The real way to make Customer Success work.

As more companies move to a SaaS model you must make it easy to set up, and use.  In many cases this initial set up should require little to no cost to the customer.

Why this is important to you?  If your customers purchase your solution and cannot get it work the way they want they will not stay your customer.  Customer churn with SaaS companies is a significant challenge.  The reasons vary, but one of the top reasons is they never figured out how to use the solution.

Making customer success work means you must be 100% all about the customer.

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Is Your Organization Engaging?

Everyone is talking about engagement.  Customer engagement member engagement, student engagement.

But what does all of this really mean?

I think Stephen Covey has the best description of what engagement really is.

 “You must first seek to understand before seeking to be understood.”

Engagement is about listening first then providing exactly what the other person wants or needs.

This is not easy.  Too many organizations think they can handle this on their own. Many think if they just invest in enough systems they can be more engaging.  Others see it as a marketing problem. Then there are those who are just ignoring it.

Truly engaging your audience requires a new way of seeing.  The truth is, if you think you are engaging, you may find you are wrong. The people you are supposed to be engaged with may tell you a very different story.  The worse thing is most of those you think are engaged just go with the flow, so you never get the real deal.  The only time you get real engagement is when you do something wrong.

  Engagement requires communication.  Communicating in an engaging manner takes time, and effort. The good news is if you work with someone whose only job is to help you, you’ll find new ways of communication you never thought were possible.

Then you truly will be engaging.

Efficiency is the key to Profitability

  Buy it today, and get it tomorrow. That seems to be the mantra of many businesses in 2019. I call it the Amazon effect.  How can you compete in a world where everyone wants the solution to their problems tomorrow? Be more efficient.

  In order to build, and operate an efficient business you must have well defined, and fully developed processes, and systems.  In addition, your employees must be fully trained on how to effectively implement, and execute on those processes, and use those systems. Most business owners however don’t understand that they really don’t have any processes, or systems in place.  What they have are a set of ideas that their employees loosely follow.

  Because your employees are following these ideas every day the illusion of real processes, and systems takes root.  You may have found that in the beginning you were generating revenue consistently, and delivering to your customers’ expectations.  Then things started to change.  Sales slowed down, and you started losing customers.  At first you blamed the economy. Then you blamed the competition. Most business owners never look in the mirror, and think maybe the problem is me.

  In order to incorporate efficiency in your business you have to take a good hard look at where you are today, and why you are in this place.  Did you have something in place that was working well, but for some reason you decided to change what you were doing?  Maybe you were just lucky, and now you realize that you never implemented any true processes, and systems. 

  If you are not sure if you really have processes, and systems in place the best thing to do is ask for impartial help.  It can be hard to see what needs to be updated, or adjusted when you are so close to things.  As a business owner you may feel that you don’t need any help. You may feel you have everything under control. You may feel that you can find a way to resolve your current challenges on your own.

  What if doing it on your own does not work? Or worse what if doing it on your own causes you to lose precious time doing the things you do best?  What if you miss out on extremely profitable opportunities because you didn’t seek the right kind of help? What if the help you needed was a simple phone call away?

  Increasing sales is the key to profitability.  The key to increasing sales is efficiency. The key to efficiency is fully developed, and documented processes, and systems.  You want to be sure that you have the right tools to consistently win new business, keep your current customers happy, and grow your company. The only way to be sure you have what you need is to get an honest assessment of your current situation.

When you are ready to increase your productivity, efficiency and profitability you should schedule a no obligation initial business assessment.

Taking the short business owner survey right now is a great place to start.

Your customers are experiencing more than you might think

In 2018 there are many reports about customer experience.  Many businesses are setting up entire departments or teams focused on it.  Many however are struggling to understand just what customer experience is and what it means for their business.

Your customers experience encompasses every interaction they have with your company,  direct and indirect. Your website must provide a great experience no matter what device your customer is using. When they meet with your employees face to face, or speak to them on the phone.  Even the documents such as invoices and letter influence how your customers experience your company.

If you are not sure that your customers experience is what is should be working with an independent professional business consultant can help you provide more delightful and profitable experiences.

7 General Orders of Sales Leadership

There is a new book available called No Limit-7 General Orders of Sales Leadership.

The book is available at Amazon. 

In this book a number of principles are outlined for successfully leading a modern sales force.

There are ideas about modern prospecting, presenting, and even storytelling as an effective sales tool.

There is also information about how to effectively motivate your team for maximum performance.

You can get the book from Amazon for the kindle or in paperback.

Highly recommended.

Why should you talk to me?

One of the biggest challenges companies are facing is how to engage with new prospects.  Before a sales rep even picks up the phone they need to ask themselves this question. Why should this prospect talk to me?  In most cases the answer the rep comes up with, is not something the prospect would even care about.  The reason is the answer is, in most cases all about the rep.  Your prospects don’t care about you. They care about themselves.  You must give them a compelling reason that is all about them in order for them to want to engage with you.

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Your employees are not doing what you want them to. Maybe it’s not them. Maybe it’s you?

In a recent meeting with a client the business owner complained that their employees just were not doing the job they are being told to do.  I asked the owner are they sure they know what they are expected to do?  The owner said yes. I then asked did you properly train them? The owner then paused. Then told me that they expected them to know what to do when they hired them. 

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6 reasons your sales are slower than you would like.

1. Many sales processes are not actually processes.  This ensures a false sense of reality                 when adding opportunities to the pipeline.

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