Sales Without Service is Killing You

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

It seems that people perpetually complain that the economy is bad. So, why do restaurants treat their customers so poorly? Wouldn’t it stand to reason that every customer is critical in a bad economy? Heck, aren’t they critical in a good economy? In fact, isn’t creating an outstanding dining experience THE foremost objective with regard to bringing customers back in? Which means that a sales department that is not supported by great customer service is almost certainly doomed to fail.

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What Happens After You Close the Sale?

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

In many cases you’ve worked for weeks or even months to secure a piece of business – a process that likely included several meetings, a number of presentations, and a host of follow-up calls before you finally hit the goal line and heard the magic words, “Let’s do this.” Do you really want to screw it up now? This is when the real work begins. Like when a home builder sells a house — it’s great to get the sale, but you still have a home to build. And that experience can lead to a delighted customer who tells everyone about you, or it can become a train wreck that kills the opportunity to get tons of referrals.

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Regarding Your (Gross) Margins

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

One of the most significant challenges that confront sales management is the salesperson that insists on cutting prices to gain business. Although salespeople have no shortage of excuses for taking a little off the top, it is my experience that this pervasive problem is almost always a sign of poor or undeveloped selling skills. To be clear, there are times when companies or salespeople should choose – strategically – to lower a price and, as a result, accept a smaller margin. But, while there can be good, rational reasons for cutting your price, the much more common scenario is that salespeople simply use a lower price to close a deal because they lack the skills to present and negotiate value.

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Is It Painful to Watch Your Salespeople?

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

The biggest mistake salespeople make is in failing to think about and prepare for the sales call. Since every sales call is different — the introductory call, the discovery call(s), the presentation call, follow-up calls, negotiation calls, and so forth — it stands to reason that a salesperson should be uniquely prepared for that call.

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