In fact, customers have so much choice that independent of what service you provide or product you sell, it’s more and more likely to be viewed as a commodity. And, as is the tendency with any commodity, price and convenience tend to have an exaggerated influence on a customer’s purchase decision.
In our quest to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, we increasingly turn our attention to delivering a customer experience that makes us stand apart. We may focus on delivering services faster, easier, friendlier or perhaps more professionally than our competitors.
Online access to our business certainly provides an important portion of that experience, but there is no substitute for the role that frontline customer-facing employees play when it comes to increasing sales and building long-term loyalty.
As a result, 'how' employees interact and engage customers is the true differentiator that will make your business stand out from competitors. Similar to the way that the attention you receive at your favourite restaurant dictates your total dining experience, how company representatives connect with you greatly influences your final purchase decision.
Customer-facing employees are fundamental in being able to stimulate a customer’s curiosity and obtaining permission to initiate a conversation that can explore and satisfy both active and latent needs and expectations. And in order to do that, you must first institute an approach that has been proven to change how frontline employees systematically and quickly move customer interactions into a much richer and rewarding experience for everyone.
The Algario PowerLearn™ Sales Development System fundamentally enables all frontline employees to systematically engage customers in real, unscripted conversations designed to utilize the time available during any interaction and significantly contribute to the overall sales effort at every stage of the sales process.
And since managers are integral to your employee’s success, they are provided with the coaching systems, skills and feedback required to reinforce and embed those behaviours that will differentiate your business well into the future.
Join the conversation and let me know your thoughts. What have your experiences – either from the learner side or the coach/trainer/manager side – been?
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Moving Past a Discussion about Rates and Price
What can we do to influence both current and future sales results?
As managers we have daily interactions with frontline employees and every one of those is a coaching opportunity. Observing and reinforcing how customer interactions are conducted is certainly a good start, but to truly influence results, you must first institute a successful approach that has been proven to change behaviours and then provide feedback in a way that reinforces and embeds those behaviours.
For instance, take a customer entering a financial institution and inquiring about an interest rate for a five-year mortgage. We know that customers commoditize our products by focusing on rate comparisons so, as managers, we often limit our feedback to the obvious elements of the employee’s interaction with the customer – their courtesy, their professionalism and their accuracy. All are elements that impact the overall customer experience, but not necessarily ones that drive a successful conclusion such as a referral or sale.
‘How’ the conversation is conducted will determine the outcome. In our ever increasingly commoditized environment, the really important part is how the frontline employee moves past the rate discussion (for example), engages the customer and matches their needs with the available solutions.
And what constitutes effective coaching is when we can provide concrete suggestions on ‘how’ an employee’s next customer conversation could be handled in a more effective manner – suggestions that reinforce a verified methodology or activity that improves results.
My belief is that we should provide the tools that enable all frontline employees to systematically engage customers in conversations designed to utilize the time available during any interaction and significantly contribute to the overall sales effort at every stage of the sales process.
And we should provide managers with the coaching systems and skills required to build the foundation of a truly robust Coaching culture.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Please submit and let's start a discussion.
As managers we have daily interactions with frontline employees and every one of those is a coaching opportunity. Observing and reinforcing how customer interactions are conducted is certainly a good start, but to truly influence results, you must first institute a successful approach that has been proven to change behaviours and then provide feedback in a way that reinforces and embeds those behaviours.
For instance, take a customer entering a financial institution and inquiring about an interest rate for a five-year mortgage. We know that customers commoditize our products by focusing on rate comparisons so, as managers, we often limit our feedback to the obvious elements of the employee’s interaction with the customer – their courtesy, their professionalism and their accuracy. All are elements that impact the overall customer experience, but not necessarily ones that drive a successful conclusion such as a referral or sale.
‘How’ the conversation is conducted will determine the outcome. In our ever increasingly commoditized environment, the really important part is how the frontline employee moves past the rate discussion (for example), engages the customer and matches their needs with the available solutions.
And what constitutes effective coaching is when we can provide concrete suggestions on ‘how’ an employee’s next customer conversation could be handled in a more effective manner – suggestions that reinforce a verified methodology or activity that improves results.
My belief is that we should provide the tools that enable all frontline employees to systematically engage customers in conversations designed to utilize the time available during any interaction and significantly contribute to the overall sales effort at every stage of the sales process.
And we should provide managers with the coaching systems and skills required to build the foundation of a truly robust Coaching culture.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Please submit and let's start a discussion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)