Conrey is for Closers

from: http://whitehatblackbox.com/2009/05/a-little-motivation/

I stumbled onto this picture thanks to Twitter today and it really resonated with me. Every salesman should post this somewhere where they can see it everyday, for that matter anyone working at a startup, or any entrepreneur.

Fear of change will result in doing the same thing over and over again. Doing the same thing and expecting different (better) results is a definition of insanity. Push through the pain, change, and run until you drop. I love it.

It never gets any better than during negotiations. If you have a tough negotiation with a client, it’s not likely going to be all rosy as you deal with your new client moving forward. If the negotiation goes smoothly and easily, you likely will have an easy to deal with client throughout your relationship with them. Let me use another dating analogy – How many couples that fought throughout the time while they were dating had peaceful calm marriages?

Do your best to make the negotiations painless and smooth for your clients, but keep in mind that you are setting the tone for all future interactions with this client. If you give in too often and too easily now, they’ll expect that same attitude of giving on everything moving forward. If you can successfully negotiate through the dating phase of your relationship with your client, you can have a happy long term marriage moving forward.

When a client calls you, what is the first thing they hear? Is it a recorded greeting followed by a touch tone menu? Is it one of those robots that you talk to in order to find the right person? Is it a human?

If it’s touch tone menu there should be a good reason for it (several departments, routing to the right place) but they shouldn’t have to go through multiple levels to get someone who can help them. And if you ask for pertinent information via touch tone – account number, phone number, etc -don’t make them repeat it when they get to a person or else they’ll wonder why they typed it in at all.

If it is one of those robots you speak to as you navigate through a voice menu – stop it. You may think that it gives your clients a more personal feeling than touch tone but it doesn’t. These voice recognition systems all suck. They take longer than touch tone without any of the benefits of a real human. Also, again – don’t make me repeat myself if I give information to your automated service when a human picks up.

If you have a human answering your phone you don’t automatically win. It helps, and is a step in the right direction, but you should make sure it is the right human answering your phone. Make sure that they are properly trained and ready and willing to help on your client’s behalf. They should be knowledgeable enough to help, or direct your client QUICKLY to the person that can. And when they transfer your client, they shouldn’t do it blindly – the person being transfer to should have an idea of what they’re getting before they pick up the phone.

The people answering your phones are your front lines, your first impressions with clients. If you aren’t 100% confident that they are making a positive impression every time, you need to reevaluate how much business they may be costing you.