Diva Sales Tips

   I absolutely believe in supporting local businesses - especially small, independent and cool little restaurants.

My friend Bev and I like to check out a new place every couple of weeks - you never know what you’ll find!

Today we visited a new little eatery that I’ll never set foot in again.

Why?

 Hmmm - well…we were the only diners in the restaurant and had to wait to get a glass of water (and then they brought it warm.)

The lunch order was totally bland and forgettable, the soup we ordered as a starter came after the entree  (much later) and it was a tomato soup curdled disaster.  Egad.

The owner was fumbling all over herself, apologizing a million times…but this pretty much explained why the diner wasn’t full and also why I’ll never go back.

It was a N0-G00d-Soup For You Moment!

 So wait a second - could THIS be happening to your business?

• Are you following up sporadically?
• Do you over-promise and under-deliver (and KNOW it?)
• Are your products and services pretty blah and forgettable?

We all make mistakes from time to time - I get that. 

However - if your sales are at the bottom of the soup pot - there is always a reason (and NO - you can’t blame everything on the economy either)

 Soooo - don’t be lazy, don’t be bland, don’t forget about your customers who take time to contact you, don’t take it for granted that customers will keep walking through the door.

Too many “bad soup” experiences and your customer will move on and try someone new and different.  And sometimes they will do it after only 1 CONTACT with you.

P.S. Which was EXACTLY what Bev and I did  -we hit a new place immediately afterward  and I had the most unbelievable banana-chocolate bread pudding - YUM!

In the past month I have been The Travel Diva.

I was in Barbados presenting at a conference, then off to Montreal to be trained about Global Warming from Al Gore (a volunteer project I’m doing), off to Chicago and then back to Edmonton to emcee a local 2-day conference.

I had many fabulous experiences but I  also had 1 noteworthy brutal customer service experience as well.

This is a company who definitely does not read anything from www.sethgodin.com or your very own www.salesdivas.com!

Which company am I referring to??

Air Canada. 

They take the cake for conducting their business in complete denial. (never, ever use this airline by the way!) The ways they screwed up were too long to identify here - however - when I contacted their Customer Service and Complaint Department - they said they would get back to me in approx. 5-6 weeks.

Wow - how is that for a speedy resolution?

As a Canadian - I would love to be able to brag about our wonderful national airline. But I can’t. Their staff are rude, condescending, lacking in responsibility and they have given me enough fodder for a million seminars in the future.

However, I CAN brag about another Canadian airline that is doing EVERYTHING RIGHT.

  www.westjet.com is the “little airline that could” and has been growing leaps and bounds in Canada over the past decade. 

They get it.

 If you want friendly customer agents who treat their customers as guests,  positive problem-solvers who are given flexibility to make decisions and who CONSISTENTLY provide exceptional service on every level…then www.westjet.com is the airline to use.

 Have a look within your own market and your industry.  I would bet there are 2 companies who represent both sides of the scale.  One is doing amazing things for its customers and the other….well - they are big but they are dying a slow, “monopolizing” death.

 Make sure you know which side your company represents.

 So there.

There’s  a  cheesy company that has been trying to unsuccessfully to “cold call” me for about…a month.

What ticks me off about their old-fashioned and out-dated sales approach?

1. They use an unknown number.
2. They leave a message - ” I’d like to talk to you about a “transcription matter” - which is their sneaky way of trying to get me to call them back. (I know there aren’t any “matters” I need to speak to them about)
3. And they keep callingggggggg.

My sales tip to all of you fabulous women in sales?

Don’t do that. 

Contrary to popular belief ” Persistence does not wear down resistance.”

It just makes you a pain in the you know what.

Well - this Canadian girl recently went to New York on business and I fellllllllllll in love.

With New York that is!

One of the most hilarious moments was when my friend Bev and I went into Saks. http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/

As soon as you walk through the doors you smell this delicious mixture of perfumes from around the world.

If you are allergic (be forewarned lady!)

It’s a lavish, beautiful store with marble floors, clothing to drool over and much more.

But. Yes - there’s a but.

Saks also has an army of make-up specialists standing in front of of their cosmetics counters with this look of absolute determination in their eyes.

They want you to stop in your tracks RIGHT NOW to get their 10 minute make-up overhaul that will banish 10 years from your face. 

 I’m not kidding - it was close to full scale hand to hand combat to get them to back off!

At one point I was  howling with laughter as my friend Bev had this guy massaging her face in the middle of the aisle…without her permission and who was pulling her hair back and saying she had “glorious eyebrows”.

Oh please.

As we walked away with the cosmetics guy saying “Come back…Come back” in desperation…I thought - Hmmm…

“ I wonder how many people actually sell like this to their customers?”

Remember ladies - the beg and plead approach doesn’t work.

Why?

The perfume of Desperation just stinks.

So many women in sales are “Information Dumpers” when they meet a client.

What do they Information Dump about?

All the BORING features and benefits of what is marvelous about their product or service.

Yawn.

Instead, as a customer I am interested in someone who is a PAIN-REDUCER.

For instance.

I was recently buying new appliances for my home.

This is always a great reminder as you get to deal with a million sales people who are torturing their customers on a daily basis.

The first 3 places I looked, had salespeople who didn’t ask me ONE QUESTION about what was the most important thing I was looking for.

Instead they babbled on for 10 minutes (as I was looking around frantically for an oxygen tank to give them) about all the wonderful features of this and this and this. (hellllo spin cycle!)

They lost me. 

I wasn’t even thinking about the appliance and all its “pleasurable” features any longer. 

 I was looking for the next exit.

So Who Sold Me The Fancy Schmancy Appliances?

A guy who did a wonderful job of asking me questions that weren’t pushy.

For example.

He asked me if I liked to cook (I LOVE it), he asked me if I hated doing laundry (are there people out there who actually like it??)  and he also asked me how important it was for me to have environmentally friendly appliances. (Al Gore is my hero).

And based upon my responses he did something you’re probably not doing.

He made a RECOMMENDATION.

He recommended I have:

•  dual-ovens so I wouldn’t be serving food on cold plates to my guests.
•  a convection oven so I can quit wasting 25% of my time WAITING for meals to be ready
• washing machine and dryer on stands which also use a teaspoon of soap so I am not harming the environment or always shopping for laundry soap.
• and sooooo much more.

 And he also made a very big sale.

So What Are You Doing Still Flopping On Spin Cycle?

I know. I know.

You were taught by someone that being a good sales person is being a smooth talker.

Ditch that thought.

Instead - FOCUS on all the PAINFUL PROBLEMS you’ve learned from your client and cater to that instead.

I don’t care about all your features and benefits.  They just go down the drain.

I want to know HOW you’ll solve my problem better than anyone else.

Answer that and you’re out of the spin cycle lady!