Posts Tagged ‘existing customer’
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
Sales cycles have typical steps. Customer like to take certain steps to make a decision and salespeople take certain steps to make a sale or help their customers make good decisions. Salespeople can accelerate the decision process by strategically examining the sales cycles for opportunities to add efficiencies. The benefits of doing this exist for both salesperson and customer. Customers need solutions and making efficient decisions on which solutions to purchase must be in their best interest. Salespeople benefit from getting to a go/no-go decision sooner, also. They either get to start helping a customer or, at least, realize they aren’t the right solution and can move on to the next one sooner. I am not suggesting that anyone rushes through an important decision process, I am simply suggesting a regular examination of the sales cycles to look for ways to improve the decision process and begin solving problems faster.
To do so, first list out all the steps a salesperson and a customer make to get to go/no-go on your solutions. Jot down the timeline and if there are pre-requisite steps for any of the steps.
Now, carefully examine if there is an opportunity to:
- Consolidate any two steps into one step.
- Eliminate an unnecessary step altogether.
- Simutaneously conduct two or more steps.
List out the benefits to the customer for making the decision with this new sales cycle. Then, make sure that you and the customer are clear on the steps both would like to take to help the customer make an informed yet timely decision. Stay two steps ahead with both understanding what the steps are, who should be involved and what decisions they should be able to make along the way.
The sales cycle is an important process where important decisions are made. Running it as effectively and efficiently as possible is in everyone’s best interest and a salesperson’s responsibility. Enjoy accelerated sales cycles with this simple exercise.
This week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda is Consolidate to Accelerate. Sales Manager who subscribe to the sales team meeting agenda service will receive a 60-Minute agenda that will lead their teams through an examination of their own sales cycles. Each participant will leave with a new plan for one live deal in their pipeline. Join our subscribers by signing up to get your weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win.
Tags: consolidate sales cycles, CRM, customer meetings, existing customer, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, winning in sales
Posted in Account Management, CRM, agendas, customer meeting, efficient, opportunity, sales activity | No Comments »
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Your products and services – or solutions – meet very important needs of your customers. The more your solutions directly impact their ability to do their business more effectively, the more powerful and important your partnership becomes. Salespeople can hitch their solutions to the most important wagons with a little focus on the right needs.
No matter who you are positioned with in an account, an understanding of the top company goals is useful in the short term and often critical in the long term. In the short term, simply offering a solution they are asking for may be enough to make a sale at a department level. In the long term, much like what we have seen in the past couple of years, spending gets scrutized for one reason or another and any spending not directly tied to the most important goals gets cancelled. Also, salespeople often find themselves in the position of being sold internally by an ally or coach. They have to provide the information and incentive to get their internal ally to fight for their solutions. If that person is armed with the connection to the top goals, the more likely they are to be successful in their interal sales role.
So, we know it’s important, now, how do you do it. Here are some things that you may want to try:
- First of all, start high in an organization. The more effectively you can tie your solutions to their unique company goals, the more likely you are to stay high. Even if you get delegated lower during the process, you still have access higher.
- Research, research, research. Find out everything you can about what the CEO is focused on accomplishing.
- Find out what role your contacts play in the top company goals. For example, pretend your contact is in HR and one of the company’s top goals is the successful launch of a new product for 8% revenue growth this year. How will HR help the company reach this goal? Is it their job to find new sales people? Is it their job to train everyone on the new product? What particular part will they play in this goal? Once you know this you can help them reach their goal which helps the company reach it’s goal.
- Demonstrate how you can help them reach these goals more efficiently. Show how the investment with you gives them the gains they need.
- Once you are in, monitor your contribution and share it in regular reports and communications. Check in often on progress and make sure you stay aligned should the goals get altered.
- Learn to ask questions that get you to the most important goals. You’ll be surprised that often your current contacts actually don’t even know the company’s top goals. You need to learn to ask questions that don’t make them feel stupid yet also help you work toward gathering the necessary information. Simply asking someone “what are your company’s top 3 goals?” may sound like a pop quiz. Use your communication skills to have productive conversations where you both learn if necessary.
Solutions tied to top goals stand the test of time and scrutiny. Get hitched to the right goals for long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers. This week’s agenda is Tie Your Solutions to Their Goals. If you would like to lead your team through exercises designed to help them “get hitched”, subscribe today.
Tags: CRM, customer meetings, existing customer, motivate sales team, new customers, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda
Posted in Account Management, CRM, communication, efficient, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
(This Friday the Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agenda, 10 Things You Don’t Know, will be delivered to all our subscribers. We are focused on treating prospective customers AND existing customers like prospective customers. Get a new Sales Team Meeting Agenda EVERY Friday by subscribing to Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agendas today.)
Most sales reps get to enjoy some long-term customer relationships. Too often sales reps take these customers for granted and settle into an account management mode. Account management can mean many positive things, but in this case, we’ll call it account maintenance. It is not enough to just maintain an account. Your customer signed on for more than that. This week’s Meeting to Win theme is treating existing customers like prospective customers by helping them identify and secure solutions to their problems and tools to get them results.
In our 10 Things You Don’t Know article, we suggested several ways to treat these existing customers like hot prospects. Here is another way.
Get a Fresh Set of Eyes on an Existing Account
Ask a team mate to coffee. Ask them to review your clients’ website before meeting with you. Ask them to pretend this client was a target account that they were trying to acquire as a client. Then get together with them for coffee and ask their initial ideas for pursuing this client. Then, tell them everything you know about the account, who you know at the account, your theories on what you don’t know and your history with them. Now, ask them what you are missing. Find out how they would move forward to help this client.
Guaranteed you’ll walk away with a fresh perspective on an old account. You and your client win when you take a fresh look at their business.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- In your next sales team meeting, choose 1 existing account on the team that could use a fresh perspective. (Send an email to the team and ask them to nomimate their own accounts.)
- Choose one and let the team know the account name.
- Ask the team to research the account before the meeting.
- Ask the account owner to send a one-page overview of the account – what they know, who they know, history, etc.
- During the meeting, ask the Account Owner to share a 5 minute overview of the account that was not included in the pre-work.
- Ask the team to be the “fresh eyes” and share new ideas and perspective on the account.
- At the end of the hour, get a list of all the new ideas for the Account Owner.
- Account Owner should share what they will try from the list of new ideas.
Fieldwork Idea:
- Choose teams of 3 and, over the course of the next 3 weeks, each team should spend one hour per rep on one account per rep doing the same thing.
- Choose one rep’s account each week and get together for coffee, if possible. If not, do this on the phone.
- Each person on the team should end up with a list of fresh ideas and perspectives on one exisiting account.
- Get back together during a sales team meeting conference call and each rep should share the outcomes of gaining a fresh perspective on their exisiting account.
- What lessons did the team learn?
Enjoy the Fresh Eyes exercise. Join Meeting to Win to get interactive sales team meeting agendas for your sales team every week. We’d love to work with you!
Tags: CRM, existing customer, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in Account Management, CRM, New account, agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, sales activity, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
(This week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda is called 10 Things You Don’t Know. To join us and get new sales team meeting agendas weekly, visit us at Meeting to Win.)
Salespeople are wise to focus on their existing customer base to impact success during economic recovery. Competitors are getting creative and aggressive and existing relationships could be up for grabs … unless…you treat your existing clients like new customers. Think about how you treat new customers.
During economic recovery, treat your customers like new customers by trying the following things:
- Conduct a thorough needs-analysis with them to make sure your solutions still are solutions. Their business has likely changed like the rest of the world.
- Find out where they need help and deliver.
- Figure out how your company can better service them – clear billing, better response on customer service issues, etc.
- Bring senior leaders to face-to-face meetings to thank them for their business and show how valuable they are to your company.
- Sincerely thank them for their business.
- Share new ways to solve old and new problems.
- Share industry expertise. Help them be innovative.
- Help them help their customers succeed.
- Learn everything you can about their business – you’ll recognize ways to help them the more you know their business.
- Be attentive, present and part of the team.
- Commit to quarterly business reviews to hold yourself accountable to the results you promised.
- Make sure they know all that you can do for them. (Exercise: Think of 10 things your top customers may not know about your offering that may help them.) Figure out how to share all your services without giving a sales pitch. Your competitors are sharing this information. It’s best to share this information in response to a business need they have.
- Be someone they can’t live without.
Competitors are gunning for your clients. Treat your existing customers like the gold that they are.
(To get sales team meeting agendas with exercises and role plays on topics like 10 Things You Don’t Know and other great selling topics, join the Meeting to Win community by subscribing today.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, customer meeting success, existing customer, new customers, recession, sales team agenda.
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, communication, customer meeting, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, new managers, performance, recession, sales activity, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tough economy | No Comments »
