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Honoring All Who Served and All Who Serve Them!

honoring_vets

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”.

Veteran-Beer-Company-logo    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

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How to be Engaging and Memorable: A Lesson from Virgin Airways

Richard Branson

In my “Put Some Zip In Your Do Da!” post I wrote about how a positive, upbeat attitude naturally improves your interactions with customers, co-workers and human beings in general. 

The sad fact is there’s far less than Zippy behavior out in the marketplace today with employees in countless organizations providing customer service with no life in it. Their bored, unengaged going through the motions demeanor demonstrating that they would rather be somewhere else (anywhere else) than serving customers.

The problem is so common that most customers have learned to live with it, usually tuning-out during and then forgetting about their lousy experience afterwards.

A good example of this is the airlines industry. With clients spread out over No. America, I travel frequently for business and have occupied a seat on just about every domestic airline there is. My experience has revealed there’s a clear distinction between those airlines that ‘get it’ when it comes to engaging, memorable service and those that don’t.

Case in point: Anyone who has flown knows that shortly before take-off a flight attendant will announce the FAA-mandated flight safety information.  Most airline attendants do this as if their reading a restaurant menu, all facts and figures, no emotion whatsoever. Consequently, 98% of the passengers tune-out and focus on something more interesting; a book, the view outside, the back of the chair in front of them, etc. For the record, it’s a sure sign your safety (or any other) announcement is failing when the  Solafeet Foot Tanner in the SkyMall catalog is more intriguing!

A few airlines do this noticeably different, Southwest and JetBlue being two of my favorites, with employees regularly injecting ‘fun’ into their customer interactions and typically making announcements with added humorous flair.  In fact, on a recent JetBlue flight the attendant received a seated ovation from the captive audience that was clearly entertained and engaged by his funny flight safety rendition.

And now,  Virgin Airways trumps them all with their version of the flight safety announcement in this entertaining video that was just released on October 29th:

As I posted recently, Richard Branson and Virgin Airways understand the importance of having fun to engage their internal customers (employees) and external customers to create memorable experiences.

Ask yourself and your customer service team: What can we do differently to add more fun in our customer service process to create more engaging, memorable experiences?

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 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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Enthusiasts Drive Your Business

 Enthusiasm

Ever been to a NASCAR race? If you have, then you know those are special events well-attended by a special brand of people.

Having partaken in a couple NAS­CAR race-day events at NH Motor Speedway, I can testify that racing is alive and well, and New Hampshire is certainly not alone in attracting the masses to its local NASCAR events.

The first thing a novice attendee (like me) notices is just how far away from the track you have to park – so far removed that I couldn’t even remotely see the track from our parking spot. So you need good walking shoes.

As you trek the five or so miles to the track, the next revelation is the sheer magnitude of campers you encounter along the way. I lost count at 1,271 or thereabouts. And the fascinating thing is almost all of the campers are not locals. Taking in the license plates, you realize the whole country is here and accounted for, from as nearby as the New England states to the South, West, and everywhere in between.

Who are these people? And, more importantly, why did they travel all this way for this?

The answer is they’re enthusiasts, and, like NASCAR, your tire and auto service business is dependent on them to grow and prosper.

At a NASCAR event, these enthusiasts are loyal, devoted, committed followers who happily march the miles (and pay the fees) to attend each event – essentially, doing business with NASCAR as often as possible.

What a concept!

I also learned that there are not only NASCAR race enthusiasts, but more often than not, NASCAR race driver enthusiasts. Case in point: As I was sitting there watching the cars warm up before the flag dropped, the clearly southern gentleman next to me screamed at me, “Who ya here to see?” I wasn’t there to see anyone in particular, but using my keen powers of perception, I noticed he had a Jimmie Johnson hat, shirt and banner so I shouted back, “I like Jimmie Johnson.”

The guy turned to his pals and screamed, “He’s here to see Jimmie!” I was now part of the club, an insider enthusiast among true insider enthusiasts. Coincidentally, Jimmie Johnson went on to win the championship that season, a fact that likely earned me ‘fortune-teller’ status with my new friends.

A Winning Team

People love winners. Which brings me back to you and your business. Have you created a winning team at your business? As I wrote in my article “Eight Great Practices for Creating a Winning Team Culture”, your business must live “winning team” every day with leadership consistently demonstrating, communicating and reinforcing the company’s commitment to excellence.

Above all else, enthusiasts are enthusiastic. Winning teams are much the same in that they look like winners and act like winners. There’s an old saying in sales: “success breeds success.” The same is true for business.

Have a look at your staff. Are they communicating success or distress? Success looks a certain way. It has a good mood, stands tall, looks people in the eye, is attentive, confident and engaging.

Conversely, failure has an unmistakable look all its own. Disengaged, depressed, foot dragging, off-putting. If your business is the only one in town, a monopoly, none of this matters. I bet that is not the case. Given that consumers likely have many choices for your products and/or services, yours better convey “winning team.”

Buying is primarily an emotional experience. Customer loyalty is driven by emotional engagement. You need only be at a NASCAR event for 10 minutes to realize there is a very high level of emotional engagement there. It would take the Hulk to pry the typical fan away from the track.

Emotional engagement and creating enthusiasts is all about how customers feel when they do business with you and, more importantly, how they feel when they’re done.

Enthusiasts’ feel good about doing business with you and take it upon themselves to promote your business at every opportunity!

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 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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Monday Morning Motivation: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

Brady & Ortiz

As you certainly know if you’re from the Boston area, and really should if you’re not, Sunday October 13th was an amazing day in New England sports. And that’s saying something given all the success Boston sports teams have had in the last dozen years or so.

First there was the New England Patriots playing the undefeated New Orleans Saints.  Trailing by four points 27-23, needing to drive 70 yards with 1:13 left in the game with no timeouts, the Patriots got the ball. With all signs pointing at defeat, fans were leaving the stadium and many made it to their vehicles to get out of dodge and avoid the looming agony of defeat. But then, when all seemed lost, a champion emerged victorious.

Tom Brady went to work advancing the team down the field and, with 10 seconds left in the game, had two plays to take a shot at the end zone. He would only need one as he launched a picture-perfect pass just over the reach of New Orleans defender Jabari Greer and into the hands of New England receiver Kenbrell Thompkins for the winning touchdown with just five ticks left on the clock.

It would have been easy to throw in the towel, concede defeat, and go home. But that’s not what champions are made of. And Tom Brady is the quintessential champion.

Suddenly, it was a great day in New England! Everyone had a pep in their step, reinvigorated by the high drama and the unmistakeable vibe of victory.

Then, as soon as that game ended, the Red Sox began their 2nd playoff game against their American League Championship Series opponent, the roaring Detroit Tigers. The first game was an epic pitchers duel, favoring the Tigers as their pitching staff, led by Anibal Sanchez, nearly threw a no-hitter allowing only 1 hit in the game and ultimately winning 1-0.

Game 2 was shaping up to be more of the same as the Tigers pitching was equally amazing with Max Schezer allowing just two hits and one run through seven innings and, along with a hitting offense, carried the Tigers to a commanding 5-1 lead entering the eighth.

Facing the abyss, many fans decided to bail and headed for an exit to get out of Fenway before the walking dead. But then, when all seemed lost, one big swing of the bat changed everything.

Facing Detroit closer Joaquin Benoit, David Ortiz smashed a game-tying Grand Slam out of the park.  One inning later the Red Sox’s Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a walk-off single that gave the Sox a 6-5 victory and tied the ALCS series at one game apiece.

An unbelievable one for the ages fairy-tale day in Boston sports that won’t soon be forgotten.

How many times have people (perhaps you) been facing challenges, been seemingly down and out, and given up? One thing is for sure, you cannot win if you quit during the game. After all, it ain’t over till it’s over.

RockyInspiration

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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Southwest Airlines Customer Service Recovery In Action!

As I train my Pinnacle Performance clients and wrote about in this Winning and Losing with Customer Complaints article…

The True Test Of Customer Service

One ‘Pinnacle Performance’ company that sets the standard for managing customer service problems effectively is Southwest Airlines.

Here’s a great example of this:

A loyal Southwest Airlines passenger was upset that his luggage had been damaged on a flight.  When the agent he initially reported the problem was less than helpful, he sent Southwest customer care this witty diddy:

DearSWA

Of course, this would have been best managed if the first Southwest employee he encountered assumed ownership and pro-actively resolved the issue.  Fortunately, after that initial misstep, Southwest recovered nicely by taking care of the customer in equally stylish fashion:

SWA_Response

In summary, Southwest Airlines passed the ‘test’, recovered what could have been a lost customer with a ‘bad service’ story to tell,  and set a great example for other customer-focused business’s to follow.

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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Sell Value or Pay The Price

Selling Value Guy

Businesses lose substantial dollars in revenues and profits each year because their sales and service people do not effectively sell the value of their product and service offerings.

Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi said, “Inches make the champion.”

The same applies to the selling profession; it’s a game of inches. Every business day your salespeople have opportunities to win new business. How effective or ineffective they are in their customer interactions determines their success or failure – and ultimately the return (or lack thereof) on your sales staff investment.

The fact is your salespeople are always on the verge of either making or losing their next sale. What if they could execute better and win a sale that they would have lost? How about if they did that on a consistent basis? Now multiply that by the number of salespeople you employ. That’s your value opportunity!

Defense! Any coach worth his whistle will tell you that a strong defense is the best solution against a good offense. The reality of many organizations is that their customer’s have a better system (defense) than they do of selling them on their value (offense).

Ask yourself: Ever had a prospective customer request a discount, postpone an order, or worse, cancel purchasing from you? Well, then it’s a good bet they don’t understand your offering’s true value.

Wait a minute you say, no one wins them all. You’re right, but those who effectively sell value win more often, accelerate their sales cycle, and make customers feel better about their purchases in the process.

True Value Areas

Value is in the eye of the beholder. In the case of selling anything, it’s the customer’s perceived value that matters, is essential and vital – not the sellers.

Customers don’t want all your stuff! They only want what they perceive and believe will help them. This is especially important to understand in product or service sales where potential customers can quickly be turned off by technical features and functions they don’t understand or perceive to be unnecessary and of little or no advantage.

All too often sales staffs employ a one-size-fits-all, throw it against the wall and see what sticks presentation. I’ve witnessed countless phone and face-to-face encounters that were cut short because the sales person says some version of “just let me show you” and moves too quickly into the product demonstration without first really understanding the customers’ needs and true value areas.

To effectively sell value, sales people need to engage the customer in a proper discovery process first to uncover what is important to them and why. It is only with this understanding that the sales person can effectively communicate value and tailor a presentation to fit the needs of the customer. By implementing this consultative approach, the buyer-seller relationship is strengthened by properly positioning the sales person as a consultant/advisor.

In addition, sales people need to know what their competitive differentiators are, the areas that their product/service business is better/faster/more cost effective than the competitive offerings the customer may compare them to.

When these Selling Value areas are proper incorporated, sales people have much better control of the sales process, become more efficient, improve customer experiences, and ultimately produce better results for themselves and the businesses they represent.

Sell Value or Pay The Price

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 saleawayllc.com. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com

Click-On for a printable pdf of this article > Sell Value or Pay The Price

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The Truth About “Born Salesman”

Born Salesman

No doubt you’ve heard someone referred to as “a born salesman” but is this old adage true?

Having spent 25+ years in the sales industry in every role from rep to manager to trainer of reps and managers, and having observed a countless number and wide variety of salespeople over that time, I am uniquely qualified to answer that question with a tried and true “yes and no”.

How many born doctor, born attorney or born scientists do you know? Likely not many. With many years of teaching and training to achieve those occupation designations it would surely be improper referring to those (or any other honorable profession) that way.

Put in an athletic perspective, you are not “born” to be a great basketball player, a great golfer, a great tennis player, etc. It is true, however, that many great athletes are indeed born with good genes and innate physical characteristics that, when properly developed and applied, result in great achievement.

So while many “born salesman” have natural attributes like “outgoing, articulate, optimistic, assertive, nurturing” that lend themselves well to success in the sales profession, top ‘Pinnacle Performers’ combine this with a set of skills learned over time, and reinforced through continuous practice and disciplined application.

For companies that are hiring new salespeople, that means ideally you would want to start with an individual that has that strong foundation of natural attributes and then build a top performer through a consistent skills development program.

As I cover in my Strong Selling In A Weak Economy presentations, this is especially important in a down or ultra-competitive market. Why? Because many of those alleged “born salesman” (and saleswoman) fail under those circumstances. Often these folks have those natural ‘gift of gab’ attributes to talk the talk but come up short in the training and development required to walk the walk and perform in those tougher selling environments.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” That applies to success in sales and any other profession. Top performers don’t rely on fate/destiny, they decide and commit to being a student of their profession and work to master their craft over time.

The fact is, top performing sales people are not born. However, they can be made by combining natural talents with proper training and development.

The Only Person

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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Steve Ferrante is the CEO & 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 more information on Steve and Pinnacle Performance services for your team visit Sale Away

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Monday Morning Motivation: The Ant Philosophy

For this weeks Monday Morning Motivation, below is a great little piece from renown business philosopher, Jim Rohn.  This is a perfect lesson for Pinnacle Performers and those who would like to be one.

Walk The Path!

Steve

ant_01

The Ant Philosophy
 by Jim Rohn

Over the years I’ve been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept—the ant philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That’s an important perspective. You can’t be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants gather their winter food in the middle of summer.

An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to think ahead. In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun.

The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can’t wait to get out.

And here’s the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all–you–possibly–can” philosophy.

Wow, what a great philosophy to have—the ant philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.

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Monday Morning Motivation: Success Track

Back in our school days (or school daze for some) there were specific academic achievements that needed to be accomplished to graduate from one grade to the next, from grade school to high-school, high-school to college and so forth. The track was all laid out and it was clear (to the non-dazed folks at least) what needed to be accomplished to move forward and succeed.

At some point, we entered the working world and all that changed. We had multiple tracks to choose from and the path to success became considerably more fuzzy.

Some people chose a less than desirable track. These folks can be found complaining about their job most days. Other folks were headed in the right direction but then, for various reasons, got side-tracked.  Both folks will find that if they continue heading in the wrong direction they’ll ultimately end up in the wrong place.

What you do today shapes your tomorrows. Where you end up then depends on what track you’re on now.

This principle applies to not only your long-term goals but also your short-term objectives. In sales, what you achieve in a given month will determine if you’re on track to meet your goal for the quarter. A successful quarter will put you on the right track for a successful year.

And, of course, a successful Monday will put you on track for a successful week!

Success Track

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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How To Avoid Being Punched In The Face

Here’s my practical, 10-step guide to avoid being punched in the face by way of improved human relations at work and life in general

Contribute positively to society by sharing this presentation with your friends and professional network.

Steve 🙂

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HOW TO AVOID BEING PUNCHED IN THE FACE Cvr Pg

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