A Little Phone Sales Training Will Go a Long Way. Here's a Real example...

We all know sales is full of slippery slopes and if something can go wrong, it probably will. After all, the sales process consists of sales prospecting, sales presenting, closing the deal, sales paperwork, order provisioning and order fulfillment.

All of these elements have an opportunity for a breakdown of sorts that will always come back to us; the sales person.

If we could just sell and not have to deal with all the other albatrosss life would be better; right?

Well, maybe. That is if you want to leave a bunch of money on the table at the end of the year. So, what do I mean?

Heres an example that happened just today. And it happened to me. I picked out a permission-based e-mail marketing company to market my new SalesSpeakerPro.com web site. I thought Id test the waters with a small e-mail blast to beta the overall results and determine how this SEO company will partner with me in line with my strategic company goals.

Because as Popeye says, I yam what I yam what I yam.

If they fulfilled their service promises and I received a return on my marketing investment, Id expand the campaign and spend more money with them. Business 101.

In my first career as a professional Pilot, I came to understand that its not just one human error in the flight mission that will cause the plane to crash, its a series of human errors and miss-judgments that lead up to the aircrafts Sudden Stop.

And 98% of airplane accidents are directly caused by human error, not mechanical failure.

As professional sales people, heres what we know to be true. Any product or service implementation has a finite number of scenarios that can and will arise. A percentage of them are not good. Things like bad cutovers, faulty installations, mechanical bumps, network outages and software spikes to name a few.

But understanding that, you might think service providers would have contingency plans in place to identify problems as they arise and communicating to the customer a pro-active internal process to remedy the situation.

You would think.

In my case, my sales rep sent me a contract that stated I would have a web-based admin panel to view the results of my e-mail campaign; because if you dont measure it you cant improve it.

The standard result benchmark for e-mail campaigns is measured in e-mail Open rates and Click-through rates to the web page URL you wish the e-mail Call to Action to take your prospect.

And the results should be viewed over 24-48 hours to campaign completion.

For my industry and my type of target prospects I was told I could expect an e-mail open rate of 15-25% and a Click-through rate of 7-15%. Based on a test campaign of 35,000 targeted permission-based e-mails that should bring 367 sales and HR executives to my new sales speaker website at a minimum and at a maximum I should expect about 1312.

So here we go. Heres the blow by blow sequence of events that led to the Sudden stop of the airplane.

Monday, 1 Day before the E-mail Marketing Blast

Me: (E-mail to rep; 2:57 PM)

Good to go for tomorrow (Tuesday).

Send me the password for tracking. Jeff

Tuesday, 1st Day of the E-mail Marketing Blast

Me: (E-mail to rep;11:31 AM)

Send me the password for tracking; 2nd attempt.

Rep: (E-mail to me; 11:40 AM)

Ill have it within 24 hours thanks.

Wednesday, Final Day of the E-mail Marketing Blast

Me: (E-mail to rep;1 2:31 PM)

And???

Rep: (E-mail to me; 1:37 PM)

Here we are:

www.XYZinfo.com

Login: jdhgroup

Password: 1414

Me: (Phone call to rep; 2:00 PM)

This link to the Admin tracking panel does not seem to be working. Can you go over this with me?

Rep:

Its working fine from here.

Me:

Do you think you should consider why its not working for me from here?

Rep:

Im stepping into a meeting right now.

Me:

I see. What about tomorrow morning first thing, so I can see whats going on with my investment?

Rep:

Thats fine.

Thursday, 1 Day AFTER E-mail Marketing Blast

No call back from sales Rep ADMIN tracking link still not working

Friday 2 Days AFTER E-mail Marketing Blast

Me: (E-mail to rep; 9:05 AM)

Jim, give me your Presidents name and direct phone line please. Jeff

Rep: (E-mail to me; 9:52 AM)

Are you going to call me so we can discuss the tracking?

Me: (E-mail to rep; 10:03 AM)

Please supply the number and name for now.

Rep: (E-mail to me; 10:12 AM)

Jeff,

All correspondence is to be handled by me, so let me know your concerns and I will address themthanks.

Me: (E-mail to rep; 10:03 AM)

Call me. 740 881 1691

Phone call from rep to me; 10:35 AM

Me:

Jim, have you ever been to the outer islands in the Bahamas?

Rep:

Yes, I have in fact.

Me:

What did you think of the service; good or bad?

Rep:

It was kind of slow, I guess.

Me:

Thats what I thought also. In fact, I left with the impression that if they had it their way, theyd prefer that I just sent my money and not even shown up.

Rep:

Silence

Me:

The reason I mention it is thats the way Im feeling about my experience with your Company.

Kind of like; Just send us your money and dont show up. Do you feel thats fair?

Rep:

The server has been down and Ive been dealing with all that. Besides, I assumed that you were going to call me.

Do you want the word Assumed on your career Tombstone?

Now, I cant make this stuff up folks. And it happens out there all the time. My point is this young man was leaving money on the Table and he did not even know it.

Here was my advice to him pertaining to the plane crash anecdote consisting of series of human errors and miss-judgments before the Sudden Stop occurs. And in his case, the plane landing was no Walk-a-way!

Error 1: Promising something you may not be able to deliver for Conditional reasons and not having a contingency communication plan in place in line with all possible scenarios and remedies.

Error 2: Not following through on a contracted service component to the customer in time for the intended service, in this case, the ADMIN tracker. Simply put, not having all your Ducks in a Row.

Error 3: Not training the customer to a critical service component

Error 4: Not following up with the customer as requested

Error 5: When addressed, not Hearing the customers concerns

Error 6: Not Picking up the phone and pro-actively communicating to the customer there is a technical problem

Error 7 (The Sudden STOP): Not honoring a customer request for direct communication to a higher authority within your company

I gave this sales person my best advice for his career. It goes like this:

When the stuff hits the fan, and we know it will, pick up the phone and talk with the customer. Dont bury your head in the sand and think it will all go away. And have a Crisis management game plan. It goes like this.

Heres a pro-active process for customer experience and future sales for you.

Let them vent

Show empathy: I understand what youre feeling. If it were me, Id feel the same way.

Thank them for bringing this to your attention: Im sorry I missed this before you had to call me, but Im glad you did, because I need to know.

Paraphrase their main points and concerns: Let me take a minute and repeat back to you what I hear your concerns are.

Reassure the customer you will do everything possible to resolve their concern: At the end of this conversation, youll go back to work and Ill start my work for you.

Document the facts: Im picking up a pen to list all the pieces and parts of our situation. Please go ahead, one by one.

Communicate the steps you will take internally to remedy the situation, one by one.

Set accountability and follow-up timelines by telephone and e-mail and make sure it's done (Even if you pass it off to another division)

When situation is remedied, follow-up personally and 'close the loop' by telephone again. Recap all the issues and ask if everything has been completed to their satisfaction.

Then ask them directly if they will consider doing business with you in the future. And if not, what you can personally do to change their mind.

By following a few steps of solid business process, you can re-route the plane crash and gain a loyal long term customer that will add revenue to your company, provide future referrals and put more jingle in your commission pocket.

So next time have a Safe landing.

This article was posted on December 01, 2006