Sack the salesman! BY SOULAIMA GOURANI ON JUNE 6, 2012

Do you hear yourself using terms such as “customers,” “salespeople,” “sales departments,”

“frontline staff,” and “sales campaigns”? Continue reading to discover why these functions, terms,

and disciplines are undergoing changes. Learn how to create loyal fans and build strong

relationships with your customers so that they will not replace you with a competitor.

Look into the customer’s reptilian brain

In these days of post crisis (with a new crisis luring around the corner), the consumers seem to

have changed how they consume, from whom they want to buy, thus the way WE have to go about

selling. How come? Well, the reason is that we see a change in the way that customers gain status

and give recognition to others. A person’s status is no longer directly coupled with material wealth

and expensive objects. Mental stability, happiness, good deeds, thoughtfulness, and passion are

the new status symbols. THAT seriously challenges 98 percent of all businesses and strategy

plans.

Are you on the winning team?

In the future, the winners will be those entrepreneurs who really understand how to adapt their

organization and processes to match the customers’ needs in such a way that both structure and

attitude (particularly your attitude) match the customers’ changed patterns of consumption. The

problem (yes, not challenge—THE PROBLEM) is just that many entrepreneurs do not know

enough about what the customers want. My first piece of advice to my fellow entrepreneurs is to

consider how to revitalize our approach to the customers, our sales departments, and the way we

measure and reward employee performance. Do you “only” reward with salary? That just won’t cut

it! Well, I will have to write more about that another time! The point is that we must have the courage

to open up and involve the customers much more.

The customers are bleeding

The price of your products and your credibility, responsibility, and positive attitude toward the customers

must coexist with profit and revenue. Products must be priced fairly, be of good quality, and be

delivered with love and respect for the customer and the society. Financial results indicate that many

companies are on the right path. The crisis cure has helped. Many companies have trimmed operations

and are looking at better times ahead, maybe as good as back in 2007, when only the sky was the limit.

Many companies believe in continued financial prosperity even though many companies’ positive

results are derived from cost reductions and not from increased sales. And many of the customers out

there are bleeding. They have been cheated and abused, and many of them are on the lookout for real

alternatives—you can attract those customers, if you are willing to invest in developing your relationship

with them!

Do you want your company to grow?

If you want growth and improved financial results, then your company must appeal to the customers in

a new way. The customers have changed the way they consume, having made purchasing decisions

during the last two to three years. The customers will never again do business the way they did before

the financial crisis kicked in. Today, customers receive appreciation from people in their network if they

consume in a responsible way, for example, by buying a small environmentally friendly car, by not

going abroad on vacation, by serving vegetarian food, by riding a bicycle, by taking public

transportation, by keeping the streets free of litter, and by working less and even earning less.

Thoughtfulness has become trendy. It is no longer acceptable to just consume like there is no

tomorrow. Is your company or shop ready for this focus?

Are you ready to deliver an emotional punch?

Credibility and loyalty are created as results of a consistent emotional imprint. If your company wants to

achieve success in this market segment, it must operate within these three dimensions:

Impression, which is the first thing customers experience when they meet the company

Imprint, which is what you leave behind at conversations/meetings

Expression, which is what everybody says about the company and should correspond with

the individual customer’s experience

In short, your corporate branding has melded together with personal branding, and everything is

about emotions. All of your employees (including yourself) have a personal brand that must be

in harmony with the company’s brand and vice versa.

London Business School has done research on consumer behavior that supports that emotions, to

a very high degree, control our purchasing decisions. London Business School refers to twenty

emotions that either control or destroy our perception and desire to buy a company’s products.

Thus, there is a direct link between a company’s ability to build emotional ties and its ability to earn

money.

Do the customers like you?

You and your employees have to be personalities. You and your employees must be capable of

creating a warm and fuzzy feeling with the customers. It is not enough that you are skilled in what you

do—you must also know how to interact positively with your customers. The company’s ability to create

positive feelings in the customers is called the emotional quotient. If you want to become successful,

you should get inspiration from others about how you can “meld” together with the customers. It’s a

good idea to look at other industries for inspiration to avoid reproduction of old knowledge.

The emotional quotient is low in many companies because many people do not accept that success

isn’t about professional skills, price, or availability. Those parameters are just the ticket to get in the

door. The new weapon in the battle for the customers’ money is the company’s combined ability to

leave a positive, authentic, and emotional imprint. All companies leave impressions, imprints, and

expressions. But the big question is whether you know how the customers react to them. The company

should have an overview of what you do well and what you can improve. If you want to reduce the risk

of your customer switching to the competition, even if the competitor happens to offer lower prices, then

put the customer first and make sure that all employees are “cast” to match your customers’

expectations. Today, many established companies are of the opinion that their surroundings view them

as a success while people actually have started saying the opposite about them.

To give is to receive!

If you don’t want to be the one that the customers warn others about, then everybody in your

organization must be able to give instead of taking. All employees must be trained to think about

stakeholders before they think about satisfying the shareholders. In other words, think about the

customers before you think about collecting your paycheck! If you satisfy the customers’ needs, the

money will come, while the opposite focus might very well scare off the customers.

It is all about offering value before taking value (money) from the customer. Offer the customer

experiences, knowledge, and your time. Customers can no longer be bought with fancy dinners or very

expensive trips. You can still hold VIP events, but they have just changed. Get your customers involved

in your “green” initiatives. Skip the usual lunch and invite your customers to participate in activities

supporting the environment. Give them something that will help them grow as humans and individuals.

Focus on creating credibility, transparency, solidarity, and involvement. Do keep in mind that you

should not take something from the customers until they are in “debt” to you. You must give first and

receive later. Avoid thinking of customers as customers. Think of them as co-owners, colleagues,

members, or some other terminology that emphasizes that the customers are not “they,” but a part of

the term “we.”

Are you ready for “slow sales”?

Gone forever are the frontline staff and the salespeople. These belong to a dying breed if their purpose

is only to be the connector between the company’s various departments and the customer as the single

point of contact or if their purpose is only to sell.

Customer-oriented job descriptions need to be upgraded so that the employee becomes the customer’s

true value-creating sparring partner. You must have the will to allow relationships to develop, and for

that, we need to focus on more than just the commercial and transaction aspects.

Try to think about the differences between fast and slow food. Fast food is like fast sales. Fast food

makes you full, but only for a short while. Relatively quickly, the company will need to attract new clients

again to satisfy the hunger. The customers rarely come back, and if they do, they rarely recommend the

products to others. On the other hand, if you eat slow food, the focus is on quality, and the entire food

preparation process—not only the actual eating—is valued. In slow sales, you take the time to really get

to know the customers so that you can offer them individual treatment in accordance with their

expectations. Does that sound expensive? You cannot afford anything else . . .

When you apply the slow sales approach, you don’t need big marketing budgets. When you follow the

slow sales strategy, you actually don’t want to launch large marketing campaigns because they send

out the signal that the company wants the customers to contact them instead of the other way around.

You are sending the signal that you are ready to answer the phone and receive the customers’ orders.

You become an order-handling machine instead of a customer-involving partner. Many companies

perceive marketing efforts as a way to stimulate and attract new customers. However, new customers

are not really attractive. Your existing customers will help you attract new customers if you deserve it—

the concept is called co-recommendation, and in the future, it will become the most effective way to

establish and defend a market position.

Does your company have loyal fans?

Many people don’t really know how loyal their customers are. We might have a high customer retention

rate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the customers are loyal. Maybe the customers are just

waiting for the introduction of an alternative to your services. You know that you have a loyal customer

if the customer

overlooks minor errors,

is not inclined to switch to another supplier even if they can get the same work done at a

lower price,

recommends you to other companies,

buys your product again and again, and

takes time to provide you with feedback on your performance.

Go for the heart

You should service all customers as if they were VIP customers. They should be handled personally

and effectively. It costs companies a lot of money in lost revenue not having a strategy for how to

manage customers—this also includes unsatisfied customers. You should train all employees in

building relationships with customers to make sure that they keep doing business with you.

Consider replacing the term “customer” with terms such as “members,” “partners,” and “colleagues” to

emphasize that we are not talking about them and us—the focus should be on we. Train your

employees in getting on with the customers in writing, during meetings, at receptions, on the phone, in

blogs, etc. Train everybody in handling customers, and see problems transformed into opportunities

and stronger bonds. Let your employees have time to discuss and share knowledge about their good

and bad customer experiences.

Sack the salesman! Train everybody in the organization mapping, nurturing, and growing relationships

with the customers who are right for your company. In short, make the shift from reluctant customers

to voluntary fans.

Have fun!