How to Engage Your Customers to Exceptional Sales Results

by c.j. Ng

     According to a market research conducted in 2006 (Eisenberg & Eisenberg), simply attaining a high level of customer satisfaction does not seem to guarantee the customer's business.  In fact, 60% to 80% of customers who defect to a competitor said they were satisfied or very satisfied in the research just prior to their defection.

• Specifying the size of the room when selling hotel rooms  or meeting packages;

• Emphasizing the hardware specifications when selling IT products;

• Selling the material rather than the benefits that such material can deliver

     Many sales people will argue that the buyers do have in-depth technical knowledge, and hence will appreciate the implications of the benefits that each product feature will deliver.  However, here is an illustration why having a conversation that revolves around your product benefits in addition to the technical features is essential to sales success.

     If a customer is shopping for a new car, chances are the car sales person is going to open the hood to show the customer the "technical details".  However, even if the customer knows nothing about car engines, chances are he or she will pretend that they know, and make some positive comments to the car sales person such as "Not bad" or "Looks good to me".  Customers, in general, hate to admit they don't know certain things.  As a sales person, you will need to present your offerings in ways they can understand.

     Hence, in order to strike a conversation that revolves around your product or service offerings, you will need to:

• Do your research before seeing the customer, so that you know roughly what might be their needs;

• Build trust and credibility by focusing on your customers' needs, and NOT on your sales targets;

• Asking the right questions to understand the customer's needs without asking too many questions;

• Provide suggestions, if the customer shows signs that they haven't got a clue;

• Be proactive in presenting what your offerings can do for them;

• Don't just take the money and run, do remember to make sure whatever is sold is delivered on time and in good quality too!

Conversations Revolving Around Your Added Value as a Sales Person

     With the advance in informational systems, be it search engines, shopping platforms or online social networking, customers have access to a lot of information that they previously couldn't get.  These include information about your products, your prices and how to buy them.

     Hence, if customers can buy your products off a catalogue or web site, they don't need the sales person to be a "talking brochure" or a mere "money collector".  Instead, they need sales people to create value by:

• Being Responsive by pro-actively identifying current and potential challenges that the customer may face, as well as suggesting ways the customer can overcome such challenges;

• Developing win-win Relationships with multiple stakeholders or influencers so that decision-makers don't have to sell your products and services internally to their colleagues; or

• Being Resourceful or even creative to work across different departments or business units to provide customised solutions that fit the customers' every need,

• Being a Reliable and trusted source of information and provider of reliable products and services, etc.

     Some sales people and managers may question that if sales people were to spend time solving customers' problems, do they still have the time to do the selling.  More importantly, what if the solution to the customers' problems and challenges is our competitor's products?

     While how each sales team or sales person responds to such thorny issues will vary, here are some guiding principles:

• Customers don't just buy from someone they like.  More importantly, they buy from whom they trust;

• In a recent straw poll with sales and HR managers (from international companies in China) identifying what are some critical behaviours or competencies that drive sales results, the consensus was that most top sales people are helpful by nature;

• Given that most product features, quality, price, delivery, service standards are pretty much similar, the sales person could be the only differentiator in the entire sale.  Small wonder that research by HR Chally shows that 39% of a customer’s decision to buy from your company is based on the effectiveness of the sales person.

     Hence, the question that customers are asking sales people is NOT "why should I buy your products or services".  It's becoming "why should I buy from YOU?"

Conversations Revolving Around the Brightness of the Future

     One of the key issues about doing business in today's world (especially in a fast developing economy like China's) is markets, along with customers' expectations, are changing very quickly.

     What this means for the sales person could be:

• Whatever is your best selling product may get obsolete  very quickly;

• Whoever are your best customers may suddenly decide to buy from someone else; and

• Whichever are your most profitable territories may be swamped by competitors offering the same quality at lower prices

     The problem with implementing the above?  Well, sales people are measured by current and not future performance.  Especially when that future could be 3-5 years down the road.  Still, smart companies and sales people who would like their customers to buy from them for years to come will commit some time and resources to partner with their key customers to create a future together.

     Need help in engaging your customer to exceptional sales results?  Simply e-mail info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype: cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha.  All information shall be kept in confidence.

Power Breakfast Hour: 26 October 2010
How to Engage Your Customers to Exceptional Sales Results

1. MICE need NOT be big events.  In fact most meetings held in hotels are for 30 pax or less.  The mistake that a lot of hospitality sales people make is to assume all MICE are large events that will at the same time fill up their 400 rooms.  In the same vein, the problem with a lot of hospitality sales people when serving MICE customers is to also focus more on selling the rooms, rather than how to help the customer organise a successful event.

2. Small events can lead to bigger ones, especially when the event organiser would like to test a hotel or resort on a smaller scale before organising a big one at that hotel or resort.

3. Event organisers are NOT architects or interior designers.  They don't have a clue how large is 1,000 m² or 500 m².  What they need is to know how many people can fit into the room under what kinds of seating arrangements.

4. If you have a showroom for your rooms, you can also have a showroom for your meeting rooms where the tables are set and the room is lit.  Better still, show your customer some video clips of your past successful events that were held at your hotel or resort.

5. While the hardware is important, MICE delegates and participants are more concerned about the "experience" from the time they arrive to the time they leave the hotel or resort.  Similarly, events organisers will definitely appreciate the efforts of any hospitality sales people who can make the arrangements such that the organiser can have a peace of mind for their events.

6. While MICE sales people are usually not required to be present, event organisers expect every detail to go according to what has transpired with the sales person.  The excuse that every event organiser HATES to hear is the sales person saying, "But I have informed F&B to ... ..." Event organisers, just like any customer, will hold the MICE sales person accountable for ALL results, good and bad.

7. Event organisers sometimes have to switch to a different hotel in a different city for their next event, even though they are very appreciative of the hotel or resort staff doing all they could to help create a great event.  When that happens, be gracious and pro-active to refer one of your sister properties to your customer.  When you do that frequent enough, your sister properties will return the favour too.

If you can ensure success for your Event Organiser customer, chances are the event organiser will be back for their future events.  Your job is NEVER to just "peddle" the meeting rooms, nor even the F&B or the related facilities.

Your goal is to help the organiser organise successful events.