Salespeople hate to deliver bad news. I mean – really hate it. Of course, no one wants to be the bad guy when it comes to customers, but salespeople especially hate it. Why? Because much of their career is based upon being liked and it isn’t easy to get someone to like you when you...
Category: Sales Training
Selling Means Never Having To Say I’m Sorry: How to Apologize
Capitulation is a really fun word to say, but it is not so fun to do. That’s often what an apology is; a surrender to the blame. That’s what we’re trained to do as salespeople; make the customer feel like they are always right (even when they are not). The more we say ‘I’m sorry’,...
LEROY’S Method Of Managing Difficult Customers
Most of us know the legend of Leroy Brown from that old familiar tune. He was badder than this and meaner than that and quite possibly the last person you would want to cross paths with. But what happens when you suddenly have him as a customer and he is not happy. Whether or not...
A Customer Escalation Policy for Salespeople
One of the biggest challenges for a salesperson is having a company, team, and process that backs up the promises they make. Sooner or later as a salesperson you will encounter a situation where you created an expectation with a customer only to find that production cannot or will not meet those expectations. This can...
Identifying Good, and Not So Good Customers Using The Challenge Chart
Did you ever wonder why solving one problem for one customer while solving the same problem for a different customer can be a completely different experience? For example, one customer completely understands your proposal and quote and you can close the deal in twenty minutes. The next customer who, on the surface, is very similar...
Addressing The 4 ‘Misses’ Of The Customer Experience
The customer experience is as crucial to the identity of your company as is your brand. It is how we make customers feel in every way they interact with our company whether it is your employees, your website, your storefront, the billing process, and so forth. Some companies do a great job of deliberately designing...
How to Help Underperforming Salespeople
There are a lot of people that are simply not good at sales. Perhaps they could be good under the right circumstances, but sales is often a sink-or-swim career. It really depends on what the salesperson is willing to do to achieve her goals just as much as the support she receives from her company....
Is the New Salesperson Going to Make It❓
Their resume looked great, they interviewed well and you can see that the new salesperson that was hired is going to be a great fit in the company. The courting was fun and the honeymoon is now over. So here comes the big question, is the new salesperson actually going to be successful. It is...
What To Do When Your Customer Is a Bully
I don’t like jerks any more than you do, and still, they exist. Do they even know that they are jerks? Do they even care? Why are there so many of them? Why are some of them trying to be my customer? How do I go about handling difficult customers? To be clear, I am...
Beware of the Comfort Zone
Are you comfortable? I’m not asking if you’re in your favorite chair right now, but are you following a routine that keeps you safe and happy? If so, good for you I suppose. If you have really found the key to your happiness and you have arrived at where you always wanted to be, then...