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Added by Paul Archer on July 17, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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Is your Customer Care bank account in credit?
With the credit crunch biting many of us are keeping a close eye on our bank accounts lest they go into the red. If you do, be prepared for a hefty fine from the bank.
But what about our customer care bank account?
It’s a clever analogy really because it really helps us to focus on continuous good customer care. Let me explain
Last month I was on business in Ipswich and stopped off at a Travel Lodge just outside of town on the ring road. The next…
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Added by Paul Archer on June 10, 2009 at 10:30am —
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Be careful of speaker phones or hands-free mobile phones as they might be giving your customer the wrong message.
This afternoon I was sitting in Starbucks enjoying a double espresso and the guy on the next table was using his mobile phone with his speaker enabled. I appreciate that mobile phones are supposed to give us all radiation poisoning if we press them to our ear, but the information he was giving his customer was terribly public. He didn’t seem to mind bless him, but I bet the customer…
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Added by Paul Archer on June 3, 2009 at 7:39am —
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Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
I hear suit sales are up so are fountain pen sales. It’s all the extra business meetings we’re having. British Airways is even offering free business class flights to anywhere in the world to small business owners looking to export abroad.
It seems that in these tough times, we’re all out drumming up business with face to face meetings. And that’s a good thing. It’s heightened our awareness to go back to the basics of selling.
And wit…
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Added by Paul Archer on May 27, 2009 at 11:31am —
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This week I’d like to show you a great tip when you really need to appreciate what your customer is thinking. Ideal for the consultative salesperson and sales coach.
I’ve never travelled on a rollercoaster. Honest, I know it sounds remarkable, but I’ve never had the courage to climb in the small cab and ride the heart wrenching and stomach churning experience.
Until one afternoon over Christmas when my youngest son dared me to get on the ride at Poulton’s Park. Now if you ever want to motivate…
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Added by Paul Archer on May 19, 2009 at 7:05pm —
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This week’s sales tip is particularly useful when you deal with a complex sale which generally means your sales don’t happen quickly, they can stretch out to days, weeks even months. Typically complex sales happen in business to business selling but even consumer selling is dragging on nowadays as customers labour their decisions in this down economy. Here’s a simple idea to help you.
My idea of a great holiday is relaxing on the beach with a good book. Now Claire is a little different and like…
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Added by Paul Archer on May 12, 2009 at 6:19pm —
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On the train one spring morning to London I met three very interesting ladies who made me think about financial advisers or, in fact, any salespeople who want to differentiate themselves from their competition, so let me share with you why.
These ladies are from Indonesia and live and work in Gloucester. They were dressed immaculately and were chatting and being excited about their trip to London. Being the day before Easter, the train was packed with day trippers looking forward to a day in Lo…
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Added by Paul Archer on May 6, 2009 at 7:49am —
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Cold yet bright, London can be a great city to do business in. But eventually we all like to get home. Except I’d missed my train by a whisker. Now trains run from Paddington Station to Cheltenham every two hours so I had a long wait.
So I settled down to a long strong coffee at Starbucks and began to watch people. I love watching people, recognizing their body language, guessing what they’re thinking, don’t you just love that pastime.
In walked this young chap and he began to queue looking at…
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Added by Paul Archer on April 29, 2009 at 10:00am —
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Test closes are brilliant ways of testing the water with your customers. We all use them probably without even knowing it as it’s something you always hear top performing salespeople doing.
Tell me the difference between these three test closes:
• How do you feel so far?
• How does it look to you so far?
• What are you saying to yourself so far?
• What are you hearing so far?
They all attempt to do the same thing, in other words, test the customer's views and thoughts so you can continue with…
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Added by Paul Archer on April 22, 2009 at 9:30am —
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Apparently they’re starring at Glastonbury this summer. I’m talking about Status Quo the rock band whom my 71 year old father is going to see in concert later this month. That shows you how long they’ve been around.
But the status quo have recently become quite a problem for sales people and I’m no longer talking about the band – I’m referring to lethargy or not taking any action.
Apart from the Internet, it’s the status quo that is today’s newest and biggest competitor. Customers are inclined…
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Added by Paul Archer on April 14, 2009 at 8:30am —
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A few readers wrote to me just before Christmas asking for help. Both were struggling to get in front of new prospects to sell their services and products. Both had excellent propositions but found call reluctance to be as problem and prospects unwillingness to speak with them preferring to “weather the storm” and batten down the hatches.
Have you experienced this as well?
I think we all have to some degree and unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’ll recognise that we are going through…
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Added by Paul Archer on April 8, 2009 at 10:00am —
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It was rush hour and I was travelling on a packed intercity train and in the opposite seat was a young couple with a toddler who was causing all sorts of commotion. The poor young couple were very embarrassed. The carriage was stony quiet except for the toddler and everyone was staring at the young couple.
Along came the conductor to check tickets and to the rescue she came. She soon realised how uncomfortable the couple were so offered to head back to the buffet car where they had some special…
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Added by Paul Archer on March 31, 2009 at 6:53pm —
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If you’re like most sales people at the moment you might be having to work much harder to get the business in to achieve your targets. There are more steps now to sales, longer processes and additional people to see to reach the results we want.
As a result we’re finding our time management under scrutiny more than ever before and we may need to tighten up on this vital skill if we want to succeed during this recession. I’ve also heard of salespeople and sales coaches losing their valuable supp…
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Added by Paul Archer on March 24, 2009 at 7:11pm —
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On holiday in France last year we spent many an evening in the local cafes sucking up the atmosphere enjoying everything that is France. Next to us on one evening was a charming British couple and, as you do, we got chatting.
The chap talked about life back at home and mentioned excitedly about coaching his local mini rugby team. Now that’s exactly what I do on a Sunday morning so I began to tell him, with equal enthusiasm, all about my coaching.
I told him all about it, never stopped, talked…
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Added by Paul Archer on March 17, 2009 at 5:33pm —
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If you sell a service, make visible what’s invisible to increase your sales. Read on and I tell you why.
I love going to PC World as being a gadget freak, this store just makes me feel good. In fact I first visited PC World in the early 90’s in the fledgling days of computers and I vividly recall wheeling a pram around the store with my newly born son gazing at all the technical delights on the shelves. I take my hat off to PC World for getting many things right.
They reduced their prices duri…
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Added by Paul Archer on March 12, 2009 at 10:28am —
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Everyone knows that in selling or coaching, it’s extremely dangerous to make assumptions about your customer or the person you’re coaching. It’s one of those principles that’s drummed into salespeople on day one of their induction sales training. But we’re all guilty of making assumptions from time to time – I know I am. Read on to see how dangerous these can be.
Over Christmas I was talking to my three children about a fearful incident when I was about their age. The story shocked them at the…
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Added by Paul Archer on March 3, 2009 at 7:15pm —
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Here in the UK we’ve been enjoying dollops of the white stuff – snow. It’s amazing what snow can do to the landscape. Read on to discover how the image of snow can help you to be more self motivated in 2009.
For anyone who has had building work done, you know what the aftermath looks like. Ours is no different – outside of the new conference room, it looks like the Somme battlefield on steroids. Builder’s rubble in every nook and cranny, old bricks, cement, plasterboard, tangled metal. A sight…
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Added by Paul Archer on February 24, 2009 at 9:00pm —
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Here’s a sublimely simple way your company can take a small step to ride out the economic downturn. It hit me on Saturday whilst clothes shopping for my daughter.
The shop was empty. Just a few sales assistants wandering around looking trendy and checking the racks of fashion clothes. I guess it was the snow, the fact that it was 10am on Saturday and a retail slowdown that caused the shop to be empty.
I was shopping with Claire and my 8 year old daughter Bethan, for clothes and girls seem to t…
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Added by Paul Archer on February 17, 2009 at 7:04pm —
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I was at a conference recently and the speaker, who had done a pretty good job with his presentation, was about to take questions from the 50 plus audience.
It was time for the dreaded Q&A Session. And you could tell this speaker wasn’t looking forward to it as his body language closed down and his voice demonstrated fear and trepidation.
As always, audiences want speakers to do well. It’s a human DNA thing. No one wants a speaker to bomb. And I was hoping this speaker would follow the gol…
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Added by Paul Archer on February 11, 2009 at 4:28pm —
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Here’s a true story that hits home an old message – pay attention to the deta
il.
He’d frightened me to death with his automatic weapon and ferocious look. “There’s a problem with your passport” he alleged with a fierce voice and in broken English he continued.
“You must come with me”
The next 30 minutes were spent in fear, trepidation and anxiety as I awaited my fate.
You see I was leaving Iran following a sales speaking engagement and little did I know there was a problem with…
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Added by Paul Archer on February 3, 2009 at 7:09pm —
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