Have Your Created Your Best PES?

Today I'm thinking about PES. Not PEZ (Sorry no candy dispensers, here! Dispensing thoughts only.)

PES sums up the buying experience.

P- Price Is your price competitive for your market? For your product? For your customers? Does it send out the right message regarding how you want your product or service perceived?

E- Experience What do your customers experience during the buying process? Is it easy to make a purchase? Is this the experience they are looking for?

S - Service Do you provide the customer service levels that your customers expect?


By themselves, each of these areas are important but won't necessarily force a potential customer to do business with you. It's the right combination of all three that makes a business succeed. 

Think of the downtown areas of towns that are dying. Store fronts abandoned, businesses barely holding on - while on the outskirts of town, the big box stores are flourishing. Then there are the downtowns that are flourishing. Sure, the big boxes came and created a place for themselves in the community but the savvy businesses downtown adapted. They created a new place for themselves in the community. They created a PES that made people want to continue to do business with them.

This holds true for any product or service. Sure, there are the low-ballers. They give bare bones service but the price is right and the product is OK. That will always attract some portion of buyers. Then there is the higher priced, high quality product with the great service that creates a fabulous buying experience for their customers. A portion of buyers will pay a premium to feel catered to.

Finding the right combination of PES helps you survive in an ever changing market place. Will you be able to sell to everyone? Of course not. There will always be those for whom your product or service is not the best fit. However, by using PES as a strategy to attract customers, you are sure to find your best position to succeed.

The Science of Success

Here's a quote that would serve us well to remember:
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. Oscar Wilde


I have recently discovered the reality show "Bar Rescue". I've been known to binge watch it on a Sunday evening. Here's something that seems to crop up over and over as reasons for these business being on the verge of failing: the owners had a vision for their business based on their own likes and tastes. Now, if that is in sync with what the marketplace wants, all is well and good. Unfortunately, if that is not what the market wants, it dooms you to failure. 

When we make a business decision regarding product development or service policy, we need to step back and examine what the marketplace - your potential customers want. 

 

Much of being successful is about taking the steps necessary to success. In sales, there are certain actions we can take to help increase our odds of achieving our goals. Even during uncertain times, there are people who succeed when others don't. Usually, those are the people who've taken the time to really examine about qualities and conditions are needed for success. They've taken the time to study the market place, they've looked at the competition. More importantly they've interacted with potential customers and know that those people want. Ask yourself: what are you doing to create the conditions to be successful? 

After all, the phrase shouldn't be Do What You Love and The Money Will Follow. A better phrase to follow would be: Do What The Market Will Pay You For and The Money Will Follow.

The Value of Association

As professionals, regardless of our industry or function, it's important to keep up to date on trends and new ideas - new ways of thinking and new technologies to help us in our work.

To that end, membership in professional organizations enable us to maintain our professional standing, We learn new things, we meet new people. We expand our horizons.

I've made it a point to belong to several - The American Society for Training and Development since much of my work is training; The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals because inside sales and service are my areas of expertise (and I want to keep it that way!).

I also belong to NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners which supports and encourages business ownership among women. It's a great resource and a welcoming environment. In fact, I have the pleasure of attending NAWBO's Women's Business Conference this week in Miami. It's a good opportunity to network, to keep my business skills up to date, and to continue to ensure that I keep growing as a business owner.

What organizations do you belong to? Choose one and use it to help you grow!

3 Reasons to Network

Labor Day is past and the fall Social Whirl  is nearly upon us. For many business people, it signals a last opportunity for networking (and creating business opportunities for themselves) before the end of the year. So, we network. Lots of meetings - if you want  to you could attend a different event for each meal every day of the week. Not necessarily the best strategy for gaining new business, but you could do it - and that's the subject for a different blog post!

I was recently asked about my reasons for attending business networking events. I realized that it comes down to three reasons:

• To meet people who I can directly do business with (buyer/seller relationship)
• To meet people I can partner with (services I don't provide but could recommend to my clients)
• To get my name and business out there (word of mouth advertising)

Let's look at each one:

To meet people who I can directly do business with (buyer/seller relationship)

This is the primary reason people attend networking events. It's the brass ring, the gold medal - add your cliché here. Unfortunately, many people feel that unless they walk into a room full of obvious potential prospects, they've wasted their time and money. Also, don't be concerned if you see the same people on a constant basis. That's good. You want to be able to build relationships over time. Many people will not spend money on specific products or services unless they feel comfortable with you - the more money involved, the higher the comfort level must be. Talking over lunch or dinner is a great way to get to know people.


To meet people I can partner with (services I don't provide but could recommend to my clients)

I can't do it all - and I won't do it all if I can't do it well. I owe my clients and prospective clients that. As a result, there are related aspects to my work that people will ask me if I can make a referral. When I can't do the work myself, I like to feel comfortable knowing I can suggest alternatives. This makes me a resource. It also enhances a person's comfort level when they realize that I only do work that's a good fit for me, assuring them that any work I do will be in my area of expertise and therefore a great experience with the outcomes they are looking for. I love meeting people who have businesses that are complimentary to mine.


To get my name and business out there (word of mouth advertising)

I find that I get as much business from 3rd party referrals as from directly making contact with qualified prospects. Just because the person you're talking with doesn't need your services doesn't mean he won't be speaking with an associate or colleague in the future and mention your name. I've met people and had opportunities come my way that I might never have heard of through my direct efforts.


So, networking offers much on many levels. At the very least, it's great for solo- preneurs to get out and continue to hone their skills. At it's ultimate it's a great way to expend your own personal network - and grow your business.

Important Metrics for Inside Sales - Part 2

I think we can agree that dials per day/ dials per hour is the first number we should look at when looking at metrics for inside sales. However, that won't tell us the whole story. The next figure we should pay attention to is the "reach". Some people will also refer to this as the number of decision maker contacts.

This overall figure is also a raw number but measuring this will give us even more information. If I’m not reaching enough people with the responsibility and authority to make a decision, I’m not going to be able to sell. 

Look carefully at any barriers. The easiest one to look at first is skill level. Do people know how best to reach a decision maker? Solving this may take a combination of coaching and training. Being able to reach the right person requires the skill set to do so. Do the inside people know how to use a screener to get additional information? Can they talk to others in an organization in order to find to best person to speak with? Can they create an effective voice mail message?

If you decide that the employee's skill level is fine, you'll next want to look at your lead sources. Are you asking your inside reps to call the right people? If you are prospecting you might want to take a look at the titles and departments of your current customers to make sure you are focusing your efforts in the right place. Having better names upfront will help make the most of your phone time.

Another similar metric is reach per dial. Once I've decided what an acceptable overall reach for the hour/day is, I'll want to drill this down even further. I've found that it usually is a 3 to 1 ratio between dials and reaching a decision maker. In other words, you've got to call someone an average of 3 times before you might get to speak with them. Now keep in mind that this is an average, some people you’ll reach right away, others may take you 5, 6, 8 dials. 

To determine the cause of a higher than usual number, go through the same process as you would for the overall reach. Some units will prefer to measure reach per dial alone. In the end an inside rep making slightly less dials but has a higher reach will be the more successful sales person. The challenge for management is to learn what the parameters for success should be.

What People Want

A lot of people don't understand that marketing isn't just about selling a product. Marketing, at its best, is about selling a product that people want.

One of the bigger mistakes a company can make is to fall so love with its product that it forgets - or fails to find out - what people are willing to buy. Take the company that continues to put bells and whistles into a product after customers have told them they'd prefer not to pay for an advanced product that's more expensive than the competition. You'd hear they liked the product but the other one was cheaper and did the job they needed to be done. When it came to a purchasing decision, they didn't want the bells and whistles.

Here's another example. I was on the marketing committee of my local parochial school. The goal was to increase enrollment. We did a good job of getting people to send their children to the school but overall enrollment numbers continued to decline. People were removing their children from the school after a few years. We looked at what our competition was and what parents wanted. Unfortunately, the school administration was not willing to listen and make changes. The principal actually said to a parent "this school isn't for everyone". Well, who is it for? Sadly, the school will be closed for good this month.

As salepeople and marketers we need to make sure that we aren't so immersed in what we see people as wanting, that we forget to discover what they'll actually pay for.