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Would You Buy You?

For-Sale

When you go shopping for anything, have you noticed how many items are advertised as “Old & Degraded”? Probably not. How about “Same Ol’ Same Ol'”? Very likely, no. It’s safe to say that neither of those are popular product labels. On the other hand, “New & Improved” is on just about everything advertised everywhere at all times. It seems you can’t walk down the aisle of a supermarket without being bombarded by these signs of continuous product improvement.

Do you remember Pop Tarts? Well, when I was growing up Pop Tarts and I were never far apart. Strawberry, blueberry, plain, frosted, I had to have them. After all, who doesn’t savor the wholesome goodness of a manufactured pastry snack? Well, as fate would have it, growing older Pop Tarts and I somehow drifted apart… perhaps replaced by my Slim Jim phase in the early 90’s but no one can be sure.

In any event, one day our paths crossed again but this time it was different… I can still vividly recall the big bold colorful letters as the store sign dramatically called out, “New and Improved Pop Tarts”. Surely you jest.. I hadn’t received the newsletter but, sure enough, right there perched in front of me, they were. They did look new and improved… The package was now a bright minty green, not that circa 1960’s white cardboard look of old. And, the toaster had obviously been working out as it was fit and trim with all the sparkly gleam of a new model.

Not one to miss the opportunity at what must surely now be true perfection, I swiftly snatched 2 boxes and departed. Well, guess what? Much to my astonishment, these were the same ol’ Pop Tarts I remember when I was a kid!?! Nothing perceptibly different I could muster. That’s not to say they were bad, just the same yummy good as before.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice this “New & Improved” marketing is being used regularly for a wide variety of products in many different industries. Of course, many of these products are indeed ‘new and improved’ in some way and that’s a good thing. 

More often than not, however, the actual improvements are so small that the most noticeable change to the consumer is in the packaging itself. These deliberate advertising/marketing efforts have proven to be effective time and time again or rest assured they would not be commonplace.

These same type of deliberate efforts need to be made by progressive professionals seeking greater levels of success.

The fact is… YOU are the product! 

YOU have a choice in the way you perceive yourself, package yourself and, ultimately, sell yourself to others.

Every day you have a choice to be new & improved so ask yourself…

“New & Improved” or “Same Ol’ Same Ol”? Which one would you buy?

Every Day You Have A Choice To Be New & Improved

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 organizations 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

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4 Success Lessons from the Champion New England Patriots

DO YOUR JOB

The snow is coming down hard here (again) in the Boston area… the roads are terrible, schools are closed and my flight to a very valued client in Virginia was canceled by the airline.

All the makings of a very miserable Monday morning but somehow the sun shines bright and you can feel the positive energy in the air from the New England Patriots Super Bowl victory last night against the formidable Seattle Seahawks.

If you’re not from New England you may not be (likely are not) a big fan of the Patriots and that’s okay, it’s hard to be heroes without villains (queue maniacal laugh).

Despite personal feelings, everyone should admire and can learn from what the Patriots were able to accomplish this year – none more so than folks and organizations seeking greater success in the professional endeavors.

With that, here’s 4 Success Lessons from the New England Patriots I hope help you:

Lesson #1: It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish

As Patriots fans well know, the team did not start the season in championship form, losing the first two games of the season. As bad as that was, the fourth game of the season was worse, much worse as they were pummeled and embarrassed by the Kansas City Chiefs in a devastating  41-14 loss on Monday Night Football. At that time, critics had a field day saying, among many other things, that the Patriots winning ways were behind them and quarterback Tom Brady was a has-been.

During the post-game interview, coach Bill Belichick was asked about all this and emphatically replied, “We’re on to Cincinnati,” referring to their next game. The Patriots then won their next seven games.

In football as in life, it’s a long season. You will have setbacks. Put them behind you and move forward.

Lesson #2: Prepare To Win or Prepare To Lose To Somebody Who Is Prepared To Win

Legendary University of Alabama head coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, said, “It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

It would be unfair to imply that every NFL team doesn’t prepare to win,  it’s their job after all, but Tom Brady takes this to a whole other level.

During a press conference a few years ago, coach Belichick commented on Brady’s preparation saying that he begins preparing for next week’s game on the way home from this week’s game. Think about that from a leadership standpoint… You can’t be the guy who moseys into practice on Tuesday when Tom Brady is already watching game films and strategizing for next week’s game immediately after Sunday’s game.. you better have your act together!

For more on Tom Brady’s remarkable preparation, see this excellent article from the December issue of Sports Illustrated > Given the way he prepares, Tom Brady won’t be slowing down anytime soon

Lesson #3: Stay Focused on the Goal

If you’ve been living on planet earth for the last month or so then you’re likely well aware of the whole “De-Flategate” debate.  So much has been said over the last couple weeks I won’t add to it here other than to say I think Rob Finnerty addressed it best here > This News Anchor Destroys “De-Flategate”. FINALLY!

Clearly, this was initially a huge distraction for the team, especially coach Belichick and Tom Brady who were the focus of the allegations. After assessing and addressing the situation several more than several times, they were able to successfully drown out the noise,  clear the heads and focus on the goal of winning the Super Bowl.

This is major success factor of high-achievers. It’s not that they don’t have challenges, obstacles and/or distractions. It’s that they’re able to focus on the goal and not let these hinder their success.

Lesson #4: Every Team Member Must Do Their Job

Coach Belichick’s “Do Your Job!” became the mantra that drove the team to the Super Bowl victory. All Patriots team members understood the vision, the expectations, the game plan and their role in it.  

Bill Belichick has referred to this as “Positive Leadership” where team members focus on 1) Doing their job and 2) Putting the team first.

Perhaps the best example of ‘doing your job’ was the game winning play when undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler intercepted Seahawk’s quarterback Russell Wilson’s pass on second-and-goal from the Patriots half-yard line to cap off an incredible 4th quarter comeback victory.

Malcolm Butler wasn’t  even part of the rotation to start the game. But, when called upon, he did his job and snatched victory literally from the hands of defeat.

In business, employees are either an asset or liability to the team.  They are either helping you win or hurting your chances of winning. Like the Patriots, leadership must effectively strategize and utilize the players who do their job and provide the best opportunity to win. 

NFL: Super Bowl XLIX-New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks

Congratulations to the New England Patriots, 2014 Super Bowl Champs!

Steve

steveferrante.com

 

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How Fit Is Your Customer Service?

??????????

As is the annual tradition, countless individuals (perhaps you) have made a new year resolution to get in shape. That’s great and as I posted in 6 Resolutions for a More Successful New Year! regular exercise should definitely be part of your overall success plan. But what about your business? Have you ever considered the fitness level of your customer service effort? No, I’m not talking about some sort of employee exercise program. Rather, I’m asking if the employees that provide sales and service support to your customers are functioning at peak performance. If you haven’t given this proper consideration, you’re probably not seeing the big picture issues that could be hurting your business performance.

Just like physical fitness, there are many aspects to managing the well-being of a customer service effort. In order to reach an optimal level of customer service fitness your business must condition and strive to achieve peak performance in all of these areas.

With that in mind, ask yourself the questions below to determine your current level of customer service fitness in seven key areas.  The answers will give you a clear overview of where you are succeeding and where improvements need to be made moving forward.

Are You Keeping Them In Shape?

strong

Sales and customer service training and skills enhancements should be ongoing processes to ensure that your team is well-resourced and properly prepared to succeed. A sales organization that is not well trained often loses those precious sales opportunities, costing the businesses they represent substantial dollars in lost revenues and profits. The same is true of customer service. Without a well-trained staff, you’re not maximizing customer interactions and any deficiency in this area leaves the door open for capable competitors to take the business away from YOU! Sales and customer service are the life blood of every business. No Train, No Gain!

Perfect timing plug > Executing Results 

What Is Their Attitude?

Positive attitudes are the fuel that powers a world-class customer service engine, so be honest here. Does your management and work environment contribute or detract from proper attitudes? Do your employees feel appreciated and recognized by the company? Employee dissatisfaction can dramatically affect a company’s customer service culture and, ultimately, its bottom line.  If employees are feeling negative and under-appreciated, you can be assured that they will either directly or indirectly communicate this to your customers.

How Do They Sound?

This is often overlooked but, for effective customer communication, how we sound is actually more important than what we say. Along with appearance, the voices of your employees are a significant part of the first impression that a customer receives from your company. Winning teams (and the professionals in them) sound a certain way; positive, professional, upbeat. Do your employees sound that way or do they sound bored, tired and disinterested? Make some calls to your business and find out for yourself. If you’re hearing less than pleasant, cheerful voices on the line, guess what? Your customers are too!

What Do They Say?

Does your team understand how to have a true customer-focused conversation? Too often employees are me-focused and will recite the company anthem and provide product and service information like they’re reading from a catalog. Not good. After all, it’s about the customer – not you or your business.  A healthy customer service effort consists of 100% customer-focus and personalized attention 100% of the time.

As Stephen R. Covey simply put it, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” To maximize results, employees need know how effectively listen to customers and evaluate needs/wants before making recommendations.

How’s Their Emotional Engagement?

Whether face-to-face or on phone every customer/employee interaction has two elements; a functional element and an emotional element. The functional elements represent the business/transactional side of your customer interactions. The emotional elements are the people/relationship-building side.  For peak customer service fitness employee/customer interactions should have proper balance between these two elements.

Although functional components are a necessary part of customer interactions, it is the emotional elements that build relationships with customers and create lasting loyalty to your business.  Do your employees understand the importance of this and know how to effectively emotionally engage your customers?

Do They Have PRIDE?

As I detailed in Got PRIDE?, this Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence is the commitment of employees to consistently deliver excellence in your organization.

One of the leading indicators of a company’s customer service health is the application of this principle and the consistent effort of employees to perform at a high level and exceed customer expectations. Unfortunately, quite often personnel are not exceeding expectations; they are, at best, just meeting expectations.

Consumer research has shown that companies typically lose 50% of their satisfied customers and that those customers who are merely satisfied will happily leave as soon as they find a business that provides a superior experience.

Ask yourself, do your employees practice PRIDE on a day-to-day basis? Is the service you provide ordinary (like an average competitor) or do you truly exceed expectations and deliver extraordinary service that brings customers back and influences them to promote your business to others?

How Do They Manage Problems?

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. The fact is the customer is not always right and, in many cases, employees can prove that the customer was wrong in a given situation. All too often when confronted with a customer problem, service personnel take on a defensive posture and argue against the customers’ position. This lack of empathy and understanding rarely works to create a happy, loyal customer.

The best companies recognize that, even if the customer is wrong, it is far better to agree with their feelings and concede a little now then it is to risk losing a customer for life and perhaps have that person spread the bad word of their dissatisfaction with their friends, family, co-workers, professional network, bystanders and everyone else. 

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

* Also on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-fit-your-customer-service-steve-ferrante

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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

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Are Your Salespeople ‘Winging It’ on the Phone?

Winging It

Each and every interaction your salespeople have with potential customers on the phone is an opportunity to enhance customer relations, the image of your business and increase sales.

So, be honest, are your salespeople properly equipped to optimize each and every phone interaction they have with potential customers? If you’re like most businesses, then the answer is a resounding “no”.

‘Winging it’ on sales calls negatively impacts every business but here I’ll reference my area of business specialization, the tire/auto service industry.

For tire/auto service businesses that have the same employees selling both face-to-face (in the store) and on the phone, by far the more important area to improve is phone performance. For the reason why that is, see my previously published piece here > Top 3 Reasons Why Phone Skills Training Is Most Important In Sales.

In case any of this sounds like speculation, it’s well worth noting that it’s highly unlikely anyone has evaluated more sales calls between tire dealer employees and actual potential customers (not mystery shoppers) then my team and I at Sale Away have. The best way to measure training effectiveness, we have evaluated over 50,000 sales interactions since 2011 and that number is increasing daily!

Evaluating all those tire and service sales calls, most for market-leading tire/auto service businesses, has enabled us to teach clients specifically what works best to create customer engagement and sales on the phone. It has also confirmed that, before training, the vast majority of salespeople are indeed ‘winging it’. They have no real process and simply let the caller guide the conversation, responding with facts and figures and hoping for the order.

If You’re Not In Control, You’re Out Of Control!

If You're Not In Control You're Out Of Control

Salespeople that ‘wing it’ are not managing a call – the caller is – routinely breaking one of my top “Rules of Engagement”; If you’re not in control, you’re out of control!

Typically before training, as an example, a salesperson will respond to a phone tire inquiry with “what’s the size?” or “what’s the vehicle?” or both. This creates an indifferent first impression with the caller that often worsens when, not knowing what to say after those initial functional questions, the salesperson then asks “is there something particular you’re looking for?” or similar.

Imagine going to see your doctor for an ailment and he says, “do you have a particular medicine in mind?” Odds of that happening are about 0% yet odds are remarkably high that the equivalent of this is happening on your employee/customer calls right now. 

Without an effective sales process, sales reps default to mere order takers with recommendations based on size/inventory and most sales are made by being in the right place at the right time.

Professionals follow a sales process, amateurs ‘wing it’.

To improve customers’ buying experience and, ultimately, results for the business, all world-class companies train their employees a proven sales process.

To optimize performance on the phone, a clear sales methodology needs to be established and adhered to by your sales team. When we evaluate and literally score calls against our exclusive “Pinnacle Performance” sales process, each sales rep knows exactly how they performed on a given call and we can then pinpoint precisely what weak and/or missing areas of the process they need to improve upon moving forward.

Of course, mastering a sales process takes time and change, especially for those veterans that have been ‘winging it’ for years, is not easy. But, once institutionalized, the performance gains are well worth it.

If you are a tire business owner or manager, then you are leader of your team. It’s your job to make sure your team wins. Being properly prepared to most effectively manage every phone interaction and outperform the competition is a vital part of winning. ‘Winging it’ just won’t cut it.

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Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC. As producer and host of Pinnacle Performance, “The Best Reviewed Sales/Customer Service Training Program in the Tire/Auto Service Industry”, Steve has received national acclaim for teaching independent tire and auto service businesses how to improve customer relations, produce greater sales results and build a ‘winning team’ corporate culture. Steve is also contributing “Selling Smart” editor for Tire Review Magazine. 

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To learn more about the program, visit Pinnacle Performance Training. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com

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Is Good Enough Good Enough For You?

In one of the best-selling business books of all time,  Jim Collins’ “Good To Great“, a common trait of companies that made the leap from Good to Great is that they relentlessly pursued excellence, not settling for good – the status quo.  A key  to those “great” companies becoming that way was, in the words of Jim Collins,  they understood and operated by the principle that “Good is the Enemy of Great”. 

Here’s 1 minute of Jim Collins on the topic:

In Stephen R. Covey’s “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness“, the follow-up of one of the most successful self-help books of all-time, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, Covey wrote:

“Everyone chooses one of two roads in life – the old and the young, the rich and the poor, men and women alike. One is the broad, well-traveled road to mediocrity, the other the road to greatness and meaning. The range of possibilities that exists within each of these two destinations is as wide as the diversity of gifts and personalities in the human family. But the contrast between the two destinations is as the night is to the day.”

As 80% of businesses and their employees are not performing at the level of the top 20%, I see this “well-traveled road to mediocrity” often and the less traveled road to greatness is, in a nutshell, the purpose and path of my Pinnacle Performance Training.

Of course, there’s much more to achieving true greatness then merely wanting to be the best. It takes focus, discipline, determination to succeed, proper behaviors, consistent execution and, above all, PRIDE.

One thing is certain, if good enough is good enough for you then you’ll never achieve greatness!

If Good Enough Is Good Enough For You Then You'll Never Achieve Greatness TH1

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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For more information on Steve and Pinnacle Performance Training visit > Sale Away LLC.

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Pinnacle Performance Training Promo

Check out the new Pinnacle Performance Training promo…

Visit Sale Away LLC. for more information.

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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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. 

When You Look In The Mirror

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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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…

Mission Im-Possible

 

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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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…

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 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

 

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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…

The True Test of Customer Service

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

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