27 Jan 10 Crafting Your Sales Approach to Build Long-Term Client Relationships
When I was young and just starting out in my sales career I always wanted to soak up as much product knowledge as I could. I’d craft and streamline my elevator pitch to perfection in hopes of wooing my prospect with a bulletproof sales presentation. While this strategy isn’t necessarily bad, it involved me talking most of the time.
Too many sales people come across as overbearing and sales, as a profession, gets a bad wrap. Many customers think of sales people as sheisty crooks who do whatever they can to sell you a product or service in order to make a commission.
As a salesperson I learned that it’s important to think more about the buyer and less about my motives. What does your buyer really need? Just shut up and listen a little more! Before going into your long-winded sales pitch, ask them what they are looking for, what they need, and what exactly their game plan and objectives are. You’d be surprised by the amount of times I talked myself out of a sale because I didn’t listen to my prospect. More times than not, if you ask a prospect what they want, they will tell you.
Listen, gather information, and think about what your prospect is saying. Are they giving you any buying signals or rattling off anything specific that they want that you can provide? What do you have in your product/service arsenal to actually help them and solve their problem? Do you have a solution for them? Can you offer them something that will improve their business or save them money? How can your product or service make their life easier? If I can’t help a potential customer with 1 of the 3 below points I simply walk away from the sale:
- Help your Customer Solve a Problem
- Save your Customer money
- Make your Customer’s life easier
Ethics comes into play and if I can’t help someone solve a problem, save money, or make their life easier, I let them know this is probably not the right fit for them. People will absolutely appreciate your candid approach and sincerity in having their best interest in mind versus you trying to shove a product or service down their throat. They may even go out of their way to try to reciprocate and send you referral business from their friends and family who may have a need for what you sell. Earning trust in business is very difficult, and building a relationship with a sale is even harder. If you start with the customer’s needs as your first priority, and cater your presentation based on their objectives, and actually try to help them, I’m confident that your closing ratio will go up and you’ll build long term client relationships; not quick turnover sales.
Tags: Business, Communication, Sales
22 Jun 09 T-Mobile Makes Mobile Internet Affordable
I’ve had T-Mobile for my mobile phone provider for over 5 years now. Previously, I experimented with Verizon and Cingular (AT&T). Hands down, T-Mobile has the best overall package. When evaluating a cell phone provider, or any business for that matter, I look for value and performance.
Top Importance for Me:
Coverage/Reliability
Price
Customer Service
Problem Resolution
Technology
My T-Mobile Experience
T-Mobile is 5 stars across the board. Whenever I’ve had an issue I can be assured when calling the customer service line, I’ll be taken care of professionally and promptly. There’s no long hold times or robotic support agents at T-Mobile. The customer service is what keeps me a customer. They are always willing to help you with any problem, and are quite creative in finding the best resolutions. They even support ‘non-supported’ phones. Ask for the ‘Tier 3 Data Support’ and you’ll be transferred up the ladder to the best of the best phone support techies who can answer any phone compatibility questions, regardless if T-Mobile sells it or not!
‘Unlimited Minutes’ Cell Phone Plan
Now on to the best part- pricing! T-Mobile recently started offering an unlimited nationwide minutes plan for their ‘loyal customers.’ While there were not any explicit requirements to meet this need, they were rather choosy the first 2 months of this offering. Since then, it appears it is now a plan that can be obtained by anyone. So for just under 50 bucks a month you have unlimited phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. It’s a great price and most competitors charge over $70 for this.
Cheap Mobile Internet
On my plan I’ve always had the $19.99 all you can text feature. Previously, it would cost an additional $19.95 for unlimited internet access. I opted to just roll with the minutes and text features… until now! T-Mobile just launched a new preferred pricing plan for mobile internet. You can now take advantage of unlimited text AND mobile internet for $19.95. So I am only paying 5 bucks more a month and can now fully access the T-Mobile 3G Mobile Internet network. It is a rather fast internet connection and every month there seems to be new phones added to the 3G lineup. You of course can still access the ‘edge’ network for slower speeds, but yet still very reliable.
In Conclusion
I believe T-Mobile is the BEST cell phone provider in North America. I’ve had no issues with coverage or calls being dropped off. Their customer service is tremendous and I always feel like they’re willing to work with me to find the best solution to my problems. They always ‘make things right’ and are a pleasure to speak to on the phone. Now with the preferred pricing and excellent packages, I believe T-Mobile is hands down the leader in mobile communication.
Tags: Business, Communication, Mobile Internet, Technology
