Sales & Customer Service

Your people are key to gaining and keeping customers. Ensure they have the very best skills possible.

Professional Sales Savvy: Practical Secrets for Successful Sales

How should you begin your sales call for greatest effectiveness? How can you be friendly yet get down to business? What is the best way to uncover the concerns of your prospect? How can you then turn these uncovered areas into a sale? What are ways to close for commitment? How do you manage your in-office and on-the-road time to be most effective?

Learn how to:

  • Find qualified prospects
  • Defrost telephone cold calls
  • Pre-call strategize
  • Start off the face-too-face meeting right
  • Focus on the prospect’s/customer’s needs
  • Identify your prospects’ buying-styles
  • Enhance your listening skills
  • Reduce resistance and counter concerns
  • Close for commitment
  • Obtain referrals
  • Organize yourself for more sales
  • Follow up easily

45-90 min., half-day, 1-2 days

Complete description in PDF

How can you politely suggest additional services to clients without seeming pushy? What is the proper way to broach an added service without being off-putting? How can you make sure the client appreciates your suggestions? How should you handle resistance?

This program is designed for anyone (e.g., customer service providers, public relations account executives,accountants, lawyers) who has responsibility for providing information to customers, or potential customers to help her/him decide to use your company’s services.

Anyone would benefit who has one-on-one client interactions including phone calls, yet doesn’t think of her/himself in a sales role, may not be sure s/he want to be in sales, or uncertain s/he would be good at it. It’s for those who aren’t yet comfortable with suggesting additional products/services, even when they will be beneficial to the clients.

Key Benefits of Attending:

You’ll assess your own sales skills.

Ascertain your sales strengths and weaknesses. You can use your assets, and focus on improving other areas.

You’ll understand what sales really means.

When you suggest an additional service/product you are helping the client enhance his/her company’s profitability or their personal experience. Your suggestion could result in the customer’s company enhancing their business, running their operations more effectively, or having a better personal experience.

You’ll learn specific ways to suggest additional services, and ways not to suggest them.

Your word choice has a major impact on how responsive a client will be to your suggestions. We’ll discuss how to phrase the suggestion to be most positively received.

You’ll understand how your body language and tone of voice sets the stage for receptivity.

Clients decide if they’re going to listen to your suggestions based upon many things, including your body language and tone of voice. Learn how to communicate positively.

You’ll know how to listen for sales opportunities.

Clients often mention their needs in passing. You can become aware of these cues, and take initiative to respond to them.

You’ll practice your new skills in a safe environment.

People learn new skills by doing them. In our non-threatening environment you’ll have a chance to practice these skills before approaching a client. This way you have a chance to make modifications and feel more confident in an on-the-job situation.

Objectives

Participants will:

• Learn how to broach the topic of additional products/services.
• Learn how to conduct a successful sales conversation.
• Know how to ask probing questions.
• Respond to concerns and objections.
• Be able to close for a commitment.
• Understand how to adapt their communication to their customer.
• Listen better to their customers’ needs.
• Understand how to easily track follow up actions.

45 minutes to 2 days

Turn Upset Customers into Satisfied, Loyal Customers

How do you make your upset customers happy? What can you do to ensure upset customers will return, will be satisfied, and will refer others to you? It’s the little things that pay off big. We’ll discuss what upset customers want, how to calm them, and how to retain their business.

Upset customers are a part of every organization. If they are responded to promptly and professionally they will become some of your most loyal customers. You’ll learn how to do this.

Key Benefits of This Program:

You’ll assess your calming skills and attitudes.

Understand what behaviors and attitudes are key to calming upset customers.

You’ll learn why it’s critical to calm upset customers.

Unsatisfied customers create tension, stress and a bad reputation for your organization. You actually want your customers to complain. Understand how to turn a complaint into a learning opportunity.

You’ll understand why customers become upset and how to be proactive to head off any annoyance.

Often customers become upset at things that could be avoided. Learn how to look for possible irritants you can eliminate.

You’ll understand what upset customers want.

Sometimes what we think customers want is different than what they really want. Learn how what your customers want from you when there is a problem.

You’ll be able to listen effectively to customers’ needs and complaints.

By listening completely, the upset customer’s needs or problems can be solved more fully and quickly.

You’ll know how to prevent customers from becoming upset.

Your personal presentation, body language, and words make a significant difference as to whether a customer will be happy—or upset.

You’ll know how to calm the upset customer.

If upset customers are responded to promptly and professionally they will become some of your most loyal supporters. Learn how to create agreeable, win/win solutions..

You’ll be more confident in dealing with upset customers.

Customers can tell if you can take care of their issue or not. If you project confidence, they will remain calm, but if you seem unsure, they’ll escalate their problem to your manager. Learn how to take care of 95% of the customers’ concerns yourself.

Objectives:

Participants will learn how to:

• Respond pleasantly to customer complaints.
• Empathize with the customer.
• Reduce the chances a customer will get upset.
• Turn an upset customer into a satisfied, loyal customer.
• Understand which words are “fight starters” and “communication beginners.”
• Listen more effectively during tense situations.
• Compose him/herself after the altercation, in order to professionally assist the next customer.
• Defuse customer anger.
• Practice calming behaviors.

45 minutes to 2 days

Complete description in PDF

Get information on the book on this topic.

Managing For Customer Service Excellence

You know consistent, excellent service is critical for your organization’s success. But you aren’t sure how to measure your current customers’ satisfaction or how to close the gap between what they say and your goals. You want to understand how to better determine your customers’ needs.

You have some exemplars who continually show your customers stellar service. You have many others who sometimes do, sometimes don’t. How can you get them all on the same page? How can you get the average performers to behave more like the exemplars?

This is a “roll-up-your sleeves” program. The more information and data you bring from your organization and industry, the more you will walk away with how to hone your own strategy and plan. There is time allotted to work on a few delegates’ specific situation. You’ll better understand how to reinforce great behaviors and effectively coach those who aren’t performing up to par. You’ll learn how to best listen to your staff and how to give them feedback.

Key Benefits of This Program:

You’ll articulate the challenges you face and hear others’ issues. 

Sometimes just knowing you aren’t alone in your challenges is comforting. Additionally, you’ll learn how others have handled the challenges you face.

You’ll identify your team’s performance gaps

Before you can make improvements you have to know where you are and where you want to be. We’ll discuss ways
to determine the gaps.

You’ll learn effective ways to capture your customers’ preferences and challenges

To provide excellent service you must first know what your customers consider first class service. Learn ways to uncover their preferences.

You’ll define what it means to you to be a first class customer service organization

Each organization has it’s own definition of first class service. You’ll begin to define yours.

You’ll know how to ensure your employees serve customers excellently

Learn how to best select and manage for more consistent customer excellence. You’ll understand how you like to monitor your staff ’s behavior without seeming like Big Brother,

You’ll understand how to make sure your training sticks
Learn how to effectively train your staff on your processes and best practices.

You’ll discover how to provide efficient service recovery

Service recovery is key to retaining customers. Learn ideas on how to improve your service recovery processes.

You’ll know how to give your staff feedback.

Feedback is important. You’ll better understand how to give positive feedback as well as coach for improvement.

You’ll learn specific concepts to reinforce with your staff

Learning takes place best in an environment of accountability and reinforcement. We’ll go over what your staff will be learning.

You’ll learn how to listen better to your staff.

We’ll have various exercises to help you practice these skills.