Cross-Selling To Increase Market Share

Businesses know that one tactic to increase sales and market share is cross-selling: selling additional products and services to their customers.

 When working with an organization’s customer service and sales staff, I sometimes hear resistance and discomfort from them when cross-selling is required.  It is almost as if they feel guilty about suggesting more products to their customers.

 These guidelines have been helpful in increasing their cross-selling skills and results:

1.  Have sales and customer contact staff re-think what sales and cross-selling are. Have them consider sales as an educational and solution oriented process in which they advise customers of additional services and products that make sense for them.
2. Explain that cross-selling is a component of their service commitment. I like to call it “maximizing opportunities for the customer.” Customers should know what other product options are available to them. They now have this information, even if it is for future consideration. 
3. Customers often expect to be cross-sold. They “get-it”: they experience it in their everyday retail interactions.  For example, “How about a head-set with your mobile telephone?” 
4. Keep products and services complimentary and relevant to the customer. The service should make sense for them and be in line with their goals, lifestyle and resources. 
5. Do not offer too many options. This just confuses people. It has been found that when there are too many options people tend not to make a decision. 
6. Stay focused on the customer’s need and increasing their awareness of service and product opportunities, while balancing the attempt to cross-sell. Customers need to feel that you have their interests in mind and that you are their advocate.

 

“Sales Process Blueprint™”

Sales Process Blueprint ™ workshop and organizational development consultation at your organization provides your staff with an eight step template to understand the buying process that increases their confidence when presenting your scope of services and can contribute to increasing your share of the marketplace. 

What makes the Sales Process Blueprint ™ unique from other sales training development programs is that it is also a continuous improvement program that helps your organization to seamlessly integrate the effective management of the sales cycle as part of your business practices.  

The following options are available to you to develop your sales force and operate an organization that involves every employee in the selling process reflecting their vital role in contributing to your revenue growth. Ensure your organization communicates a consistent and cohesive sales position to help grow your market penetration.

 Needs Analysis & Discovery: Sales Audit / Structured Interviews 

Aramini Management will conduct structured and behavioral interviews of your sales staff to assess how they conduct sales strategy, manage the sales meeting, selling skills and overall management of the sales cycle. Additional selected staff of your organization will be interviewed to determine if systemic needs exist for sales performance improvements.  Aramini Management will provide recommendations to improve sales and business practices based on identified needs.

Strategic Selling Boot Camp 

Aramini Management’s “Strategic Selling Boot Camp” will teach your staff the Sales Process Blueprint ™.  It provides them with the tools to understand the buying process and will increase their confidence when presenting your scope of services.  They will learn a practical model that is readily applicable to their everyday challenges.  Your starting point of sales success is the effective sales call. 

Key learning points/workshop benefits:

• What is sales?
• Learn the Sales Process Blueprint ™  to effectively manage the sales  the cycle
• Importance of strategy and engaging in critical steps for sales success: market knowledge, target customer profile, identifying needs, product and service distinction
• Assessing and handling the true objection to gain consensus on how your service will meet client need
• Utilize sales call performance criteria to improve sales meeting effectiveness 
• Attendees will participate in an exercise for preparing for a sales call of a targeted account
• Personal development action plan to reinforce learning for immediate applicability back on the job

“Sales Rejection…Just Get Over It!”

So the prospect said “No” even though you had the deal of the lifetime for them! Well, that is life in sales. Even the sales ace gets rejected, but they deal with it effectively and learn from it to further refine their approach. I asked sales professionals about handling rejection and they said the first step is to try to reduce the chance of rejection with an effective sales approach. They all agreed that there will be times that you will still be rejected even when being on top of your game. Here is what they shared with me:

1. Maintain Your Objectivity
   • Everyone gets a “no” or “not interested” in sales.
   • Step back and get a frame of reference: this is part of the sales process.
2. Learn from the Experience to Improve
   • Obtain the true reason why the prospect said “No”: Was it the product, competition, price or your sales approach?
   • Did you gain credibility with the prospect?
   • Did you really listen and ask questions? Did the prospect believe that you understood their needs?
   • You answered their questions…confidently and completely?
   • Did the prospect believe that you would be working for them?
   • You provided solutions that were relevant?
3. Be Aware of Your Feelings / Control Your Emotions
   • Disappointments can drum up feelings of insecurity and past experiences. Remember, this is not your mother, father, boyfriend or best friend rejecting you. Keep it in its place.
   • The prospect doesn’t know you.  Are they having a bad day or did they just get word of budget constraints?  It could very well be the timing of your presentation and their need for your product or services. So, often a “no” could mean “not yet”. So, don’t give up.  
   • Don’t take it personally.  The prospect is rejecting the product or service, not you.  At the same time, some sales professionals suggested that it could be personal: that there just isn’t chemistry between you and the prospect. It is not realistic to think that we will click with everyone. All you can do in this case is be yourself and try and provide the necessary information so that the prospect can make an informed decision about the value of your product or service.
4. Get Over It and Move On
   • Focus on your sales goals;  always keeping in mind the goals of the potential buyer.
   • This is temporary and part of the sales process ebb and flow
   • Remember the law of averages:  you will have production swings of high and low points.
   • Stay tenacious and know that sales is a numbers game where experiencing “No’s” will be followed by “Yes’s”.

Building and Managing the Successful Project Team

Most business owners and senior management would agree that effective teamwork is one method for performance success in meeting customer needs and maximizing opportunities in the marketplace. Some would argue that it is vital that different specialty groups cooperate and communicate as teams to share and create new ideas in an effort to maintain a competitive pace. Cross-departmental teams can assist in breaking down walls and move people beyond their own frame of reference. Project teams are the choice to undertake initiatives to improve a process, introduce new products or services. Team members are called upon for their expertise and ideas on how to contribute to the achievement of the organization’s goals. Done properly project teams are one way to save time and maximize resources.

A project team’s performance and its effectiveness can be enhanced through an organized and structured framework for managing the team process. The following Project Team Survival Basics provide an overview of key components in building and managing a team to leverage its performance: 

1. Pick the right project team leader. Along with keeping the team focused and performing to meet its milestones and intended purpose, the project leader’s role is create a team environment where input and developing ideas and solving problems are encouraged. Don’t make the mistake of assigning someone without these skills to manage a team or not be open to different points of view. It is not the place for members to be inhibited from speaking their minds. 
2. Do your homework to justify the project team’s initiative and clarify its objective. Having data helps clarify the opportunity and objective and gain support from top management and others in the organization. This could be hard data like customer surveys, sales trends, or revenue opportunities. It could also be anecdotal. Your field sales people are hearing complaints from customers. Enough feedback to arouse your interest that suggests you need to look into it. 
3. Select the project team members. Now that you have defined the objectives, it enables you to select team participants that represent the areas involved. You will be able identify the associated tasks and who is responsible for them. Be sure to consider team members with a different frame of reference to share another perspective and area of expertise. 
4. Have the team develop a project team charter that includes its own performance criteria and operating guidelines. Conduct a kick-off meeting with your new team and tell them exactly what their mission is and proposed deadlines. Based on their mission, ask them to create a team charter that documents their what, why, where, when, who and how. The team charter strengthens and formalizes the team’s existence. Performance criteria involving target completion dates need to be established and agreed upon. Without milestones, the team will not have any way to gauge their progress and could lose focus. There should be a simple meeting summary and an agenda for the next meeting provided to project team members prior to the next meeting. 
5. Don’t assume you have the answers. It is pretty typical for team members to bring their preconceived notions on how best to meet customer needs or solve a problem. It is fair to say that at times we have all considered ourselves “experts” even when we look at the problem from a distance. 
6. Use data and direct observation to make informed decisions. Team members should be encouraged to get close to the problem, operation or customer. Benchmarking and direct observation are sample procedures to help control premature or uniformed decisions. Teams need to be data driven with analysis being a critical part of their process. If the data does not exist, then have the reports created to help them understand their subject. This is not to say there is no place for intuition, but we need to insure that where possible, reliable and verifiable observation and data analysis occurs to leverage our sense of direction.  
7. Create measurement criteria for the initiative. The project team’s role can be to recommend business practice improvements, introduce new products or services. They need to create measurement criteria to evaluate the results of their recommended actions.
8. Be a proactive and dedicated communicator. Be sure that the rest of the organization understands what your mission is. Do not take for granted that everyone is informed. By being dedicated to communicating your team’s work, you create a dialogue with others in the organization to share updates in their areas that may be of value to your team. 
9. Think about the ripples. This survival basic is designed to create an image that those who could be affected by the project are aware of it. This prevents reactions like “you are changing what on Monday?” As the work of the project team evolves, it may impact areas that may have not have been considered in the planning stages or another department makes a change that is new knowledge to the team. Keeping mind potential impacted areas will smooth implementation.
10. Conduct project update meetings. Make it a formal part of the process to keep relevant people throughout the organization informed. Providing them with periodic progress results allows them to plan for the changes and add input that the team may have missed. 

What Am I Going to Do with this Degree?

I typically write about management and business practice enhancements, but I am taking a break from that to post a different subject: career mentoring of college students. The stimulus is my experience as a mentor of graduate students in the counseling, organizational psychology and leadership programs at Columbia University Teachers College, of which I am an alumnus. Many of us have college age children who are considering a major, already in one, or thinking about grad school. It is very possible as well, that with the economic turmoil, some of you may be looking to reinvent yourself by considering other career or training options. Enrollment growth at Adult Education Programs and Community colleges are a reflection of that. Hopefully, these  pointers may be of benefit to you as well.

 I see two broad concerns that students present to me: 1) What kind of work will I actually do with this training, and; 2) Maybe I should be studying something else? I refer to this as “major remorse” representing the student second guessing their choice of study. Rethinking options is not necessarily a bad thing.

 I typically provide these questions to the student before we meet. This allows them time to think about their decision making process and to help me to understand their approach and any gaps in their decision process.

1.  Why did you pursue a degree in your area of study? What was it about the field that impressed you enough that this was the right choice?
2. When you entered the program, what type of work / employer / grad school did you envision yourself doing upon graduation? Has that changed? If so, why? I am trying to get a reality check on the student’s perception versus what the experience in the next phase would really be like. Students, for example, can sometimes  anticipate  extremely high income upon graduation which is not based on what employers would offer. They are then  completely surprised to learn what the market was actually paying.  Also, I am interested to know what is causing the consternation about their choice. Is it a justified concern?
3. What other advice have you received thus far? From whom? Have you taken action in response to the advice? What has been beneficial? Have you encountered any obstacles? If so, what are they? This provides you with a sense of how proactive they have been and what their experience has been in pursuing that advice.
4. Have you worked with someone in your college’s career services department regarding job search and placement advice? What services have they provided you? Resume design? Interview preparation? Job leads?
5. Have you asked the career services department about placement data they have available for your particular field? Are graduates getting jobs? And what type of employers are hiring? Are the jobs reflective of what your training is in?  I am particularly interested to know if they are making an informed decision. Have they conducted any research about the opportunities based on real data, not hearsay. Career placement data and speaking to current working graduates enabled them to gauge their job opportunities. 
6. If you are working currently, where and what is the position?
7. What types of jobs have you applied for? Any success in obtaining interviews?
8. Where are you locating job leads? (internet, friends, career placement office, etc.) 
9. If you could not locate the type of position you prefer, what else would you consider as an alternative? 
10. How are fellow students fairing in their job search? 
11. If they have secured a job, what is it?

“Was Your Sales Call A Success?”

How do you know if a sales call was a success? The simplest and most important answer is whether the sale was closed or not. Closing the deal, after all is said and done, is the goal. But the starting point is the effective sales call.

Being strategic in planning the call by establishing sales call objectives, then evaluating your performance against those objectives after the call, will help you move the deal across the finish line.  Here are some criteria to rate your performance. Sales managers will find these helpful in coaching their sales teams:

• Prospect’s sales call objectives. Determine what the prospect wants to accomplish during your meeting.
• Buying impact opportunity. How is the prospect intending to impact their business by buying your product or service? For example, are they looking to increase sales, reduce expenses or be more efficient?
• What is the purchase decision-making process? Is the person you are meeting with both the buyer and decision maker? Does a committee make the decision? 
• Timeframe for purchase decision.  Ask about the level of  urgency for the prospect?  Have they established any target dates? 
• Who is the competition? Anyone else in play? Is there a current vendor? If so, why are they looking at other vendors? Is current  service or pricing an issue? 
• Determine the true objections / what will it take to close the deal?  Ask them: “If I could ensure that your concern is addressed and I can take it off the table, would that make this deal move forward? The prospect responds: ”I am not sure yet.” This could suggest that there is another obstacle that has not been discussed.
• Confirm that the prospect’s questions were answered to their satisfaction. Recap what you learned in the meeting and ask if you have covered and understand all the issues needed to come back with a proposal.
• Clarify what is needed in the follow-up presentation.  Verify if the follow-up meeting will be attended by other key contacts, such as Finance or Customer Service, and ask what will be needed in the next presentation to meet everyone’s expectations. 
•  Attempt to set the next appointment date.

Great Ideas…But Now What Do We Do?

You just left a productive brainstorming session to collect ideas on how to execute a new company initiative. This initiative could be a planned expansion into a new territory, opening up another  location, improving customer service or building customer loyalty.

Everyone is enthusiastic since their ideas were heard and they are now ready to press forward with the implementation of their tactics: making their idea a reality as part of the solution for the organization. But, maybe you are thinking:  should I devote resources to it?  And if you are so fortunate as to have ten people in your meeting with 10 ideas…can you implement all those tactics? Should you? 

I agree that is a challenge since the last thing we want to do is diminish any creative drive by your staff. But you can facilitate their continued involvement and commitment while effectively managing resources to meet the priorities at hand. This can be accomplished by having them participate in a rating process to “weight” which tactics might have a better pay-off.

What you will find is that it actually structures and improves the decision-making process  while successfully generating more discussion as people begin to think through all the ideas.  Here are the steps:

1. Title a spreadsheet and flip chart with the name of the initiative, e.g. Sales Expansion Plan.
2. Create 6 column heads on the spread sheet:
3. “Idea/Tactic”- this is the action to meet the initiative
4. “Value/Relevancy” - the tactics relevancy to the initiative?
5. “Ease of Implementation” - can you easily implement the tactic, or is it labor intensive or logistically difficult?
6. “Resource Availability”-people, money, time to execute tactic? 
7. “Cost Benefit” - is the tactic’s impact worth the resources/effort? 
8. “Total Rating” -cumulative rating for a Tactic.
9. List all the ideas under the Idea/Tactic column
10. Provide each team member with the spreadsheet
11. Individually have members weight each idea against each of the four criteria on a scale of 1 to 4, with four being the highest or best. For example, assigning a 4 to ”ease of implementation” means that it can be executed without a great deal of time or logistics.  That same tactic could receive a 1 for “cost benefit” meaning that the return is not worth the expense. 
12. Add up the weights to arrive at a “Total Rating.”
13. Team members meet, present their ratings and discuss their rationale to arrive at a consensus with a cumulative weighting for each tactic. There is real process gain from the group as they engage in pro and con and back and forth discussion on each tactic.
14. Tactics with the highest weights become the direction pursued. Ties result in further ratings and discussion.
15. Two or three complimentary tactics can be clustered into one grouping to be implemented by sub-teams within your group.

“What if you worked for the competition?”

I have found that a worthwhile tactic in sales preparation is to have sales people play a role as if they worked for the competition. How would you sell the products and services of the competition against your offerings? And, of course, the reverse as well. This exercise can be done as a head to head comparison for each of your competitors. 

• Describe your typical customer and their needs.
• What do they want you to solve?
• What are your products / services? What do you have?
• Why would they buy from you? From the competition?
• What are the benefits / solutions that your product / service offers your customers? And the competition?
• What is your competitive edge? What distinguishes you from the competition? And they from you?
• What are your product / service vulnerabilities? How is the competition vulnerable?

Serious About Improving Service? Have Courage: Conduct a Simple Staff Survey

Improving customer service at your organization should include the review of  business practices and the working relationships among internal customers. Everyone takes a turn being a “customer” or “provider” to another co-worker.

Realize that business processes and staff behavior does have an impact on co-worker relationships. This creates an image of your organization that is readily perceived by the external customer and community.

Trust me, your staff will have valuable insights and examples on service gaps and improvement opportunities. You will need to have the courage and thick skin to question your staff for their input on service. I do not suggest this unless you are really open-minded to what you will hear and are prepared to effectively respond with action.  Ask them the following:

1) What causes poor customer service at our organization and department?

2) What do you think our organization and department can do to improve  customer   service?

3) What do you think , that I as your manager, can do to improve customer service?

4) What do you think you can do to improve your own customer service effectiveness?

5) What do you see as improvement benefits?

Will your staff close the deal?

Every one of your one of your employees should be ready to sell. They represent you, your products and services. With the information explosion, there are multiple ways your staff interacts with prospective customers: telephone, email, retail floors and front counters are all selling opportunities. 

Think about it. Sure, your sales account staff is paid to sell.  But what about your other staff? You spent all that money on a new ad campaign or search engine optimization to drive web traffic to your websites, but will your staff be prepared to turn that call or lead into a sale or an appointment? 

I  have seen it with all types and sizes of businesses – from major publishers, a national product distribution company to optometrists, landscapers and building contractors. Their office and customer contact staff plays a vital role in contributing to that organization’s revenue growth, yet they are overlooked. They are the voice or face of the organization and need an effective selling approach to generate new orders. They need to know how to answer inquiries about your products and services that will result in a sale.  

The  following is a checklist to introduce your staff to the selling process. It starts with a practical definition of sales for easy application.

1. What is Sales?  Explain to your employees that “Sales” is a problem solving exercise. Understanding needs or  challenges is the primary driver for the entire sales interaction with the prospect or customer. No matter how experienced your staff is, that is something very basic for your employees to keep in mind while engaging in the challenge of company sales. 

2.  Product Knowledge. Employees should know your product’s features and benefits. Will product or services benefit the customer by making their life better, save them money, making things easier or making them feel better about themselves?

3.  Competition Knowledge. Does your staff know who the competition is? They should be familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. Why not ask your experienced sales people how they would sell your competition against you! You might learn a great deal about their effectiveness. 

4. Product Uniqueness. What distinguishes your offer and service from the competition – how are they unlike you?

5.  Ask for the Appointment or Order. Tell your staff to always ask for the appointment or order. This could be considered a trial close. The “trial” close “tests” to see if the person is ready for the close. It brings out the objections to determine what the needs are. If your staff does not ask for the sale and encourage a decision, then the process stops.

6. Typical Objections. Develop a list of the typical objections your employees encounter and create responses to overcoming the objections. Once your staff attempts to make an appointment and encourage a prospect’s decision, the likelihood is that they will encounter some resistance.  Inform your staff that objections are not a bad thing. Objections help you understand what the needs are.   

7. Close:  After your staff have addressed the objections and offered solutions, they should ask for the order or appointment again. 

Finally, have a weekly meeting and ask’ “Why did we get the sale and why we didn’t?” This is your opportunity to reinforce what worked and what you need to fine tune.  Also, you will learn about what your potential customers want as well as what the market demands.