Attention Sales World… Stop With The Ho-Hum Experiences!

“Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”

Walt Disney

Unfortunately, one huge and costly mistake many in sales make with their clients is breaking promises.

How many are breaking promises to their clients more often than they will admit?

Delivering on your word is a simple way of developing long-term trust with your clients.

Ever-lasting clients are the backbone to your company's profitability. How are you making them feel?

• What promises are you making to your clients right now?
• What promises do your clients care about the most?

Breaking promises is a dangerous sales game

Without your clients' willingness to tell you every single time you break a promise, how do you know?

A broken promise equates to a breakdown in trust, and without trust, your clients have no reason to return. Let that one sink in for a moment. If you break promises, if you break trust then rest assured that at some point your clients will go elsewhere.

Continue to break promises, even the small ones, and watch what happens to client loyalty. Layer on top of broken promises, a ho-hum experience and this become a sales recipe with a disastrous ending.

What concerns me is the way many in sales treat their clients, take their hard-earned business dollars and then move onto the next conquest. They reel them in with flashy sales crapola and tons of hype and then leave them less than satisfied with their overall experience.

Lead with your heart and not your wallet

STOP WITH THE HO-HUM EXPERIENCES

According to a recent in-depth Frost & Sullivan survey, 80% base their choice of provider on their experience. It has become the single-most important differentiator in making or breaking a brand.

"The need for personalized, relevant experiences are not only raising customer expectations, but making them more difficult to please."

You may or may not agree with me and it's quite alright... I believe all those in sales are in the memory and experience business.

My question to everyone in sales...

What kind of memories and experiences are you creating for your clients?

Within the sea of sameness and mediocrity that exists within the sales world, the client experience does matter. Get it right and watch what happens to trust, loyalty and consistent repeat business.

What truly makes for a great experience? Is it speed, convenience, consistency and friendliness? I believe that a great client experience leaves them feeling heard and appreciated. It's bringing the human heartfelt emotions to your clients.

Just a few years ago, a sales-and-service-solutions company NewVoiceMedia (acquired by Vonage) released some startling findings that businesses were losing $75 billion dollars a year because their customer service wasn’t good enough.

I'd like for you to think for a just a moment... when we use the word service as in "we provide outstanding customer service" this is in my viewpoint is a reactionary response. Simply put, someone needs something - a purchase, guidance, information, help with a problem, and you help them. Easy-peasy stuff, right?

On the flip side, what would it mean to serve? Imagine serving up an outstanding client experience. Let's all get past the fancy strategies, consultant-speak, and corporate fodder; an outstanding experience is where in your clients minds, they believe that you genuinely care about them. You’ve taken ownership. They understand you truly value their relationship.

In the same NewVoiceMedia study, it confirms that 86 percent of people are more likely to stay a customer if they feel a positive emotional connection with you.

How many of you are tugging on the heartstrings of your clients?

TURN HO-HUM INTO HEARTFELT EXPERIENCES

A heartfelt connection leads to a heartfelt conversation which leads to a heartfelt relationship that in turn, creates memories and experiences.

I encourage you to redefine the client experience by getting to their heart. I get it, we live and operate in a fast-paced business world. The onslaught of technology has provided salespeople with new ways of communicating with their clients, however; it places a damper on the personal interaction and one's natural ability to interact and listen with their hearts.

“We hear through our ears, but we listen through our minds.”

Listening with your heart means giving your full attention to your clients. Allow them to express their feelings, their concerns and their issues in a way that is heard and understood.

I urge you to create those listening experiences.

True power resides with listening to your 'gut' and finding it within your heart by making a commitment to clear all that stands in the way of a heartfelt connection and experience.

A heartfelt sales professional brings a servant mindset to their clients. They enhance the experience by:

• Making themselves available to serve
• Paying close attention to their clients
• Having compassion for their clients
• Caring about their clients
• Knowing what it means to be faithful and trustworthy

HO-HUM EXPERIENCES ARE REPLACEABLE

Boring sales reps sell products. Sales professionals sell experiences. They communicate with passion, purpose and pride. They connect and serve their clients one heartfelt experience after another.

Boring sales reps are not relevant. Boring sales reps know less about their clients than they think they do. They aren’t relevant because they don’t know what’s meaningful to them.

Unfortunately, boring sales reps often times don't realize they're boring their clients. Boring sales reps deliver ho-hum experiences.

I will leave you all this...

When is the last time you delivered to your clients a Disneyland type experience?

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and heartfelt strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.

Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback, kindle and in audio. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.

You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.

In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market. 

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.