ECommerce & Good People

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a serious book fiend.  I don’t nearly have enough time to read my books but I just can’t stop buying them.  What makes the matter worse is that in this economy, there are way too many book sales.  

When I can’t visit the stores physically, there are these internet ones ... 

I got curious about The Commercial Press’s cp1897.com.hk  the other day, and decided to by a book “to try it out” (I know .. it’s a pretty lame excuse).  So a small book it is : I ordered “FISH!” by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen.  I got a mail saying that I will have another mail coming soon, at which time I can go to the Kornhill branch of The Commercial Press to pick it up.  

I waited, I went on a business trip and I came back, I waited.  No mail.  This is pretty upsetting, as I expect these folks to be able to do much better than this!  So after two weeks I rang the customer service number on the first email.  A man picked up, listened to my case and promised to ring back.  

He did.  He explained how the internet shop and the physical stores operate on two inventories (why?).  While the internet store is completely out (shouldn’t they know this when the computer took my order?), they found one at their Tung Chung branch (so he did some extra work before he called me but am I supposed to head all the way there to pick it up??).  He then went on and told me that he can get the book to any branch I want (ahhh...).   

So I told him that I’d like to pick it up in the Kornhill branch.  He then promised that he will ring me again when it’s there (another wait?).  

I waited for another 2 days and he actually called.  I picked up the book with no problems at all.  I was not impressed with their ecommerce operation but I am quite impressed by their service recovery.  Technology or not, every business needs quality employees who can think on their feet and followup with clients.  The Commercial Press kept people like this man who saved my day.  CP1897.com.hk might be less than perfect but I won’t hesitate to try it again because I know they have good people who will always help me out when I run into problems again!

Good Salespeople Work With Their Prospect's Perceptions

A key element to how we operate in the world is our perception of the world.  Ted Koontz observed "Where we stand depends on where we sit."  Our particular perception of a situation, the point of view we take and the interpretation of which we decide to make dictates our actions.  To most people, perception is reality.  Skilled negotiators and salespeople are adept in altering perceptions by offering new mental constructs from which to see the world.  Change one's perception and one's reality changes - and along with that, his/her reactions to it.  

Wanting to obtain richer content for the media network that I work for, I once approached several major financial institutions to ask if they could help.  Naturally they asked that we make them offers.  Unfortunately, we didn't have much of a budget at the time.  So taking a page from the Internet business, we showed these financial institutions the vast global network that is our client base.  If they contribute their content to our network, they get to reach some of the richest client base for free.  When we changed their mental framework, these institutions see this (and rightly so) as a terrific sales channel for them and we got their content for free.  

The lesson here for salespeople is not to rush up to prospects and immediately push their point of view ("you should buy this from me").  Apart from it being a distasteful way of hard selling that confirms what people hate most about bad salespeople, it's ineffective.  Instead, take the time to understand your prospect's perception of the world, because until you understand how they see the world, you won't be able to sell them anything that brings them benefits that applies to their (perception of) the world.  

Nonzero

It looks like someones big country kitchen or what someones ideal kitchen should look like. There were two long wooden tables with an assortment of kitchen chairs that look surprisingly well together. The wooden floor creaked pleasantly, but the thing that hit me was the smell of freshly cooked clams.

I was greeted, not in the usual "professional" restaurant manner, but as if I actually just dropped into someones kitchen. It was a casual "Hey, how are you?". There was a young lady in t-shirt and jeans with short cropped hair, walking around and talking to some of the guests - she's the chef. They showed me a nice red wine they found recently and I said I'd like to have some vegetables and may be a steak. They left me with some bread that they apparently imported from France and with it I tried some of their olive oil.

I was sitting at one end of the long wooden table on the right. There were clumps of people around the two long tables. I heard casual conversations and sounds of laughter here and there. It was quite apparent that everyone felt very at home. The chef walked by and said she bought some new olive oil, would I like to try it? In a flash - I was sitting with a new plate of olive oil and fresh bread. Oh, I like the wine.

This is a place where you would be tempted to kick off your shoes and sit with one leg folded on the chair under you. It's THAT comfortable.

I got a little cup of soup. Tomato soup with something - I didn't order it specifically. The chef did what she did. It's great. Then came the vegetables, green as jade and deliciously hot. Are vegetables usually this fresh in Taiwan? The steak came as well. The portion is tiny by New York standards but it has to be the best steak I have ever had. Did I tell you that the chef served up every dish with a small introduction? Everything is VERY personal here.

It was a culinary festival of sorts, fresh vegetables, steak and glasses of wine. I felt like I have known this room forever. There were a dozen people having a dinner party on the otherwise quiet side street outside. One of the ladies cleared my part of the table and gave me a mug of herbal tea and a dessert that involved a banana. I felt such a peaceful feeling sweeping over me, as if nothing else exist but only this little part of the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a restaurant experience like nothing that I have ever had before. The place is called "Nonzero". When you happen to be in Taipei, Taiwan, there's no ifs-ands-or-buts about it - GO.

What Customers Want from their Customer Service FIRST and FOREMOST

When Customers approach their Customer Service agent for help, they often come with a lot of preconceived notions, hopes and fears. The manner with which they deal with their customer service agent, is often colored by their previous experience with that same company or other companies in the same industry. As they approach the customer service desk - they often have the following thoughts in their minds:

• Who's this person? Will he/she be willing to help me out? Will he/she even be interested in what my issue is?
• Will he understand what I am talking about? Will he be helpful or will he make me feel stupid? Am I just gonna be entertained and dropped, or worst, get blamed for the problem?
• Will he/she be smart and resourceful enough to give me a real solution? Or am I really wasting my time right from the start?

As customers ourselves, we know there's a lot of emotional “extras” that comes with customers' requests when they approach customer service agents for help. If customer service agents recognize these “extras” and seek to deal with them FIRST, they can make a HUGE difference in how their clients' feel about their user experience.

What clients look for FIRST and FOREMOST from their customer service agents are the following :

• an assurance that the customer service agent is engaging him/her as an individual, that he/she is NOT just a number, and the customer service agent is interested and eager to help.
• that the customer service agent recognize his/her issue as important, as much as he/she does
• a sense that the customer service rep is listening, and that the agent understands the issue as well as how it affects him/her.
  
• an assurance that the customer service agent is accountable and that the agent is not going to disappear and drop him/her

The FIRST priority for Customer Service Agents, is to COMMUNICATE these assurances, via their ability to empathize, how they communicate and the words they choose. Everything they say and do (and not do) delivers a certain message to their clients, regardless of whether they mean it or not.

If Customer Service agents are cognizant of these “emotional needs” before they start diagnosing their clients' issues, they will often time find their clients a lot more agreeable and constructive when they work together towards a resolution!

8 Secrets To Being The Best Salesperson Ever

1. Sales meetings are always about the prospect and never about the salesperson. Prospects talk, salesperon listen.
2. Almost everything that comes out of a salesperson should be questions not statements: questions about facts and opinions, questions that highlights gaps between where they are and where they want to be, questions that lead them to the path (solution) the saleperson would like for them to take and questions that help the prospect commit to a solution. Questions, questions, questions and only questions.
3. It's not necessary to have the most product features to win a sale.  Selling is about demonstrating relevancy. The product or service that has the most relevance to the prospect wins.  
4. A salesperson's job is to establish relevancy between her product's benefits to the prospect's hopes & desires. To do that, a salesperson has to know as much as she can about the prospect. This goes back to being able to ask the right questions and listening carefully.
5. Salespeople are not necessarily the best speakers but they HAVE to the best listeners.
6. A salesperson listens hard to what her prospect has to say and more importantly to what a prospect should have said but didn't.
7. When at the prospect's site, read the room and watch how other people interact with the prospect.  That's part of "listening".
8. Often repeated but forever true, salesperson close their prospects and often. Always, always, always ask for the order, ALWAYS.

Reasons why Client Objections are Good for Salespeople

Salespeople love objections because they realize the toughest prospects to sell are the one with NO objections. Yes: salespeople love objections because getting NO objections is worst.

Reasons why they don't object :

• They don't see themselves using your product for whatever reason.
  
• They are just not mentally engaged, they don't see how your product is relevant to their lives, at all!
  
• They are not the decision makers and they don't want to spend too much time with you.
• Or may be they decided to buy anyway before they even spoke to you but how many of these do you really get?
  

They said they are fine with everything. They are just not buying.

The best salespeople know their daily battle is not one of price or features. Their daily battle is one of RELEVANCE. The question the best salespeople have to address is how relevant their products' benefits are to their prospect's business and/or lives, their hopes and desires. When your prospects start giving you objections, they are getting engaged with "the idea", they are beginning to see how your product fits with their lives, they therefore see possible places where it doesn't seem to fit and they care enough to ask you about them. Objections are therefore signs that your prospect is giving you and your product a chance. Objections are an essential process to work through on the way to making sale.

Objections are good.

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Three Key Ideas that will Help You Sell

A student I knew from two years ago called me a couple of days ago. She said she's looking for work and was wondering if she can come talk to me and take a look at the firm. I said "sure, come on up, I am happy to have a chat."

She came by sat down, and for a while she couldn't get to the point. Eventually I realize she's actually working for an insurance company as a financial planner and I am the prospect. She started talking about how she aim to make it to the Million Dollar Round Table this year, how much she'd like for me to share her other clients' financial success and how well she looks out for her clients.

There's one small hitch : she lied to get this appointment.

I told her that I am quite well taken care of, and that this meeting wouldn't be as productive as she might have originally hoped. She wouldn't budge. I ended up telling her again and again for about 4 more times. I am especially nice to salespeople as I work as one all my life, but my goodwill for this one began to sour. Not only did she have zero chances of making a sale today, she had worn out all possibilities of me ever letting her back into this office again. I finally announced that I was hungry and needed to get a bite, walked her to the elevator, let her walk in and wave goodbye as the doors closed.

Several thing went wrong with this meeting:

• She lied to get the meeting, especially in a business where there's a premium on integrity.
• She told me how much she aims to do well this year and how much she wants to be in the Million Dollar Round Table. Now, am I supposed to be happy to hear how much she wants to make loads of money off me?
• She overstayed her welcome several times over.

Things that all salespeople should remember :

• Integrity above all else. It's the most important thing. It's the ONLY thing.
  
• Meetings are about the prospect, not the salesperson. Benefits are those that pertains to the prospect, not the salesperson.
• A salesperson should be persistent, but you don't have to make the sale in one meeting. Take the time to build trust, don't kill your chances of making the sale another day.
  

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