Clean Up Your Process

At Disney World there is a sign just outside the locker-room where all the employees,  which they call them cast members,  dress.

            The sign says "Take Pride in the Product."

            They understand that even if the cast member is having a bad day or does not feel like putting on the best show that their customer is here on vacation. It might be a once in a life time experience for the guest and it is imperative that the show be fresh and exciting every time so the guest goes home and tells all their friends about their experience.

            What is your product?

            Wrong. Your product is not just a stone countertop. It is a better brighter kitchen or a kitchen better than the Jones', or a fulfillment of a dream. It is the CUSTOMER'S entire experience from the day someone from your company first speaks with the customer  up to the day when the customer is using the countertop and forgets that it was not always there.

            Your job is to make that experience superior and to make the customer happy they chose your company, use the countertop then forget about you.... until someone asks them who did this.

            If you produce an excellent or even a superior countertop but were three weeks late, did not communicate with your customer, and left a mess then you will not get repeat business or referrals. Your may never hear a complaint from the customer but the customer's friends and relatives, your prospects, will.

            The countertop you produce will be in the customers for a very long time. It will represent you so it needs to superior even if you or your employees were having a bad day when they were making the top. And as long as your  customer is in the home they will remember the experience as well, particularly if it was bad and pass it on.

            You need to clean up your production process first. Some things you need to consider as you clean up your process.

Create Your Own Process

Why do we need a process?

            Success in sales can happen by mistake. You can do everything wrong and you still make a sale. BUT it is better if you do the right things at the right time. Having an established process helps keep you on track and it helps you improve what works and dump what does not.

           

1.     Clean up your process so you can deliver the customer a positive experience from the first time they contact you until the top is in their home and they forget it was not always there.

2.     Develop a Unique Selling Proposition - USP

3.     Identify the customers that are most profitable for your company.

4.     Prospect for customers who fit the profile you create.

5.     Build rapport with the prospect.

6.     Determine decision maker

7.     Determine the needs and wants of the customer by questioning them about what they want and need.

8.     Qualify the customer

9.     Determine the customers budget. 

10.  Make a custom presentation that addresses the prospects wants and needs.

11.  Ask for the business.

12.  Deliver the product memorably so customer will want to buy, buy again and give you referrals.

13.  Follow up to make sure that the product is what you promised and get referrals.

Six Truths About Small Business Sales

Here are six truths about small business sales every small business owner must understand.

1.     Sales is an honorable profession. I am a student of the sales process. I have over 100 CDs on sales which I listen to as I travel the Midwest. All of these programs and nearly every book I have read on the subject begins with a section dedicated to convincing the listener or reader that sales is a honorable profession. I wonder if the practitioners of any other profession have to be convinced that they are involved in an honorable profession. Do you suppose that a seminars for brain surgeons, rocket scientists or bus drivers start with a few paragraphs on how honorable the profession is. Sales people even hide behind titles like designer, associate, consultant or business development professional.  

2.     Sales is  not an option. If you are in business you are in sales. Without sales the best stone countertop on the planet will never get sold. All the company employees; receptionist, accountant, fabricator and installer, will be out of work and the company will fail. Not because of production, purchasing, bookkeeping or any other department but because there are no countertops to produce, products to purchase or accounts books to balance. You do not need to like sales but you need to do it.

3.     If you make a good product it is your duty to get it into the hands of consumers who would benefit from such a countertop.

4.     You need to work on the parts of your sales process that are hard for you as well as the parts that are easy.  

5.     Sales in not a part time activity. You do not ask your lead fabricator to answer the phone, greet people who come into your office or do bookkeeping. Why would you ask your sales person to do these activities or worse why would you have your receptionist or bookkeeper do sales. It is easier to do the easy routine things rather than the hard things such as cold calling and follow up. Given a choice an employee will do routine easy tasks instead of hard important ones. They will look busy instead of do things that lead to a sale. 

6.     Nothing happens until somebody sells something.