No matter how great your product or service is, there are almost always several things you and your staff are doing that result in lost sales! This is strategy #1 from Jay Conrad Levinson and Stuart Burkow’s book Guerilla Profits that lists 10 powerful strategies to increase cash flow, boost earnings, and get more business. (A must read for every business owner.)
Their first strategy covers the maximization of every contact point to increase sales. We’ve all had times where our first contact with a business is a real turnoff. I still remember a recent stop at a new local restaurant. We had a long wait for a table, then no one came to take our drink order for over ten minutes, and the food took forever to get to us. Worse yet, others who came in after us were being served! To top it off, the waiter was rude and had absolutely no personality! Needless to say, I will most likely not be returning anytime soon. And in today’s social media world, I will tell a couple hundred of my contacts exactly why they shouldn’t go there, either.
These are the action points the authors list to maximize your customer interactions:
- Pay attention to the Critical First Points of Contact which are the “make-or-break” factors that determine who will buy and who will walk.
- Have clearly defined and stated expectations of employee behavior. Use scripts and templates for all forms of communications with customers and prospects.
- Be sure everyone in your organization has at least basic product knowledge and the ability to recognize and act on customer/client wants and needs.
- Reward the expected customer/client interaction behavior that you want, and track those who are not being rewarded.
- Mystery shop your own location with your employees’ full knowledge and factor that information into your reward and feedback system.
- Monitor and when needed modify employee attitude, which has a huge impact on your customer/client interactions.
- Design your people-less interactions from the customer/client prospective and make it easy for people to get what they want from you.
Each of these bullet points are areas which, if improved, will lead to increased sales and happier customers.
If you want to learn the other nine powerful strategies to increase cash flow while boosting earnings and getting more business, go get Guerilla Profits today! (No, I do not get a commission.)