehouse. Obviously, sales staff is needed to meet customers’ needs.
Some companies have taken the idea of treating sales staff like customers to heart. There are benefits to following a robust process for developing customer-centric products and services (see the stiehlworks.com). What we have done in consulting for these companies is to follow the same process for developing ideas to improve the performance of sales staff.
For one manufacturer of durable goods, we conducted a "Voice of the Salesperson/Employee" study. The resulting internal predictive metrics and survey results were used to generate strategies for improving sales success. In this company, several key strategies emerged which lead to a tremendous reduction in the time required to track and report sales progress. The sales tools were integrated and updated. The result was a 25% increase in sales without hiring additional sales people!
A robust system of metrics, surveys and analysis had been created which could be perpetuated. Employee satisfaction improved significantly, as the sales staff felt that management was listening to them and being responsive.
This company had learned how to treat their sales force as customers of management and management decisions. The management saw that treating sales people like customers resulted in better service to the customers and higher customer satisfaction scores as well.
Treating their sales staff as customers of management and management systems resulted in increased revenues and profits for the company as well, and that is the mission of the sales staff, isn’t it?
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Beauty and the Geek All Day Seminar November 16
An all-day seminar on “The Science of Clients: How to Win Clients and Influence Referrals” featuring the pair dubbed Beauty and the Geek: Rhonda Sher, author of The Two Minute Networker, and Henry DeVries, author of Client Seduction, will begin 9 am Friday, November 16, 2007 at the Carlsbad Village Theatre, 2822 State Street, Carlsbad, CA 92018.
Why are these two authors nicknamed Beauty and the Geek? Sher and DeVries have been married for 27 years, but not to each other. He has an appointment at two universities. She has appointment every week to get her nails done. Both are professional speakers and authors who have teamed to train advertising, marketing, public relations and other professionals on how to find, keep and grow clients.
“You can call us Beauty and the Geek until the Fox attorneys file a awsuit,” says DeVries.
The session will cover how to get more clients, how to charge clients more money and how to smooth over client problems. Cost is $99 in advance at www.scienceofclients.com. For more information visit the Web site www.scienceofclients.com or email info@newclientmarketing.com or call 800-514-4467.Meet Beauty and the GeekClientologist Henry DeVries, MBA is a best-selling author, marketing instructor at UC San Diego Extension, and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute (www.newclientmarketing.com). Rhonda L. Sher is the founder and owner of The Two Minute Networker, one of the nation’s leading networking training companies. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.”
Why are these two authors nicknamed Beauty and the Geek? Sher and DeVries have been married for 27 years, but not to each other. He has an appointment at two universities. She has appointment every week to get her nails done. Both are professional speakers and authors who have teamed to train advertising, marketing, public relations and other professionals on how to find, keep and grow clients.
“You can call us Beauty and the Geek until the Fox attorneys file a awsuit,” says DeVries.
The session will cover how to get more clients, how to charge clients more money and how to smooth over client problems. Cost is $99 in advance at www.scienceofclients.com. For more information visit the Web site www.scienceofclients.com or email info@newclientmarketing.com or call 800-514-4467.Meet Beauty and the GeekClientologist Henry DeVries, MBA is a best-selling author, marketing instructor at UC San Diego Extension, and founder of the New Client Marketing Institute (www.newclientmarketing.com). Rhonda L. Sher is the founder and owner of The Two Minute Networker, one of the nation’s leading networking training companies. Rhonda is the expert at teaching others how to “take the work out of networking.”
Friday, November 2, 2007
Pain and Your Value Proposition
What is a “Value Proposition?”
The value proposition for your company or business is the statement of why your customers should give you money – what do they get in exchange for the money that they pay you?
How do You Write One?
One of the toughest yet most important tasks that any business has to undertake is to explain to its customers why they should pay for the company’s products and services. Why should they (your customers and customers) give you money? What is the “value proposition?”
We fly airplanes often as consultants. A question that is often asked of us by our fellow passengers is: “What services do you provide?” followed immediately by “That sounds interesting, who are your customers for that service and why do they need a consultant for that?” In other words, “What is your value proposition?”
Co-author Chris Stiehl’s friend Bradley Gale (author of Managing Customer Value and The P.I.M.S. Principle) often speaks of customers making decisions based upon the value of the deal, not the price. After all, if price was the major factor in decision-making wouldn’t we all be driving used Yugos? We aren’t. Why? Chris thinks we make such decisions based upon the utility of what we receive as compared to the price we pay; i.e., the value of the deal, where price has several attributes. The price attributes can range from initial cost to the hassle of dealing with you as a supplier to the long-term costs and many other cost-related factors.
Dr. Gale’s book addresses several issues: What is customer value and how is it managed? Who “owns” it? What are the specialized tools that are used to manage it? What data is needed? The market research elements that Dr. Gale discusses include the “Pain of the Customer,” customer satisfaction survey data and the “House of Quality.”
A value proposition captures the essence of these ideas: what is the utility you receive from our products and services versus what does it cost you? Of course, the better the utilities are described by the marketer or salesperson, the better is the perceived value by the customer. This is where the “Pain of the Customer” fits in. Marketing professionals have known for decades that customers respond best to ads that speak to their pain, both the fact that you understand it and the fact that you can solve it. Recent literature has shown that businesses behave the same way, especially with respect to “hi-tech” products and services. They want their risk of pain alleviated.
Thus, for your value proposition to work, the customer must perceive that his pain or risk of pain will be reduced, or there is an excitement about the positive attributes (features) of your product or service with minimal risk (pain avoidance).
Checklist of 5 Keys to a Great Value Proposition
1. Be able to express the value of your product or service in terms of how it solves or deals with the customer’s pain, or how the customer benefits with minimized risk of pain.
2. Make sure you understand how much that pain costs them in terms of dollars, staff, time, hassle and energy; i.e., the total cost.
3. Be sure to understand the costs of your product and service, both initially and long-term, including the hassles for the customer, if any.
4. Make sure you can articulate the value (the return) on the investment with your company in dollars and cents and when payback should be expected; this necessarily involves analysis of the dollar value of benefits that may not be easily quantified.
5. Be aware of their alternatives (competitors to you or the option of doing nothing) and what advantages you have over each alternative; proper value proposition analysis includes head-to-head comparisons with all of the customer’s choices.
The value proposition for your company or business is the statement of why your customers should give you money – what do they get in exchange for the money that they pay you?
How do You Write One?
One of the toughest yet most important tasks that any business has to undertake is to explain to its customers why they should pay for the company’s products and services. Why should they (your customers and customers) give you money? What is the “value proposition?”
We fly airplanes often as consultants. A question that is often asked of us by our fellow passengers is: “What services do you provide?” followed immediately by “That sounds interesting, who are your customers for that service and why do they need a consultant for that?” In other words, “What is your value proposition?”
Co-author Chris Stiehl’s friend Bradley Gale (author of Managing Customer Value and The P.I.M.S. Principle) often speaks of customers making decisions based upon the value of the deal, not the price. After all, if price was the major factor in decision-making wouldn’t we all be driving used Yugos? We aren’t. Why? Chris thinks we make such decisions based upon the utility of what we receive as compared to the price we pay; i.e., the value of the deal, where price has several attributes. The price attributes can range from initial cost to the hassle of dealing with you as a supplier to the long-term costs and many other cost-related factors.
Dr. Gale’s book addresses several issues: What is customer value and how is it managed? Who “owns” it? What are the specialized tools that are used to manage it? What data is needed? The market research elements that Dr. Gale discusses include the “Pain of the Customer,” customer satisfaction survey data and the “House of Quality.”
A value proposition captures the essence of these ideas: what is the utility you receive from our products and services versus what does it cost you? Of course, the better the utilities are described by the marketer or salesperson, the better is the perceived value by the customer. This is where the “Pain of the Customer” fits in. Marketing professionals have known for decades that customers respond best to ads that speak to their pain, both the fact that you understand it and the fact that you can solve it. Recent literature has shown that businesses behave the same way, especially with respect to “hi-tech” products and services. They want their risk of pain alleviated.
Thus, for your value proposition to work, the customer must perceive that his pain or risk of pain will be reduced, or there is an excitement about the positive attributes (features) of your product or service with minimal risk (pain avoidance).
Checklist of 5 Keys to a Great Value Proposition
1. Be able to express the value of your product or service in terms of how it solves or deals with the customer’s pain, or how the customer benefits with minimized risk of pain.
2. Make sure you understand how much that pain costs them in terms of dollars, staff, time, hassle and energy; i.e., the total cost.
3. Be sure to understand the costs of your product and service, both initially and long-term, including the hassles for the customer, if any.
4. Make sure you can articulate the value (the return) on the investment with your company in dollars and cents and when payback should be expected; this necessarily involves analysis of the dollar value of benefits that may not be easily quantified.
5. Be aware of their alternatives (competitors to you or the option of doing nothing) and what advantages you have over each alternative; proper value proposition analysis includes head-to-head comparisons with all of the customer’s choices.
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