So you got the sale.. GOOD JOB!!
I’ve been working in sales along time, under many different guises, and there isn’t a better feeling in business then signing on the dotted line with a new customer.. it’s hard work, it truly is and anyone that works in sales knows exactly what I’m talking about..
But the work doesn’t stop there, and again going back to this word value, you need to be all over the aftersales process. Now if you truly care about your customers, you will do this naturally, however when you are busy and stretched its important to have a system in place to ensure it always happens. WHY? Well this has substantial implications on the success of the relationship going forward, on a number of levels.
- Future business with the same client
- Leveraging their network
And I don’t mean that in a greedy way. See in sales, if you are a truly honest sales person, who truly cares about your customers success, you do everything in your power to ensure you don’t just say you can solve their pains, you actually do it and then some…!!
You play in their play ground, know their wants and needs, and in the background figuring out how you can solve more of their pains. This is what value is all about, its the sales value system!
And when you demonstrate your value to your customers, why wouldn’t they do more business with you? On average cost relates to approx 30% of the reason a customer chooses you that means you have alot of scope to play with or alot of answering to do if you don’t take advantage of that. Give them a reason to stay with you by becoming a trusted partner and that absolutely involves lots of aftersales care!
Then when you’ve proved yourself over and over and they know you are a valued arm of their extended business, then the question becomes how you can help their colleagues the way you’ve helped them. This can be a natural evolution of the relationship or you can instigate, again in the mindset of adding true value, not to be greedy. Why wouldn’t they want to help their colleagues the way you’ve helped them. This is one example of the referral model in play and yes you need a system for this too.
One of the key things to remember, is this is now a 3 way relationship and everyone has to benefit from it!
And when you systemise these 2 processes you are adding very hot leads to your sales funnel – and further down that funnel, with little effort. Leads are expensive and it was expensive to get to this position, so maximise it as long as you are adding true value, it’s a Win Win Win!
But REMEMBER, this only works when you are adding TRUE VALUE!
Systematic Sales – The Aftersales Process – Video Transcript
Hi Shay Lynch here
director of Future State.
Today’s video is all about after sales.
We spend a lot of time talking previously
about the sales funnel
and the systematic
approach of how you improve
your ability to get more sales
and more customers into
your business okay?
And just to give you a quick recap
when I’m talking about
helping companies with sales
I break it down into four key areas.
First of all is the demand
capture and lead generation
like you’re building everything
into the start in the funnel.
Then you start talking
about flushing goals
and dividing those leads into either
cold leads and hot leads
and hot leads again broken into two
are they buying now or buy later?
Do not forget the Buy Later.
Just because they’re not buying now
does not mean they’re not gonna buy
off you some time in the future.
And then when you go to your meetings
you’re doing your flushing
and you get to the stage
where you’re doing proposal
how do you make sure that
proposal is giving you
every chance of getting that order
by having a fantastic and strong
effective inquiry process
further back in the funnel.
Then when you’re lucky
enough because you put
fantastic work in
you get the sale.
What happens then?
Well most people would
go back to the start
of this funnel which is fine
it’s an extremely important process.
You know you have to
keep getting new sales
that’s fine that’s no problem at all.
I totally appreciate it
and a lot of times should
be devoted to that.
However one thing a
lot of people fail to do
is forget this aftersale process
and it is so important on many many many
different levels.
I’m going to talk about two in particular
in this video
because these are the two most important
reasons why you need a very
strong aftersales process.
And again as you know what I do
I map these out with my customers because
I leave nothing to chance.
I make sure we put the steps through
so then we can teach their sales team
and then they can reciprocate that out
on the business when
they’re on the ground
talking to their client
and managing and
developing their accounts.
And it’s not just managing
it’s developing.
And why is that?
Well when you got the sale right?
When you went through
all these four steps
macro steps lot of work underground
a lot more than that
part of that is showing
or convincing the customer
that you can solve their problems.
Cause that is the goal
you should always be
solving their problems.
When you can convince a
customer that you can
and you actually can
you will get the sale okay?
That is how sales work
it’s about issue pain pain relief.
That’s how you solve
problems for your clients
and get sales right?
However when you get the sale
it is so important to
ensure and get feedback
from your customers to ensure
that you are actually solving that pain
that you theoretically and
put together on a map for them
during the sales process.
This is uber important.
So you know that what you
said you were going to do
had the impact that you hoped it would
and your customer hoped it would.
So the first thing is request feedback.
If you did? Fantastic.
If you didn’t? What do you need to do
to ensure you deliver on that?
And that could involve
a bit of problem solving
on the existing process
or service delivery
that is fine
you keep tweaking that
until you absolutely
% meet their expectations right?
And even at that once you do that
that’s fantastic!
But don’t stop there.
What other problems do you believe
after learning something
about their business
what other problems do you
believe you can solve for them?
Continually helping them and
demonstrating to your customer
that you are a trusted business partner
that you care about their needs
and their pains
and you want them to be as
successful as your business too.
Keep doing that and when you’ve done that
add more value.
You can there’s no such thing as
adding enough value right?
And I would say there’s a
limit in terms of the time
you can put into this
but what are the things you can do
again after learning more
about their business
because you’re in their business now
you’re their extended arm
what other things you can do.
And simple things like
if you have access to
market intelligence or
macroeconomic climates and statistics
that you’ve purchased for your
own business requirements
will it help them?
What else can you continue to do?
There’s no limit to what you can do here
but again a part of the
systematic approach I teach
is the brainstorm all these things
and I always suggest to
have at least forty ready.
It takes time to build that
but build up to forty that is your goal.
Now I call that the Well Factor
when you’re working with your clients.
So what happens when you do all this?
When you manage and develop the account
and you work very closely
with the customers
what happens then?
Two things can happen then.
The most important first and foremost
is that then feeds back
into continued sales
and you don’t have to go
through all this effort
here to get another sale.
So it is an absolute
value for your business
as well as them okay?
So continue to ensure
that you map this out
with your clients to
ensure you can deliver value
all the way through.
But then another thing happens
and again this has to be strategically
mapped into your sales
and after sales process.
And how can you get access
to their client network?
So say for example
you are working with this company.
You know they have access
to similar companies
that you would like to talk to.
Once you’ve proven yourself
as a trusted partner
more often than not they well say
“Look I know my colleagues
at suchandsuch business
could do with your helping.
If you help them the way you’ve helped me
I know they will be extremely happy
with that outcome.”
So you get into this
referral model symbol
or process.
And then with that
again the value of this
is that you don’t have to go back
to the start of the funnel.
You can go either to step or three
where you can go straight to proposal
or you may do some flushing
and inquiry process
and ensure that again
you can solve their needs.
But there are multiple
ways to get more sales
and not just rely on continued more leads.
And as I said and I’ll emphasize again
this is so important for your business.
Do not think that I’m
talking about don’t do this
this is so important
but finding the balance between
activities in stage one
helping your customer
and getting access to their network.
There is three things there that you
really need to focus on
to develop your business.
One thing I will say
about the referral model
it’s a three way process.
It’s not just about between you and them.
They have recommended
they have referred you
so the first goal is you gotta make sure
that you make them look
good with their customers.
That is extremely important do not forget
that part of the equation when it comes
to referral model.
Because if you’ve done something
wrong along this process
you could lose business here.
So my question is always over to you
What are you going to do
in your business today
to build a strong and systematic approach
to your aftersales process?
In the meantime this
is Shay Lynch saying
Thanks for listening.
