The "zero mistake" principle was first used in manufacturing environments because it's a lot more cost-effective to manufacture a flawless product from the very start than to search for flaws that have emerged in the course of production and then fixing these. The principles of the "zero mistake" approach can be transferred to a sales environment and is, therefore, generally included by sales supervisors in their internal sales training programmes. Zero mistakes in selling means that the sales department's aim is to create a situation where there are no un-happy customers.
It will take a lot of work to build up a zero mistakes culture in sales. The task begins with you, the sales supervisor. As soon as you have recognised the merits of the approach, you need to shift your conviction to your sales people. From there it is really an easy step to transfer this approach to your customers.
Prior to doing anything to change your sales organisation, do a sort of stock-taking. This will involve a number of steps, including:
1. Enhancing your own personal client contacts. Do this by going with your salespeople on customer visits or make client visits your self. Listen and experience first hand what the clients think of you, the product, and the services you deliver.
2. Reviewing the very last complaint through to its conclusion. What future improvements did this indicate to you? What would make clients un-happy and what would make them happy?
3. Looking at yourself. How do you talk to your sales people regarding clients? What exactly is your attitude towards customers? How does your attitude or conduct colour the conduct of your sales people?
Taking stock in this way will show you exactly where you stand and exactly where, as a result, the vast majority of your salespeople stand.
Satisfied customers do not come about just because you send your sales team to the relevant sales training seminars. The basis for building happy customers is creating a working environment which makes it likely for no errors to occur, combined with an appreciation of your client and his/her wants.
Organise the sales process to make it as straightforward and streamlined as you can. Complex official channels for order forms, multiple copies of order information, or vague responsibilities don't create situations condusive to flawless work. Eliminate all the actions between client contact and delivery which are actually not crucial or which do not add to client satisfaction.
Convey your appreciation of the client to your sales team. Top performances in selling always depends on the working atmosphere. When you appreciate the client and their satisfaction is important to you, this attitude will rub off on your sales team. Exactly the same is sadly true of the reverse.
If anything goes wrong, make up for it! There are, sadly, still organizations that force bureaucracy on the clients and insist on the small print. The reason for this is often minimal freedom of decision-making on the part of the salesperson or service representatives. If something goes wrong, the sales person in contact with the client has to possess the desire and also the freedom to compensate for the error in some manner. Your client should feel that:
Everybody in your company has a stake in making certain that every thing goes according to plan with the delivery - even if sometimes a mistake happens. This way the client doesn't have to carry the can for your error.
As an illustration of this principle, consider the following example. Imagine you have delivered on time, but have not delivered their total order. Do not wait until your client contacts you to complain. Make contact with your customer and explain what has happened and apologise for the error. Offer them an alternative: delivery as soon as the goods are available, naturally free of charge, or immediate delivery of a substitute product.
Do build up a consistent follow-up procedure and use it. Each and every client who doesn't go on to order more items from you must be asked "why". This really is the only method to discover possible weaknesses in your sales organisation. You'll be amazed at how much data you obtain this way concerning the market place, the competition plus the customer. Make the data you obtain accessible, in report form, to the sales team and also the office sales team so they can react to this information.
In conclusion, close client relations and constant customer orientation, supplemented with targeted sales training are good ways of achieving competitive advantage and, during situations of high cost pressure, have the further benefit that they do not need a large budget to implement.
Richard Stone (richard.stone@spearhead-training.co.uk) is a Director for Spearhead Training Limited ( http://www.spearhead-training.co.uk/ ) a company that specialises in running management and sales training courses. Richard provides consultancy advice for numerous world leading companies.
0 comments:
Post a Comment