“Improve sales win-rates through better deal management and paying attention to those that you know.”
~ Miller Heiman

There are only 9 more Selling Days remaining in September and in the Quarter!!!

It is in a salesperson’s nature to get excited about closing new business. Winning a new client is a reason to celebrate. But, when looking for revenue opportunities, sticking close to home can have its advantages. Your current accounts would be a good place to start. You know their business issues, you know why they decided to do business with you in the first place, and you have established relationships. When new leads – and resources – are scarce, the ability to drive new revenue from existing clients can be a great way to help ensure success. Are you confident that you’ve already uncovered the full potential from your existing client base? There are likely current needs your client has that you could be pursuing. You should approach helping an existing client with the same enthusiasm as you approach new clients.

Maintaining strong relationships with current accounts provides two key benefits:

• You retain the existing business
• You uncover new opportunities

This is not accomplished through just periodic check-ins or great customer service after the sale; it requires an ongoing commitment from you, me all of us and as my Pappy use to say, “don’t you forget it.” As opportunities become scarce, competition increases, so are you doing enough to protect that account? In this marketplace you can’t differentiate by product offering, you must differentiate yourself by the way you sell and the unique value you can provide. A salesperson who can understand a client’s business issues and help craft solutions that help the client succeed are valued and rewarded. Differentiate yourself through your ability to be a well-informed, trusted business resource. When you help your clients achieve their objective you both will win and I will never forget that.

 Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

“Get back to real selling for that is what we do.”
~ Miller Heiman

There are only 12 more Selling Days in August and 33 remaining in the Quarter!!!

Getting leads should always feel like a luxury rather than an entitlement. Marketing’s job is to accelerate the sales cycle. Developing highly qualified leads is absolutely the best way to deliver on this commitment. But business development success ultimately rests on the salesperson and delivering real results should be the number one focus instead of figuring out who to blame. Professional salespeople need to take control of their own destiny and be proactive.

Sure it is a lot easier when you simply respond to a lead and try to build on the momentum that marketing has already created. But often times, clients have done some of their own diagnosis and you may find yourself pigeonholed into answering product-specific questions rather than having a discussion about their business issues. Beginning this dialogue is not a situation where you just wing it. Take the time to develop a Valid Business Reason that will resonate with the client. And no, saying something like, “Mr. Customer, would you like to talk to us about how you can increase productivity and reduce expenses?” will not work. It needs to be specific to the client and it needs to feel a little risky for you to bring up. After all, you are taking a chance that your ideas may not be compelling to the client. If you are not able to get them interested in a discussion then maybe you really don’t have a fit at this time. Getting a dialogue going with the client is not something that happens with a catchy phrase or a smooth answer. It happens when you can quickly demonstrate that you are an expert who understands some of their key issues and you have some ideas to help. This is the risky part. You may not bat a thousand but the conversations that do get traction will certainly be ones where there is some clear common ground.

As salespeople, we are ultimately responsible for our own success. Pointing fingers and worrying about things outside of our control are not strategies that will enable us to hit the objectives we agreed to. So let’s get back to real selling, stay passionate about what we do each and every day and never cheat the company for our customers are counting us. 

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least one person’s life today.

“What is your message? Is it the same ole stuff?” ~ Miller Heiman

There are only 5 more Selling Days left in July and 49 remaining in the Quarter!!!

It seems most every executive I talk to is trying to figure out a way to create compelling messages to the market that drive interest and create new opportunities. They are all searching for ways to be relevant in a time when there is a clear economic headwind. The funny part is that the end result – the actual marketing piece or sales call – seems to still have the same “ho-hum” message and impact. It appears that people are still afraid to take risks and to create provocative points-of-view.

I think prospects and clients want to hear these points of view so they can quickly figure out if you are someone who understands what is going on in their world. Companies have so much going on right now in terms of just making sure they have a strong foundation for survival. They don’t have time to have drawn out strategic discussions with potential vendors/partners to teach them about their business. Instead, they look for solutions to solve obvious problems.

If your message to the market is generic and more related to how great your company is then I don’t see this as an effective way to generate interest and develop new opportunities. Specific insights demonstrate that you really are an expert and you really do think about the trends in the market. It shows that you will state your opinion even though it may not be aligned with the clients’ issues. But even if it is not aligned, most customers and prospects will move the discussion along and explain how they have a whole different set of issues… either outcome is great!

Selling is truly all about the customer and their issues. The best way to determine if you remain relevant to the market is to look at the new opportunities that are in your Sales Funnel. If you don’t have many, then it is time to change the way you are doing things. At least that is my point of view.

Go out and have a Great Selling Day and make a difference in at least on person’s life today.

According to a recent survey, American businesses are looking for affordable and flexible options when it comes to recycling.

Many Recycling destruction firms have contracted with Coral Gables, Fla.-based AJR & Partners to conduct research into the recycling habits of U.S. businesses. The results will help determine how companies such as The File Room headquartered in Saint Louis, MO can help to improve business recycling rates in the country.

According to the Survey, 90 percent of American businesses practice some form of recycling and 10 percent do not. Fifteen industries, including manufacturing, electronics, software, medical services, finance, insurance, real estate, education, retail and public administration, were represented by survey participants from all over the country. More than two-thirds of the survey respondents reported that their annual revenue was less than $25 million, while 20 percent said their annual revenue was less than $1 million.

According to the survey: 

• Ninety percent of respondents either don’t know how their data is destroyed or have insufficient data destruction practices for protecting their organizations from data leaks or hackers retrieving sensitive information.
• The top three waste streams with recycling rates greater than 80 percent are batteries, electronics and lamps.
• Slightly more than half (51 percent) of firms that do not recycle say their customers, vendors and employees want them to recycle; however, 72 percent of these companies say the primary reasons for not having a recycling program in place is the lack of options or the cost.
• Forty-five percent of respondents that do recycle said their cost of doing business has decreased by having a recycling program in light of lower insurance premiums or reduced liability for the company.
• About 40 percent of all companies responding reported a need for more access to recycling options. 

“The 2010 Survey was important for us to learn how to improve customer service and better communicate the benefits of recycling,” says Rita Grant the General Manager of The File Room. “Since options and flexibility are important to most companies, we are able to provide those solutions while helping to reduce operational liability and regulatory costs.” 

More than two-thirds (72 percent) of the companies that do not recycle say it is either too costly to do so or they do not have available options in their geographic region. One-third of the companies that responded say they do not recycle because there is no law mandating it.  

Slightly more that half say their customers, vendors and employees want them to recycle, but the options are not there for them to meet those demands. Ten percent of respondents that do not recycle say they have no interest in it. 

The top three obstacles to increasing recycling among those respondents that do so are space limitations for recycling containers, the inconvenience of separating materials and the cost.  

Thirty-five percent of respondents say more training is needed to implement recycling programs for different types of waste streams.  

Close to two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents that recycle say they do not know how data on their electronic devices are destroyed. More than a quarter (27 percent) of respondents say they delete files off of their computers.  

“Just deleting files does not completely destroy the information, but simply moves the files to an area of the hard drive that is not visible to the average person,” Rita says. “The File Room specializes in electronic waste by completely destroying all data contained on data storage devices collected from clients and ensuring that disposal adheres to our zero-waste-to-landfill policy.”  

AERC Recycling Solutions operates five electronics processing facilities, also known as Com-Cycle, in five separate geographic locations. More information is available at http://www.aercrecycling.com/

I get a bird’s eye view of what some of the most successful record management companies whether it is record storage, shredding or imaging in the world are doing to differentiate themselves with client interaction, and here are the three things I find to be most compelling:

1. Investing in building business acumen, not features and benefits. The most effective organizations are not just teaching their people how to manage an effective sales process, but also putting rigor to understanding the details behind client decision making. They are throwing the elevator pitches away for client-specific value propositions.
2. Involving clients in strategic activity. It’s one thing to have a business review and get feedback on how you can service your clients better, but that’s not different. To dare to be different is to get your best clients behind the scenes and have them help shape your product development and overall product/service enhancement. This brings the organization closer to the customer and transforms your role from a record management supplier to partner. It also helps your customer articulate the ways you are different from the others.
3. Getting executive involvement. One thing I see that says an organization is serious about staying ahead on the differentiation curve is when the most senior executives are engaged with customers. I’m not talking about reacting to client satisfaction issues or sitting in on a couple of business reviews a year. C-Suite execs in these organizations are involved in internal opportunity and account reviews. They can speak the language that their sales managers speak. They view accounts as strategic assets. Client centricity is in the culture because it is a strategic priority at the top, and strategies are focused on understanding customers.

Whether you think my advice is basic and your company is already there or I’ve caused you to think about this topic, I want to leave you with one challenge; a dare, if you will. On your next business reviews with your biggest clients, ask them why they do business with you. I guarantee you will learn something that will take you one step closer to understanding how to differentiate yourself.