Stop Watching Your Profits Walk Out The Door
By Richard Libin, President, APB
Why when your company spends hundreds of dollars per person to bring potential sales — customers — into your business, would you sit by and watch them walk out the door? It seems absolutely impossible to imagine, yet every week thousands of dollars in potential sales leave without making a purchase in businesses across the country.
Why? When asked, these “lost” customers talk about having an uncomfortable or unpleasant experience. They feel the interaction is not moving in a positive direction, that the salesperson is not connecting with them, and that the products they are offered do not meet their needs, wants and desires. Let’s face it, people love to buy. But as much as they love buying they despise the feeling of being sold. Customers seek a retail culture that makes buying a comfortable experience. They look for sales professionals who are present and spend quality time with them.
Every day prospects walk into businesses ready to buy. Very few just happen to stop by because they were in the area. They arrive predisposition to make a purchase. Salespeople simply have to listen and find the right product, the one with the features customers want at a price they can afford. Buyers rate the helpful attitude of the salesperson as one of the major reasons why they purchase a particular product. No one ever talks about being SOLD a product by the efforts of a persuasive salesperson. They talk about how a salesperson guided them through the buying experience.
A salesperson’s job is not to sell, but to help customers find the product that exactly meets a customer’s needs, wants and desires. When this happens, sales increase, and satisfied customers refer others and return for additional products and services.
How Do You Eat An Apple?
“One bite at a time.”
This same philosophy applies to creating a customer-centric environment. It involves an ongoing process composed of training, evaluating, coaching, and retraining. It cannot be accomplished by allocating a lump sum for a one-time, quick fix solution.
First, identify the goals. Customer-centric businesses help their customers choose three things:
1)      The business — the goal is to make the customer glad they came and eager to purchase from you now and over time.
2)      The product — with this, the goal is to guide customers, help them build an emotional tie to the product that meets their needs, wants, and desires; only then talk price.
3)      The Selection Specialist — here the goal is to ensure the customer gets quality time, “The Red Carpet Treatment.” The Selection Specialist must connect, listen, learn and lead the sale in an inviting and comfortable manner and avoid confrontation at all costs.
Next, develop a training program and deliver it to each and every employee, from management to receptionist. It should encompass every detail required to meet the goals.
Proper training teaches employees to use a well-structured and clearly defined sales process. When this happens, customers have an entirely different experience. Imagine this:
▪      The receptionist welcomes the guest saying, “Welcome to APB. My name is Susan.” Susan collects the guests’ names and introduces them to a Selection Specialist. (This is where Management begins monitoring the process to support the Selection Specialist on a continuous basis.)
▪      The Selection Specialist says, “I’m glad you are here; my job is to help you select a product.”
▪      From there, the Selection Specialist communicates with customers — connects with them in a manner of speaking — listens and learns what they need, want, and desire. They quickly identify a product or service that fits those needs. Throughout the process the Selection Specialist guides the guest as they experience the features that will satisfy their wants and desires, and builds an emotional bond with the product at the same time.
▪      Price is the last point of discussion, raised only after the guest feels at home and has built an emotional bond with the product, business and the Selection Specialist. This process results in more closed sales, and more satisfied long-term clients.
For this to work, Management must keep the training program going on a continuous basis using both internal and external resources. For a minimum of 30 days after the initial training, Managers record everything that should have been changed based on the newly defined process.
Once adjustments in the process are finalized the team should be provided with individual coaching, practice, evaluation and retraining, as well as clearly communicated expectations. After another 30 days, Managers should evaluate the Management Information Report and repeat the process where needed. This should be complemented by a quarterly update and reviewed ensure behavior changes and a new customer-centric culture begins to become ingrained in the business.
Simplifying and Supporting the Process
A business should define its structure and processes first, identify and adopt the technology that supports them and thoroughly train every employee on its use. When this happens, every employee will have both the access and the ability to leverage systems to improve performance. In addition, Managers will be able to retrieve the data they need to measure and analyze successes and failures, and make informed decisions about adjusting business, sales and training processes to maximize the successes. The right technology with the right training becomes an integral part of a customer-centric environment. Like a point guard on a basketball team, technology provides an “assist” in understanding clearly what happens on a day-to-day basis in the store, tracking customer status, easing the follow up process and providing accountability across the board.
If a business has a plethora of CRM systems in place the first step is to identify the one or, at the most, two systems that best support the business structure and standardize on these systems. These solutions must interact and work seamlessly together in order to become effective, strategic “members of the team.” Once this is accomplished, training is the next step. Professional training and education must be provided for every employee.
Where’s the money in today’s market? It comes into your business every day. The key is not to let it walk away by creating a customer-centric culture through continuous training and education. When viewed as a priority with budget as a percent of sales allocated to the required resources, this process will pay back exponentially in increased sales and lifelong customer relationships. This is not the time to cut expenses, but to add to your training investment — training does not cost. It costs not to train.
 
Richard F. Libin is the author of the book, “Who Stopped the Sale?” (www.whostoppedthesale.com) and president of APB-Automotive Profit Builders, Inc., a firm with more than 48 years experience working with both sales and service on customer satisfaction and maximizing gross profits through personnel development and technology. He can be reached at rlibin@apb.cc or 508-626-9200 or www.apb.cc