As a result of many of these requests To Market www.tomarket.co.uk has recorded a new audio CD on these 3 interrelated sales topics upselling,cross selling and switch selling. It will be available soon within the telesales skills section of this website, the other sales related CDs can be seen at http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=TELESALES%20SKILLS

It is important to understand how each of these 3 parts of the sales process can work for you, and how you can get more out of our your customers. If you are interested in particular elements of this, add your comments to this post and we’ll add some specific future posts in response. 

JH suggested the following ; 

“One of my favourite examples was about 10 years ago, and is not about a product or service we offer that is different to any one else, it is more to do with how I tried to stand out from competitors selling the same thing.

I was quoting a very large contract for a Council authority. I, like everyone else had been walked round to assess the size and nature of the job. At the end of the walk round I asked several questions that I already knew the answer to, and a couple of questions that were slightly irrelevant to the quote (as far as I was concerned), I even inspected their present product, even though I new exactly what type it was and who supplied it. To the Council contact, no one else had done this or asked these questions and it gave an instant boost of confidence in my company that set us apart from the competition. The other big difference to being awarded this particular contract came from the written quote I submitted. The other 3 companies were fairly short “products to be supplied x, total cost £………..”  type of things.

I made my quote stand out completely by making it fill a couple of pages, giving details of the quality of the product. I then listed all the areas individually, pointing out any potential problems they may have in the future. I backed it up with references and some tips about information I’d read that I thought would help them. We were told that we were not the cheapest quote, but the council contact said it was chalk and cheese comparing our quote to that of the other 3 companies. It made him think these guys are professionals who I want to work with. All the companies were using the same method, all I did was present it in a way that made us stand out both on site and in the written follow up.”

Nice advice, just doing that bit more, taking more pride in your work can make all the difference. And remember in selling there is only one winner. You can find out more about the training that To Market offers by following this link   http://www.tomarket.co.uk/training.php There are telesales and telemarketing courses run around the country including open courses in Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Cambridge, Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry, Warrington, Leeds, Milton Keynes and Nottingham 

It is not the quality of your products, nor the pricing, but instead the relationship you have. If they like you they will be more likely to do business with you, and if they don’t like you, they will go out of their way to buy elsewhere.

So it is always disappointing when someone you have a good customer – supplier relationship with leaves. It can often be like starting again. But the tip is to find out where they are going to – especially if they are staying in a similar role. So now you have the existing organisation, and of course you’ll be looking to start again here, plus the new one.

Once they’re settled in, you then phone them with something like the following script ;

You : “You may not remember me, but my name is …….. and I used to talk to you about …… when you were at ABC Ltd.” To which they often reply ;

Them : “Of course I remember you, how are you ?” And now you’re away !

And my advice is even if you find out they’ve already left, you can still track them. Either you ask one of your other contacts within the customer company if they know where they went to. You have got other contacts haven’t you ?!

Or as a last resort try finding them on Google. This is of course much easier if they have an unusual name, but many of them will eventually pop up elsewhere.

Always work your contacts hard, and don’t easily give up on all those relationships that you’ve worked hard to build.

One of the current pieces of wisdom is to cut down on all your indirect marketing, advertising etc. Indirect marketing covers anything where you don’t get a dialogue with your customer. Instead switch all your activity to direct forms of contact. So this may mean bringing your field based sales team into the office to hit the phones. Or make sure your office based sales team have enough people to call, and then let them loose. By focusing on telephone activity you will get a feel for what is happening in your market, who is thinking of spending, who isn’t and an update on their current situation.

By understanding more about what is happening in your market, the easier it will be to find potential customers and to plot future trends. Now is the time to be talking to all customers, past, lapsed, competitor accounts and anyone else who may have a need for your services, either now or in the future.