Measure your sales reaction time; find out how much time your customers waste waiting to give you their business!
How long do customers wait on your sales people? If you do not know, find out. Ask your customers if they have problems getting through to talk to someone. Have your receptionist ask the customers on the telephone while they are waiting if someone got back with them or not. If not, have the receptionist apologize profusely, hold the call, page someone in sales and ensure the caller is transferred. “Do not lose a sales call,” should be the first thing your receptionist learns from you.
Suggestions to test your company's response:
Poll customers constantly: Ask select customers privately to note the amount of time it takes to reach a 'live person' the next time they call your firm. Ask them to report how long they had to wait, if they are willing. Give them a coupon for a discount on their next purchase or current outstanding balance for their troubles. You need answers and you will only get them running tests on your current system and how your people react to buyers.
Get 3rd party feedback: Ask business acquaintances to make a cold call to your firm and report to you how they were initially handled as a 'first time buyer' on the telephone. When the reaction was 'great', tell your employees this and state it very emphatically that they are doing the right thing. When the reaction was subpar, tell the employees they need improvement and provide training on the points they are repeatedly missing. This procedure should be in writing, step by step.
Test your inside sales function: When a business has sent back a rejected part, have someone outside the sales department or quality control call the buyer and independently ask if his or her need are being addressed, questions about product problems are being answered in a timely manner and if they have felt your company's reaction was appropriate or lackadaisical. How long did your quality control department take to call to discuss the rejected part? Did anyone call at all? If you do not have a written procedure, your company personnel will continually disappoint you and your customers because what you want is not necessarily what everyone else wants. Write the process down and what each party does to resolve customer problems. Define who is responsible for each step.
Train your receptionist to selectively ‘follow-up’: Ask your receptionist to follow-up when customers are transferred and do not reach their sales representatives. Teach this person, the first employee to speak to all of your customers, to ensure when the customers fail to connect with their desired party, they ultimately speak to a competent understanding person who will handle their request. Pay this position enough to make this happen. If you do not, your sales will suffer. Remember, you want a receptionist who recognizes when customers need attention and will give it to them.
Sales/ Marketing
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GPI-009
Search for unclaimed property; help yourself, your company and your customers!
Unclaimed property held by the States: All the 50 U.S. State governments held an accumulative $56B of unclaimed property at the end of 2012. This huge amount represented checks issued to individuals and companies within those respective states accumulated (interest free) over the past few decades that were for various reasons undeliverable. By law, returned checks are to be forwarded to each state to be held and disbursed until rightful owners apply for their refund. Those owners can be living individuals, the deceased, companies (profit and non-profit) and most importantly you.
Who do these funds belong to? Who might have monies held by your state? You, someone in your family, or a deceased relative of yours may have funds held by your state. Your friends may have funds held. Your company may have monies held at the state level that you or your firm's representatives need to claim. These state agencies also may have property that is held for you, waiting for your official claim.
Where did this money come from? These funds could be the result of a class action lawsuit where thousands of ex-customers are awarded dollars long after they have moved from an old address and changed to another utility, bank, credit card company or credit union. Monies could have been received from a real estate settlement where the title company mails a check back to a participant but does not have a current address for the person or firm previously involved. Funds could be sent to you due to overcharged insurance rates or premiums. There are a number of sources from where these monies flow in to the state.
Do your customer a favor: One thoughtful thing you can do at your business within your sales department is teach your sales people to look for these funds for their customers, at no charge. Walk into your buyers' offices and show them they can be a hero in their organization by letting their management know of money sitting waiting to be claimed. Your salesmen can also notify new potential companies about their unclaimed funds. Let them know they have monies owed to them at the state capital and leave them smiling at the end of your sales call. This provides a great lead-in towards selling a new customer.
Instructions for successful searching for unclaimed property:
Google or search your state and the words "unclaimed property". For example, in Indiana, search "Indiana Unclaimed Property".
Click on the state website that holds a search engine.
Enter your company's name.
Vary the spelling for common misspellings to ensure the check is not held under a slightly different name.
Some of the states allow you to search by street so try this also.
A company named "The Cleaning Company" may be listed under "the", "cleaning" or maybe "company". Try all variations.
Some search engines will find too many so you must practice searching to get an understanding how the state's search engine works.
Be sure to search unclaimed property for your individual name.
Be sure to search unclaimed property in each state where your company has physical offices.
Be sure to search for unclaimed property for you in each state where you have lived or owned residences or properties.
Search in every state the person has lived or the company has offices or locations.
Search with as few letters as possible to find the name of relatives. (i.e. Jo…smith for Joseph Smith.)
Try individuals' last names first without a first name, then add the first letter of the first name until you begin to receive results.
Search for all previous maiden names.
Search deceased people; estate representatives or legal heirs will have to claim these funds.
Search common misspellings because many of these entries were hand typed into the system years ago.
Review all similar names that do not have addresses or towns listed in the results. Look for recognizable sources such as your bank or ex-bank, your credit union or ex-credit union, an old 401K fiduciary institution, apartment complex or real estate company where you might have lived for a potential missed deposit, a familiar utility company name where you may have left a deposit.
Search non-profits for last donations.
GPI-085
Do not lie to your CPA firm - they are the ones helping to cut your tax bill.
Do not lie to your CPA firm. When you hire a professional CPA firm to audit your books, normally you do so because of your intent to sell stock or to validate compliance with the covenants of a bank loan. Whatever your reason for hiring a CPA firm, always be truthful to the firm’s representatives (i.e. Lead auditors, field auditors, tax consultants, audit assistants). They are questioning transactions in order to feel comfortable to bless your financial statements. Normally a firm is seeking an unqualified opinion on the financial statements. You do not want your audit firm to excuse itself from the assignment because they feel uncomfortable with management’s presentation of the financial information. They feel uncomfortable with you or your management because they do not believe they are being told the truth. You do not want them pulling out of their assignment with you. You do not want them to insinuate your firm is not to be believed and is to be avoided at all costs.
Exiting an audit is stating that your company's management is possibly cheating or behaving dishonestly. This eventually presents an incorrect or distorted picture of the company, enough to jeopardize the investors’ funds (banks, stockholders, minority partners, etc.). Be honest and tell the auditors everything you know as well as you can. Also tell them you do not know something if that is the case.
Lying to your CPA firm is not a great idea. Being honest with and retaining a trusted firm that through the years annually comforts your bank, allows your line of credit to increase or allows your company stock sale to proceed without a hitch or any hint of trouble is a great idea.
GPI-419
When sales drop, get everybody in the company involved to win new customers.
When your company’s sales drop during economic downturns, use all of the sources you have available. Non-sales employees can be effective in this effort. Try these things to increase your daily contact numbers.
Try this checklist of marketing actions:
Create brief but effective company literature for mailing to potential customers. Keep it concise, colorful, eye-catching. Always tell the buyer what to do. State a specific call to action (Call Us Today For Your Free Quote 1-800-999-9999!).
Fax black and white versions of your company literature or specials to potential customers. Keep the fax copies that fail on the first try and redial them later. Some office machines may be busy.
Leave flyers in your lobby every day and encourage all visitors to take them.
Hang flyers in racks along the walls of your offices, warehouse, shipping as well as sales departments so that during tours they are easily found and distributed.
Give flyers to all of your company drivers to offer and to leave with customers at drop off points.
Teach all of your employees what the company special is for the week or month. Post it clearly on the announcement board and test employees randomly about the week’s special so they may clearly repeat it to potential buyers.
Give flyers to your quality control personnel, who many times will meet with their customers’ counterparts.
Give flyers to your shipping department to be sent with freight shipments. Include them with the packing lists.
Send flyers with your company invoices. You have already paid for the stamp so send them free in the same envelope.
Send flyers along with your payments. Ensure not to exceed the weight of one stamp in order not to incur additional postage costs.
Give away low cost items with high perceived value by your customers (i.e. free tie with shirt purchase, free coffee with doughnut purchase, free whip cream with purchase of two pies, free metal plating with machining order, free maps and city nightlife coupons with a weekend stay hotel package).
Identify several of your major customers’ SIC codes (Standard Industrial Classification codes) and buy lists of companies listed under those codes. You may be more likely to sell to them since you are already in the market.
Place samples of your products to give to your customers everywhere in your plant, office, warehouse, distribution center, kiosk (all company facilities, rented or owned or shared).
Give company literature to purchasing personnel to attempt to sell to vendors. Consider trading products or services with vendors along these lines. Do your vendors even know what you sell? Tell them so they tell others. Remember to do the same when asked of you.
For each employee, ask them to tell their contacts that the company is featuring specials. Sometimes simply asking triggers third and fourth party interest. You do not know who you will contact through second and third conversations.
Give something away free on all mailers to provoke interest. Give away tips, advice, a price reduction, an added bonus that is normally sold and may be valued by the buyer. Give away 10 great and helpful tips to the buyer and then offer another 10 when he calls and signs up free of charge. Make the items you give valuable to your targeted market. Tell him information he most likely will not know.
Sell to your neighbors and others in your city, neighborhood or industrial park. Create a listing of all of your neighbors and pass it out free to them. Describe briefly what each does and include telephone numbers. Since they are the cheapest customers to work for, give them a neighborhood discount that no other company receives. Give them expedited service since they are across the street or just down your road nearby.
Go through your current accumulated customer list and approach any customer that has not returned in two years or more. Buyers change, companies change and any previous sour relationship probably does not exist now except in your own mind. Companies never stay the same so call them if you have not heard from them for a period of time. Try assigning them to a new friendly and engaging sales person. He or she can tell them your company has grown, your costs are now even more competitive and you have gained great experience over this time. Send them samples and court them as if nothing unpleasant ever occurred.
What is the actual out of pocket costs of your quote? Teach sales personnel and those people who quote for you how to determine how to deduct the fixed portion of your quoted overhead. Fixed overhead is property taxes (paid once per year), rents, fixed personnel (QC, maintenance, receiving, shipping, production personnel). Determine how much your quoted costs drop in order to negotiate better pricing and win bids. You cannot do this forever but it will help you to win work that at least will not be an immediate cash drain.
Follow up on outstanding quotes. Know how low you can drop your price to win work and save your customer money. Call before the determination is made in order to attempt to sway the buyer to your bid. If you are told you are high, ask by how much. Train your personnel as to what to quote with the next number in order to win bids.
Bid first jobs with new customers low enough to win the order. Do what you can to win the first bid to show the customer what your firm can do. Do not worry about initial losses or poor margins. You can increase your efficiency or, improve your methods of production later. Once he is happy, he will be much more likely to allow you more margin in future bids. Prove yourself first. If you do not get the first bid, all of your marketing efforts are worthless.
With your bids, offer unique approaches to the buyer along with his original request. Give him alternatives he may not have considered. Educate your buyer since he buys lots of products and services but is not an expert for any. Give him prices with and without freight, low and high volumes or prices coupled with other purchases that can give him discounts.
When bidding to customers, give the buyer a bid as he requested and also hand him a bid that drops the price for his request if he also buys other services or products that maybe his current vendor does not provide. This will put pressure on his current vendor and cause him to rethink his current relationship.
Use brightly colored labels on all of your outgoing mail to advertise current company specials. Feature your call in free 800 number and include a clear call to action (Call Us Today!) and offer something of value for free when the recipient calls for a quote.
Add advertising to all your employees’ outgoing emails. Feature the company specials or discuss new products or services. If warranted, add a link for a quick 30 second video about a new product or service you now offer or improvements made to existing products. Feature all of the benefits or uses of your product and place it under every employee’s signature to be seen by those contacted outside the company.
Create a one page company summary or resume. Pack as many things as you can into one letter size page. Include telephone, fax, emails, websites, product listings, locations, services or products provided, a varied list of accomplishments unique in the industry, possibly a listing of current customers, key personnel, selected pictures or representative icons, ISO status, certifications necessary, hours of operation.
Create a page of all of your product lines or services. Make it clear and concise limiting it to one page. No one wants long lengthy brochures any more. Keep it to one page. If they want more, pull out your catalog.
Prepare a list of tips or advice for your customer on how to choose a company like yours. Give him lots of details how to save money and give this list out freely. Make sure he learns something from this listing so he has the perception this company seems to be the most knowledgeable.
Describe what all of the uses are for your product. What can be cleaned with your detergent or soap or cleaning fluid? What recipes can be made with your gravy mixture? What can be prepared with your flavoring? What can be made from your special grade of stainless steel and what industries buy this grade?
Review your business cards. Can one tell what you sell? If the reader does not understand what your firm offers, sells, makes or services, the writer has failed and confused the buyer. Be clear how you can bring benefits to the buyer. Tell him what you can do for him specifically.
Feature pictures of your good looking salespeople on their business cards and on your website. Many times they will leave their card and it might not be thrown away if it gets the buyers’ attention.
Always remember to sell the benefits and not the boring product. People buy the ½ inch hole and not the drill. They buy the trimmer waist and not the weight reduction bar. They buy the clean smell of the automobile after it has been washed and vacuumed. They buy a more attractive appearance than just a fifteen minute haircut.