Effective Sales Management Begins With The Customer

Effective sales management begins with encouraging your sales team to get obsessed. With what and who? Your customers! Great sales teams are obsessed with serving their customers. They are obsessed with providing that extra ten percent effort in every interaction with clients.

Here’s another reason to encourage customer obsession. 84% of companies that work to improve their customer experience, report an increase in their revenue.

Another reason to be obsessed with your clients is simple. Without customers, there isn’t a need for your products, services, you or your sales team.

However, here’s my observation as I review articles and posts. Much of the content focuses on topics such as work/life balance, managing a hybrid workforce and retaining top talent. These are really important topics. But the harsh reality is without good customers you will:

• Enjoy plenty of balance in your life because without customers you won’t be working.
• Have the ability to live anywhere---because you don’t have a job. Your sales organizations didn’t attract or keep enough customers.  
• Stop worrying about hiring top talent. Instead, you’ll be laying off people because your company didn’t have enough customers.  

Get obsessed with serving your clients. Create repeat business, deeper relationships and a whole lot of fun.

Adopt a practice and philosophy from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. “Start with the customer and work backwards.” During important meetings at Amazon, there is frequently an empty chair to remind participants of the most important person in the room. The customer.  

Effective Sales Management Begins With The Customer

At your next sales meeting, ask these coaching questions to increase your sales team’s obsession around serving their clients.

• Share an example of where we exceeded client expectations this month.
• How do we create more of those experiences?  
• What can we change to provide an extraordinary experience for our clients?
• How will we know it’s ordinary or extraordinary?   
• Do we know our clients personal and professional goals?
• What can we do to help them achieve these goals?

It’s easy to talk about being client focused. It’s another thing to take actions.

Effective Sales Management Begins With The Customer

Here are a few actions taken by my clients that are obsessed with serving their clients.  

• Pick up the phone. Just when you are getting ready to send off YET another email or text, pick up the phone. A person-to-person conversation always beats another email in your client’s inbox.
• Pay attention to your client’s personal life. One of my colleagues purchased tickets to the Ice Capades for a client. She remembered that her client’s daughter was involved in ice skating. My colleague lived in another city, however, you can bet the client was thinking about her during the show.
• Introduce your client to another client who is able to provide insights around a challenge your client is experiencing. It’s not an introduction to do business. It’s an introduction to do business better.
• Send cards to remember special days. Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. I remember my father doing a lot of business with our insurance salesman, Jerry Matigue. He was diligent about sending a birthday card to each one of my eight siblings EVERY YEAR. (Anyone reading this post remember their family’s insurance salesman?) Just sayin…
• Offer to forward your client’s son or daughter's resume to your network. Help your client's children get off to a good start. And I might add, get off the payroll!

Get obsessed with serving your clients. They are the reason we are in business.

Good Selling!