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Steve 🙂
Posts tagged ‘Steve Ferrante’
Monday Motivation: When You Look In The Mirror…
There’s this person in the mirror. This person knows you well.
This person is solely responsible for your success or failure.
This person knows you want to succeed but often give less than your best.
This person will either commit to success or settle for less.
This person must be “All In” or will not win.
This person must understand that failure is not an option.
Make a Great Day!
Steve 🙂
See All > Pinnacle Performance Quotes on Pinterest
Monday Morning Motivation: Believe To Achieve
As I wrote in 6 Essential Success Traits of Top-Performing Salespeople, belief is the foundation of success. On the flip side, negativity is a major deterrent in achieving success.
Many individuals fall victim to negative thinking about themselves, believing they are ordinary, or worse, inferior to others. This counterproductive thinking ‘positions you to fail’ and, sadly, many lads and ladies accept this fate and lock themselves in to maintaining mediocrity.
In short, negative thinking leads to negative results. As soon as you say (or think) “I’m just a (fill in the blank)” you’re stuck in the mud.
Pinnacle Performers maintain a Champion mindset, believing they are the best, or capable of being the best, every day and act accordingly.
Whether you’re a business or an individual, to achieve ‘World Class’ performance you must first believe that you are (or are capable of) World Class.
Believe To Achieve…
Make a Great Day!
Steve 🙂
Let’s Link-In > http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveferrantesaleawayllc
Make a Great Day!
I have a problem with the expression “Have a great day” and so should you.
While it’s safe to say the intent of the expression is not meant to be malicious in any way, adhering to this advice can indeed harm your productivity.
Specifically it’s the “have” part I take issue with. The definition of have is to possess, own, or hold. “Have a great day” is passive and implies that this “great day” is already there… you just need to have it.
If someone said to you “Have a great sandwich”, you would likely respond “Thanks… where is it?”
One does not simply have a great sandwich… it must be made first. The same is true of a great day. It does not somehow appear… it is created.
Have a great day is well received by those reactive folks who are waiting for success to happen. Some days they end up in the right place at the right time and Presto! they have a great day.
As honored educator Marva Collins said,
Success Doesn’t Come To You, You Go To It.
Make a Great Day is for proactive performers that truly understand this, take charge of their actions and control their destiny. They create success… they create great days.
If you’re in sales, customer service or a progressive professional in general, Make a Great Day is some of the best advice I can give you.
If you’re a manager, I encourage you to instill this winning attitude in your team members.
So, by all means, don’t have a great day…
Steve 🙂
Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Leadership training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For detailed information visit Sale Away. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com
How One Bad Customer Service Experience Can Damage Your Brand
I often speak about ‘the customers perception is your reality’ and how when a customer has a great experience with a company’s designated sales or customer service rep their perception of the company overall (their brand) is enhanced. Conversely, when a customer has a poor experience their overall perception of the company overall is diminished.
At no time is this more important than when dealing with customer complaints and problems. As I published in How Fit Is Your Customer Service?, the true test of a business’s customer service fitness is not when things are going right – but rather what is done when things go wrong.
That brings me to a truly horrendous case of customer disservice by a customer service rep at Comcast. As well documented in the article (with audio clip) posted below from cnet.com yesterday, the customer simply wanted to disconnect his service. The abusive way he was treated has certainly left a lasting negative impression of the company overall.
Could this Comcast rep be the worst service rep in the world? – CNET
http://www.cnet.com/news/could-this-comcast-rep-be-the-worst-service-rep-in-the-world/
It’s a shame that this happened and I’m sure Comcast believes this incident is not representative of their customer service quality overall. Still, this one bad experience all by itself has done considerable harm – not only with this customer who undoubtedly will never return but also by extension with the countless folks he has now shared his tragedy with.
Always remember…
Truly great service happens at all points (beginning-middle-end) of the customer relationship!
Make a Great Day!
Steve 🙂
Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Winning Team Culture training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For detailed information visit Sale Away. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com
You Are An Example for Sales and Customer Service Performance
We’ve all heard the expression “leading by example”. This popular phrase is most often used when referring to managers and leadership executives of an organization but it also applies to every member of a sales, customer service department or organization in general.
A few points to ponder…
Are you maintaining a proper positive attitude all-day while on-the-job?
Employees who are constantly negative tend to contaminate their environment and bring everyone else down with them.
Are your actions bringing to life your business’s customer service mission in each and every customer interaction?
Service representatives with no PRIDE that don’t live up to their business’s customer service pledges and demonstrate poor behaviors set the stage for their counterparts to do the same.
Are you putting in 100% effort regardless of what others in your organization may be doing?
Salespeople on teams where everyone else is failing to meet their numbers tend to adopt a “it’s not me, it’s everyone” mentality and settle into a comfort zone of mediocrity.
Are you the setting the example that inspires others to follow?
On the flip-side, when an “A Player” sets the bar with their winning attitude and behaviors this typically has a positive effect that influences others to raise their own game and perform at a higher level.
The fact is you are an example to others as they are to you. Whether you are a good example or not is up to you.
Make a Great Day!
Steve 🙂
* You Are An Example also applies perfectly to parenting and although that’s a whole other story it’s well worth mentioning here!
6 Essential Success Traits of Top-Performing Salespeople
As a professional sales trainer, I get asked regularly what it takes to be a top-performing salesperson and the fact is there’s no simple answer to that question.
Having spent 25+ years in the sales industry myself, I have seen a wide variety of salespeople, from dreadful to truly great with most somewhere in between. Of course, top-performing salespeople are invaluable to any business as they typically represent the 20% of the team that generate 80% of the revenue or thereabouts.
While there’s certainly no magic formula for producing sales superstars, I have found that there are proven principles that are directly applicable to high-achievers.
Here are my six essential success traits of top-performing salespeople:
1. BELIEF
Belief is the foundation of success. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi said, “If you don’t think you’re a winner, you don’t belong here.” This quote fits perfectly with the attitude of top-performing salespeople. They possess a “champion mindset” and believe they are the best or capable of being the best.
Along with the confidence in themselves, top salespeople also have an absolute belief in their company, industry and the products and/or services they sell. Whereas the belief in oneself is primarily personal, the belief in the company and its products/services is something that is created by way of the corporate culture and experience with the ownership and management of the business.
2. ATTITUDE
I have written plenty on the importance of having a positive attitude. It certainly relates to providing world-class customer service and as a member of a winning team culture, but attitude also plays a major role in sales performance.
The sales profession is predominantly one of rejection, with far more people saying “no” than “yes” to product and service offerings. That’s not particularly pleasant for any normal person to experience on a day-to-day basis. Poor to average performers tend to take rejection personally and that translates into a negative, pessimistic attitude that weakens their sales interactions.
Top-performers have mentally conditioned themselves to maintain a confident, optimistic attitude. They realize that those inevitable rejections are par for the course and treat them as the stepping-stones to success.
3. RAPPORT
Sales research supports that, in most cases, more than 75% of a customer’s decision to purchase is based on having good rapport with the sales person. Conversely, one of the main reasons customers ultimately decide not to purchase (even though they may need the product or service) is that they don’t feel a genuine sense of rapport with the sales person. So, yes it’s true, people buy you first and your products/services second.
Top sales performers are also models for what I refer to as “Masters of Human Relations.” They possess the “people skills” to effectively communicate and connect with customers and build superior trust. Whereas a typical salesman will be a talker, a top performer usually excels at listening, enabling them to gather more information to aid in the selling process.
4. GENUINE
Going hand-in-hand with rapport, top-performing salespeople also tend to genuinely care about their customers’ best interest, as opposed to poor/average salespeople that tend to care more about making a sale.
Nearly everyone loves to buy, but no one likes to be sold. When a customer senses the salesperson really doesn’t care about them personally, they perceive the exchange as salesy schmoozing, not sincere communication and only performed because the salesperson was trying to sell them something.
Obviously, this behavior damages trust and harms sales performance.
Top-performing salespeople are genuinely customer-focused and take pride in helping customers solve their problems and meeting their needs.
This caring behavior is true empathy, the ability to assume the customer’s position and adapt behavior to their feelings. This is especially important in a service business, as the majority of customers have some sort of problem that is causing them some amount of stress and/or grief. Top-performers maximize their effectiveness by always practicing empathy and keeping the customer’s feelings in mind.
5. AMBITION
The drive to succeed is essential for top performance. It never ceases to amaze me how many people in sales – probably 80% – are not true students of their profession.
Other than sales activity during the day, they do little, if anything, to improve their skill set along the way. This is the equivalent of playing a professional sport and only showing up for the games, not practicing and expecting to win!
With so much competition selling the same products and services, it is critically important that front line employees are well trained and regularly maintained.
Top-performers – that 20% – understand this and invest the time to expand their knowledge base and hone their selling skills. They strive for continuous improvement and are committed to becoming an expert in their business/industry/products and a master at their craft – selling.
6. ACCOUNTABILITY
Poor performers often blame everyone and everything else for their lack of success. The marketing department isn’t doing a good enough job getting leads, the economy is weak, the manager is a jerk, the computer system is slow, the coffee is too weak, the list goes on and on.
Top sales performers do not focus on any of this or let anything outside of their direct control affect their performance. They spend their time and efforts focusing on results: How to beat the competition; how to improve/work around operational issues; and how to capitalize on the selling opportunities they do have.
In my Pinnacle Performance training, I teach and preach the importance of working with PRIDE, an acronym for Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence. Top-performers ‘get it’ and have the mindset of what I refer to as “YOU Inc.”
They take ownership as if they are in business for themselves (not by themselves) and assume 100% responsibility for their success or failure to control their own destiny.
Seek these six success traits in your new hires, instill these principles in your existing sales team members, and reap the rewards.
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Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Winning Team Culture training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For detailed information visit Sale Away. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com
Click-On Printable PDF > 6 Essential Success Traits of Top-Performing Salespeople
4 Seldom Considered Reasons Sales/Customer Service Training Fails
Regardless of what your business sells, training to maximize performance in sales and customer service should be an important piece of your success plan. Unfortunately, countless companies waste vast amounts of time and dollars on training that doesn’t produce the desired gains and ultimately fails.
There are a variety of reasons why sales/customer service training initiatives fail. Topics like matching the program to the business and needs of the participants is certainly high on the list when considering outside training resources but there are several other seldom considered factors that directly affect whether or not a sales/customer service training program will achieve a successful outcome.
1) Not Setting The Stage
Typically the engagement planning for sales/customer service training is with ownership and key management behind closed doors and away from the company personnel that the training is intended for. That’s perfectly acceptable as company training should be a managerial decision. However, once an engagement has been planned, ownership and/or key management should prepare personnel so they are properly positioned to most effectively receive the training.
Unfortunately, this step is often missed altogether. I have personally conducted programs (and am aware of many more) where I (or another trainer) arrived for the first day of training with a new organization and no one knows why they’re there. Participants haven’t been told anything other than to “show up”. While skilled trainers can overcome this and create clarity for a successful commencement, obviously this is not the most conducive environment for learning.
Like a Broadway play, the stage should be properly set before the show begins. However, unlike a Broadway play, creating a positive learning environment need not be a major production. It could be as simple as an email and/or company newsletter announcement like this actual tire/auto service client piece:
“We are excited and proud to announce our new relationship with Steve Ferrante of Sale Away LLC! As the producer and host of the highly-acclaimed “Pinnacle Performance” sales/customer service/winning team culture training program, Steve is the trainer for numerous leading tire/auto service businesses across North America. Steve also serves as the contributing “Selling Smart” editor for Tire Review Magazine and their sister publication, Shop Owner. We have engaged Steve to provide training to all of our sales and customer support personnel and are extraordinarily confident that with his proven expertise and resources we can achieve new levels of success in 2014 and beyond! Our first sessions with Steve will begin on…”
Introduced this way, confusion is eliminated as company personnel know what to expect, and everyone is prepared to enter training with the proper positive mindset.
2) Disengagement
Training is only as good as the trainer providing it. For training to effectively produce meaningful (and sustainable) gains, the employees must first be engaged with the trainer. Many otherwise good programs fail because the attendees were not really engaged, became bored and tuned out long before any real gains were made.
This is the reason the first element in Sale Away’s Pinnacle Performance Credo is ENGAGE.
Any business considering an investment in training should make the “who” will be conducting the program a priority. Often companies sweat the what and where details of training and give relatively little consideration to the importance of who will be conducting their program.
Sometimes companies will appoint an existing employee to conduct training. Many times this presents a significant challenge as this person is already perceived, for better or worse, as something else in the company. Typically, the tasked individual is a sales or customer service manager and, although they may be outstanding in that role, training is almost always not their primary purpose or skill-set. Their well-intentioned efforts naturally don’t carry the weight or have the desired impact with employees as a reputable training authority from outside of the company would.
If you cannot see, feel and experience employee engagement with the trainer on the first training that’s a clear warning sign you’re heading down the wrong path and quite likely doomed to fail. In a nutshell; engagement first then everything else second.
3) Inconsistency
All too often sales/customers service training is treated as an event. A business conducts an in-house training and, assuming it was good, participants get energized with new insight, techniques and tools. Then, with no real follow-up program in place, participants fizz out and return (at varying speeds) to the same level of performance they were at prior to training. Training research has revealed that, without ongoing reinforcement, 90% of what is learned is forgotten within 60-90 days.
Like physical fitness, it doesn’t matter how good your workout at the gym is today. If you don’t continue to exercise on a consistent basis, you will never truly get in shape and stay that way.
Part of the problem is many managers adopt a been-there done-that attitude when it comes to sales/customer service training. It sounds simplistic but training works with consistent training.
The science of training confirms that true ownership of learning is created with consistent exposure and application of the skills over time. World-class sales and customer service companies recognize this and typically engage their employees in 100 or more hours of training in their first year with ongoing training in the years ahead.
At Sale Away , I create consistency and superior results for clients by combining regular in-house sales/customer service training with an exclusive online training/professional development program. Visit Your Teams Training Portal for details.
4) Wandering Off The Path
This reason goes hand-in-hand with inconsistency but deserves separate acknowledgment. Like the proverbial kid in the backseat saying “are we there yet”, many business owners and managers view training as a destination with the goal of getting there.
Training should be viewed not as a destination – but rather an evolution. All too often, businesses will engage in a flavor of the month type of training, never fully developing any one area before moving in a different direction.
Imagine this: You play for a professional football team, let’s assume the New England Patriots under head coach Bob Belichick. Do you practice regularly? Of course. Do you practice at the game? Of course not, you practice for the game. What do you think the odds are that one day at practice coach Belichick will say something like this: “Hey guys, many of you have been training and practicing these same plays now for years. I think we all got it… no need to practice that anymore. Let’s play basketball today.”
Odds of that happening are exactly zero yet many sales managers do it regularly. They switch things up, fumble the ball and ultimately miss the end zone.
This lack of focus directly correlates to reason # 2, disengagement, with many participating employees not trusting the business will stay the course and see any program to fruition. If management demonstrates they are not fully committed to stay the course (with a successful program) then they shouldn’t expect their employees to be fully committed as they continue to introduce new initiatives to the mix.
Proper training is an ongoing process of continuous professional development. Just like a professional sports team, your sales/customer service team must regularly practice and work on their game through a disciplined and committed training program if they are to consistently win in (and for) your business.
Make a Great Day!
Steve
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Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Leadership training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For detailed information visit Sale Away. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com
Click-On for printable PDF version of this article > 4 Seldom Considered Reasons Sales Training Fails
Sale Away’s Pinnacle Performance Credo
Here’s my company’s new, special edition, less-filling, environmentally-friendly Pinnacle Performance Credo:
For details visit > Pinnacle Performance Credo
Feel free to share with friends, family, general bystanders and everyone in your professional network.
Make a Great Day!
Steve
Honoring All Who Served and All Who Serve Them!
On this Veterans Day, Americans across the nation are honoring the sacrifice and service of the armed forces.
President Barack Obama has stated that the country’s obligations to those who have served “endure long after the battle ends.”
Sadly, for far too many veterans this sentiment has not materialized into tangible benefits as an alarming number of veterans are struggling to make ends meet now that their service to protect and serve our country has ended.
A Chicago-based brewery is on a mission to change that.
In this Chicago Brewer Plans To Hire Only Military Veterans article by CBS News, Veteran Beer Company President Paul Jenkins said, “rather than sit around and let others solve the problem for us, why not start our own company and figure out how to employ as many veterans as quickly as possible. So the concept behind the Veteran Beer Company is that we will produce the finest beer in America — brewed by, the recipes written by, bottled by, sold by veterans. Everybody in the organization is to be a veteran”.
Read Veteran Beer Company’s Mission HERE
Paul and the entire team at Veteran Beer Company should be applauded for their servant leadership and pro-active efforts to help American Veterans, none more so than on this Veteran’s Day.
So Hats Off, Thumbs Up & Cheers To All American Veterans and all the people, organizations and companies that have made it their business to serve them!
Steve
Pinnacle Performance Champions 