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relationships

New Year’s....are you ready?

I hope you have made good use of this month to reflect on the past year and start to put pen to paper to create the new one. 

Have you completed your goals for this year? Did you make them 12-month goals or did you try to achieve them by Thanksgiving so that you can enjoy the holidays stress-free, with your loved ones?

  • What did you learn from this year that you don’t want to repeat next year? 
  • What new challenges await you? 
  • What are the areas you want to develop – business skills? Tec…

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Christmas

Whether or not you celebrate this holiday or share your life with people who do, this is likely to be a different kind of Christmas. From the pandemic to supply chain challenges, this holiday is surely one to be created. 

As store shelves may be emptier than usual, Christmas presents might be replaced with gifts of ‘experiences to be shared’ or home-made treasures or treats from local shops. Maybe we will spend less time on getting presents and more time on being present to each other and to …

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GRATITUDE and COMMUNICATION

To paraphrase Stephen R. Covey, what we are experiencing is demonstrated in our communications. Listen to what you are saying in describing your current state, your opinions, your challenges...how you describe those things show you where you are operating from.

When you are present to being grateful, how do you express it? Do you thank others? Do you show how happy you are to see someone when they walk in the showroom door? Does your gratitude greet them before you say a word?

How do you expre…

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Delays and Communication

We all wish it was different…that special orders could be placed and received within a couple of months.

We all wish that price increases didn’t accompany these delays…and yet they do. What we can stop wishing for and start acting on are the communications that need to happen with the customer.

If it’s not a habit to send monthly emails to your customers who placed a special order, make it one. Start by telling your customer (in their thank you note) that they can expect to hear from you every…

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Connection and Communication

Mask, no mask?

Social distance or get close enough to talk?

As the pandemic rails on and showrooms manage incoming opportunities, the ability to communicate while wearing a mask remains tricky.  It’s hard to read full facial expressions, to hear people who speak softly behind a mask, and to repeat once or twice to be understood. 

It’s helpful to the customer (for their comfort and information) to initiate how the interaction will go…and if someone needs to repeat what they said, it’s understo…

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Part 19 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

customer retention19.    Retaining current customers is 6–7 cheaper than acquiring new ones

It’s not a new sales enablement statistic, but it’s just as true today as it was in the past. It’s cheaper to keep your current customers happy than to spend time finding new ones.

Salespeople

Is follow up a scheduled part of your weekly sales actions? Do you ask ‘What’s next?’ with each sales opportunity that closes? Like asking for referrals, staying connected with current clients is low hanging fruit (I dislike that phr…

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Part 6 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

6.   44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up

Quitting on a weak prospect may seem like a way to save time for more promising leads, but quitting too soon means missing sales. Nearly 50 percent of sales reps only make one follow-up call before giving up.phone calls

For Salespeople Can you believe this statistic?! Believe it. Look at your typical follow-up actions to get the sale when you haven’t scheduled an appointment. How many do you usually do before you give up? Consider NOT giving up until the cu…

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Part 5 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

5. Personalized emails have higher open rates

Sales enablement statistics show us that people are more likely to associate vague, impersonal emails with spam. Personalizing the subject line or introductory sentence of an email can make all the difference. phone - keyboard

For Salespeople Be specific in the subject line: “About the sofa you liked…” If you created a next step with the prospect, this will be an easy email. If you didn’t, yet got their email address, it is important that the subject line is eye-cat…

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Part 3 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

Hi everyone….

This is my third in this series of posts. I am taking apart and talking about a data set that HubSpot published in 2018 on Sales Enablement Statistics. These are great bits of information for salespeople and sales managers to know in order to impact the actions they take with prospects and with selling and coaching time. Over time, I will address all 20 points.  I encourage you to share how they impact YOUR actions with your team or with your prospects.

3. 95% of buyers buy from some…

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A Measure of Relationship Value

For everyone, everywhere

I once had a customer who was a bit of a maverick in his marketplace and in the industry. He has since passed away, but Chuck Forcey was a character. When he was in the military, he flew planes and was on an elite fighter team…and he brought his irreverent ways with him.

Fortunately, he had a commander who was tougher and more focused than Chuck was and while he respected and appreciated what Chuck brought to the team, he refused to let the team be defined by one of its me…

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