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Bill Gibson – Boost Your Business…Dig Deeper!

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014

Sometimes we do not dig deep enough to boost those sales and profits. One of my clients Cilla McGinley, Managing Director of Lithotech Blesston handed me the story of The Rooster And The Hen…it says it all in a simple way. Enjoy!

The Rooster And The Hen

Said the little Red Rooster, “Believe me, things are tough.

Seems the worms are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough.

What’s become of all those fat ones? It’s a mystery to me.

There were thousands through that rainy spell,

But now where can they be?”

But the old black hen who heard him didn’t grumble or complain.

She had lived through lots of dry spells,

She had lived through floods of rain.

She picked up a new and undug spot. The ground was hard and firm.

“I must go to the worms,” she said. “The worms won’t come to me.”

The rooster vainly spent his day through habit by the ways,

Where fat, round worms had passed in squads back in the rainy days.

When nightfall found him supper-less, he growled in accents rough.

“I’m hungry as a fowl can be, conditions sure are tough.”

But the old black hen hopped to her perch

And dropped her eyes to sleep.

And murmured in a drowsy tone, “Young man hear this and weep.

I’m full of worms and happy for I’ve eaten like a pig.

The worms were there as always, but boy I had to dig.”

Author Unknown

“If you have found this blog article to be valuable for you, I would be grateful if you “shared” it with your Social Media Networks. Also feel free to circulate it by e-mail or other means internally within your organization or externally to your clients, suppliers and personal and business network. Thank-you!” – Bill Gibson

Bill Gibson is a Canadian who is living in South Africa. He is an international speaker and author and a developer of sales, service, marketing, collecting, employee morale building, personal development and entrepreneurial training programs and systems. His blog is www.bill-gibson.com and his website is www.kbitraining.com. He can be reached at bill@kbitraining.com or phone +27-11-784-1720 in South Africa. You can follow Bill Gibson on Twitter: @billgibson1, connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gibsonbill or Knowledge Brokers International SA Pty Ltd Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/knowledgebrokers?ref=hl

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Bill Gibson – If You Are Alive You Are In Sales…A Tribute To The Professional Salespeople In Our Society

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

If you are with friends and they want to go to a specific restaurant and you want to convince them to go to a different restaurant….you are in sales!

If you are an engineer or architect and you want your client to accept a specific design for a building….you are in sales!

If you are an employee and you want your boss to give you a raise in pay …you are in sales!

If you are an accountant and you have to put together a financial proposal for a client to go to a bank to borrow money….you are in sales!

If you want a specific job in a company and you are competing with others for that job…you are in sales!

If you are a person who answers the phone when clients call…you are in sales!

The trainer, manager or speaker that presents material and facilitates sessions has to do it in such a way that others “buy into” the material being presented…therefore he or she is in sales!

If you promised your partner or spouse you will be home by 10pm and you roll in at 2:00am you are really in sales! 🙂

Everyone on the planet is in sales. The only problem is that most of us don’t realise it.

Everyday of our life we need to listen so others will talk, we have to clarify to make sure they understand us, we need to deliver our point so that others will listen, and we have to say it in such a way that they will “buy in” to what we are saying. In addition we need to negotiate to get what we want as well as find middle ground with others to make the relationship work. At times we need to use methods and ways to get others to do what we would like them to do.

These are skills that are used in selling. Selling is influencing and we all have to influence others. Therefore we are all in sales.

I like what Shane Gibson, my son in Canada says: All that selling is, is “creating an environment so an act of faith can take place”

Professional Salesmanship Is Needed

In a competitive society, which is now the world market, manufacturers and suppliers of services and products have to continually improve in the value of what they offer. Every organisation has to compete. Even the Post Office has to compete with couriers, e-mail, social media and other forms of distribution.

A company may have the best product or service in the world, but if that product or service doesn’t get to market, the company will be “out of business” very quickly. Some of the best ideas in the world never made it to the market because an executive did not do a good job of selling it to his or her associates.

The two main keys to business success are:

Be and deliver the best in the market place.
Let others know how good you are so they will buy.

You can’t rely just on advertising to let others know how good you are. Advertising in most cases doesn’t sell the product or service. What it does is create an awareness, enhance the value of the brand (help build an atmosphere so an act of faith can take place), create enquiries to a call centre, drive traffic to a business, or help the buyer be more receptive when you make contact. (On-line shopping and often exceptional direct-response type selling can and will sell some products and services).

Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, electronic media all have pro-active sales forces. If advertising sold products and services the advertising companies would not need salespeople. All they would have to do is advertise in their own form of media. They know that will not work and to make sure they have advertisers and can gain their market share they employ Salespeople…whether face to face or by telephone.

Today the competitive edge often still lies in the competence and effectiveness of the people in your organisation that sell and service the clients.

Professional Selling Positively Impacts Everyone

The fact that competition continues to motivate manufacturers and suppliers of services to get better and that marketers and salespeople must keep getting more effective at letting the clients know about their improved product and services, society in general, benefits with an improved quality of life. This quality of life can be in whichever area of life they consider important to them.

Medical equipment manufacturers improve the services that hospitals, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, therapists and other medical service providing organisations offer. In the end consumers benefit with improved care and better prices.

Software Organisations, Capacity Building Consultants, Efficiency Experts, Office Equipment Manufacturers sell to Government, State Corporations and Business in General. The consumer and business clients benefit with improved service and lower charges.

The highway you drive on, the sidewalk you walk on, the street lights that light up the sidewalk and the traffic (robots) that organise traffic flow and improve our safety are there because someone sold to someone.

The text books in schools and universities, the equipment in the laboratories, the computers students use, the desks students sit at, the white boards in the classrooms, the sports equipment, the school buses, and even the bricks and mortar in the building were sold by someone.

The impact of selling reaches far and wide and into every corner of our society. Professional selling ensures that we continually see growth and improvement in all aspects of our life. These aspects include family, social, spiritual, physical, financial, career, mental and community.

If you have a role as a salesperson be proud to be a Professional Sales Representative. As you can see it is an important function in our society. Many people will benefit from what you sell and hopefully you are rewarded handsomely for providing the valuable service of helping people and businesses with what they need, want and desire.

Yes, it is true that not all Salespeople contribute positively to our communities and the companies they work for although the majority are providing a great service to us all.

I personally have invested a lifetime in the field of sales. I felt it was time to carefully and respectfully remind those that do not see themselves as salespeople that professional ethical salespeople are a benefit to us all and that “if you are alive you also are in the business of sales (influencing others).

Thank-you for reading this blog article. “Hats off to all professional salespeople.”

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Bill Gibson – Your Perceived Self-Worth…The Key To Negotiating

Friday, June 6th, 2014

“You don’t get what you deserve in life…you get what you negotiate.”

Many gurus of negotiation often make this powerful opening statement and, while there are merits to what they say, why not try this statement on for size: “You don’t get what you deserve in life, you get no more or no less than what you believe you deserve, at the time you negotiate…”

Negotiating is a way of life and lack of self-worth is one of the main reasons we continually fall short of our expectations in life. A strong sense of self-worth is one of the main reasons why we prosper in life. If you feel worthy and deserving you have a tendency to open yourself to receive the abundancy and opportunities available to you in life. (The world is my oyster). If you feel unworthy or undeserving you have a tendency to take less than your share in life. (Beggars cannot be choosers).

Your perceived self-worth will influence whether you choose the high road or choose the low road in life. Your sense of self-worth tends to influence whether you choose to learn easy lessons or difficult ones. Do you dance through life or struggle through life, choose good role models or poor role models, develop good life-building habits or choose self-sabotaging habits? Do you get into healthy, productive relationships or end up in destructive, energy draining ones? Are you materially, emotionally and spiritually wealthy, or poor?

As we treat ourselves with more respect, other people tend to do the same. They can subconsciously ascertain how we perceive ourselves through our facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, dialogue other subtle cues and behaviours. “We teach others how to treat us,” the saying goes. Our perceived self-worth is a big part of that teaching.

People are often upset and disappointed with the money or exchange they receive for their services. This often happens because they are not clear in their own mind what their services are worth. They hope that other people will see their value and give them what they deserve. When you know what your time, energy, knowledge and services are worth and you believe it, others will tend to honour and value what you are offering as well.

It is important to understand that money represents an exchange of energy between you and the outside world. It represents the energy going out from you and the energy coming back in. Your energy is a major factor in determining whether or not money flows freely and harmoniously to you. If you do not value your time, energy and ability you cut off your flow of energy and, in turn, cut off abundancy.

If you constantly cut your fees and prices and accept less than what your services are worth, you cut off your flow of energy and money in two ways. First, the resentment or bad feelings, even if it is only slight, will stop money coming back to you because resentment and bad feelings push money and energy away. Secondly, you are giving the signal to your subconscious that your services or work is not worth very much. The subconscious begins to believe it and gives off signals that it is so, and the inflow of energy (opportunities and money) declines. It becomes a downward spiral.

When you honour your value and worth, energy and money move toward you. Because of this, a perceived high self-worth or a perceived fair value for your services and products must be understood and believed before entering into negotiation with other parties. Otherwise, the odds are you will come away from the negotiation with less than what you really deserve. You literally set yourself up for failure.

Remember, you are already worthy. Your worth already exists as a fact of life. You just need to discover it. In actuality, the present state of your relationships, work, finances, education and life style is a good indication of your perceived worth.

When negotiating it is important to always “negotiate from strength”. Before going into a negotiation be sure to enter the negotiations believing you deserve the right outcome. That is negotiating from strength. If you are negotiating for a percentage of a company in order to build your perceived value, make a list of why your experience, your money, your contacts and your knowledge are worth what you are asking. Daydream about it, add more points, leave it alone, come back again, add more reasons and do this until you are really sold on your own views, on yourself or your situation.

As an entrepreneur, you can use the same approach whenever you are raising capital or borrowing money. I’ve done it many times in my Entrepreneurial life. Virtually every time I managed to borrow or raise the amount of money I needed. Why? It was because of the inherent belief in myself and the business, to the point that others bought into my belief during the negotiation. Remember, focusing on all the things you did wrong in life, why you do not deserve the best, what is wrong about right now and how things never work out for you, drains your energy.

If you focus on what is right about you and your life situation right now, it gives you the energy to overcome the past, present and future challenges and hurdles that you must correct now, or face in the future. Positive energy equals abundancy.

Your self-worthiness makes a big difference in negotiating the outcome you want. Invest time, energy, brainpower and money, honouring your value and worth.

“When you honour your value and worth,

energy and money move toward you”

“Your perceived self-worth will influence

whether you choose the high road or choose

the low road in life”

“When you know what your time,

energy, knowledge and services are

worth and you believe it, others will

tend to honour and value what you

are offering as well”

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Bill Gibson – The Discipline of Destiny…A Glimpse of A Chapter In Jim Janz’s great book “A Rendezvous with Destiny”

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

“I am “disciplined”, focused, centred and committed”, “I am “disciplined”, focused, centred and committed”, “I am “disciplined”, focused, centred and committed”…was the affirmation I was repeating while out for my 30 minute walk today. Suddenly, out of the blue, Jim Janz’s smiling face popped into my mind. 10 minutes later I walk into my home and there sitting on the coffee table was the book A Rendezvous with Destiny by Jim Janz. I picked it up and it voluntarily opened to Chapter 16: The Discipline of Destiny.

Was it my Destiny to repeat that affirmation today, have Jim Janz’s smiling face pop into my mind, walk into my home and see his book A Rendezvous with Destiny sitting on my coffee table and then pick it up and have it open to Chapter 16: The Discipline of Destiny. I prefer the latter.

According to Jim Janz, “if our dream is focused enough, our purpose is sure enough and our goal is intense enough, the “discipline” part will flow out of that.” He goes on to say “Destiny comes from the gut and drives us to the goal.

In Chapter 16 of his book he goes on to tell the story about how one beautiful spring day while visiting Southern California he was watching a craftsman chiselling away at a huge block of granite. When the craftsman took a break Jim asked him “what is this going to be when you are finished?” To which the craftsman replied, “A horse.” Jim then asked him how he would get the block of a granite to look like a horse, and the craftsman quickly said, “you just chip away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.” Jim goes on to say that the craftsman wasn’t doing this casually…he was enthusiastic and animated…as his shiny black hair bobbed from side to side as he vigorously attacked the granite with his hammer and chisel. Jim interrupted him again asking “How long till you are finished?” He replied “The plan calls for nine months.”

The man then explained to Jim that he wasn’t doing this by sight alone…he had drawings, measurements, stages and tools for each phase. Without fail he was there every morning at 7:30am, seven days a week…cleaned up between 4:30 – 5:00pm which took about an hour each day.

Every hour or so the artisan would stop, then stand back and analyse his work, do measurements and settings to see if perfection was being achieved. The craftsman also had others, some who were professionals, come and check his work almost every day. On top of that he had a mentor who came occasionally to give suggestions and critique what was transpiring from that big piece of granite.

Jim goes on to say, “granite is expensive and allows very little room for error…fixing up mistakes is not a pleasant excuse here.” In addition Jim points out, “When your work is out there for all to see, possibly for one hundred years or more, you want it to be perfect.”

Yes, we all may have a “calling” although in Jim Janz’s book A Rendezvous with Destiny Jim points out that it takes much more than just the “calling.” One of those attributes or qualities needed is “discipline.”

To me, it is amazing the lessons that sit right in front of us if we are mindful enough to see them. In the story of the sculptor…the question is…what are the learnings he has taught us while he is having his Rendezvous with Destiny?

For me here are some of the valuable gems that I received:

He had a very clear picture or outcome or goal of what he was out to achieve. How clear are you and I on what we want to achieve?
He said “you just chip away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.” In other words we must push aside the distraction or things that could take us off track. As my wife Beverley Gibson often says to me…“Distraction Is The Enemy.”
The sculptor was not casual about what he was doing. He was committed and enthusiastic and animated. Are you and I enthusiastic and animated and do we “vigorously” attack what we are doing like the artisan?
He had a plan and the plan had a time frame of 9 months. The difference between a goal and a dream is that “a goal is a dream with a deadline or time frame.” Set deadlines and time frames.
The man had drawings, measurements, stages and phases and tools for each phase. “What gets measured gets managed and what gets managed gets done.” Put up a storyboard, flow chart, dream board…have your drawings…know how you will measure your progress and for most projects or goals break them into stages and phases and realise…you may need different tools, people or processes for each stage or phase.
The sculptor also had the discipline to be there every morning at 7:30am and had a clean up hour. Wow, I could take note of that…that clean up hour would really help me. Also the consistent “early” start time is powerful. As a salesperson what would happen if each week you had the discipline to be at a minimum of two 7:30am appointments with potential or present clients. That discipline alone could give you a 10 to 20% increase. Someone once asked Aristotle Onassis, the billionaire Greek Shipping Magnet (who married Jacqueline Kennedy…John F. Kennedy’s widow) what are the keys to success? He quickly answered; “two things…get up real early each day and always have a sun tan (makes you look successful). I am not sure about the sun tan part…but I can vouch for the early start each day.
Every hour or so the artisan would step back, analyse his work, do measurements and settings to see if perfection was being achieved. When heading towards our goal or achieving mastery in what we do, these are a powerful set of “how to’s.” Step back…look at where you are at…analyse what you have done…are you ahead or behind and is the quality there.
In addition, he was not too proud to have other professionals check his work almost every day. He even had a mentor that would occasionally critique his work. For years…especially when I was geographically close to Jim Janz…he was one of my main mentors. (I think we need to start skyping regularly Jim) :-). I personally could take a lesson from the artisan on having the professionals check what I am doing and give me their opinions. Just today I met with Siya Mapoko of Mapoko Research International who is an author and speaker whom I mentored for the past 8 years who now is giving me input and mentoring me in areas where he has strengths and experience where I don’t. We will now meet weekly to give each other input. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The craftsman also worked as if there were no room for error. With granite it is expensive to correct an error. This is a good one…yes we will continually correct ourselves along the way although in business as in life we forget to look at the real cost of errors and often too quickly jump into things without also looking at the downside of certain errors and misjudgements. They can cost you and I and our families years of our lives when it didn’t have to be that way. Take risks but make them calculated risks.
Last but not least what I received is to do my work and live my life “as if my work is out there for all to see possibly for one hundred years or more!” This has proven out for me. When I built the 25 Module The Complete Sales Action System…I built it to last and did not cut corners. I thought it would take 6 months…it took me a full year. That was in 1997. In the past month one bank client ordered over 120 sets of the system…17 years later. The program is still very relevant. Last year 2 Short Term Insurance Companies paid licensing rights on the system both here in South Africa and in Dubai. A big part of marketing in my opinion is deliver quality…deliver quality…deliver quality and deliver quality again. Do it right the first time. The longer more lengthy route is more often the real “short cut” to success.

Amazing…all these valuable insights that were triggered for me came from one page of Jim Janz’s 227 page book A Rendezvous with Destiny. Can you imagine what’s in the other 226 pages…if we take the time to read and practise what’s in there?

About Jim Janz:

Jim’s business operates in seven countries and territories. Jim and his wife Sharon have received many awards in the direct marketing industry including the Mark of Distinction Award from the Direct Marketing Association of Canada. He lives in British Columbia, Canada, has served as the government – appointed chairman of the Foundation Board for Trinity Western University, as a taskforce member on small business for the Province of British Columbia and as a member and the chairman of nine charitable and religious organizations over the past 38 years. He was also chairman of World Serve for 37 years.

His passion is to help people do more with their lives by discovering and fulfilling their destiny. Jim has been a business associate and good friend to me and my family for over 30 years. I highly recommend his book as a “must read” and “must use” during your Rendezvous with Your Destiny.

You can book Jim Janz as a speaker and / or order his book by contacting him on: jejanz@telus.net or http://myrendezvouswithdestiny.com/

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Bill Gibson – Turning Prospects Into New Clients

Tuesday, April 15th, 2014

All businesses have a certain amount of attrition…clients move, competitors gain them, they go out of business etc. It is vital that we have a continual flow of new prospects in our sales funnel to offset the attrition and to gain market share. Every business needs strategies, tactics and actions to Gain new clients.

This is the 4th blog article in a series of blogs on how to retain, develop, regain and gain clients. Again it’s been written in bullet form for quick reading. Let’s start with the Gain Client Description.

Gain Description

Most likely, we have not realised any business from this potential Client in the past or it has been a long time ago
Most probably there is little or no relationship with this potential Client and we have to move the Client into the “Attraction” Stage and on into the “Exploration” Stage and possibly into the “Development” Stage of the relationship
Because of the business potential we recognise that it is worth a significant effort to try and gain the business. Therefore the potential Client goes on to our Gain Prospect List

Gain Strategies / Tactics / Actions

“Be seen” at events, associations and places where this potential Client frequents
Utilize your network for introductions and referrals to key influencers within the Client Organisation
Especially treat the AAA, AA, A category Gain Clients as if they are already AAA, AA, A category Retain Clients
Invite them to functions at which our top Retain Clients are present
Establish commonalities between you and the potential Client (Rapport building)
Show long term intentions, and involve senior management with specific potential Clients
Keep the smallest of commitments, “under promise and over deliver”
Show your uniqueness and differentiators
Clarify expectations and then present the benefits and advantages of doing business with you and your company
Implement a frequency of contact plan and build a relationship with genuine assistance and helpful ideas and solutions
Utilize happy Clients as positive references
Identify the Key Power Players and gather proper information about each of them – strategise

One last suggestion. View your AAA, AA, A Gain Prospects as part of your client list. Work them and service them as if they are already AAA, AA, A Retain Clients. “Believe it and you will see it” not “I will believe it when I see it.”

The foundation of this blog article comes from Module 1 – Targeting The Right Clients of Bill Gibson’s 25 Module Complete Sales Action System.

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Bill Gibson – How To “Win Back” Lost Clients

Sunday, April 13th, 2014

Just apologizing or saying I’m sorry does not win back a client. This blog article is a follow-on to “Sure Fire Ways To Retain Your Best Clients” (Retain) and “How To Grow Those Develop Clients Into Big Retain Clients”. It will give you a list of strategies, tactics and actions that will help you “Win Back” or “Regain” previous clients. The blog article is in bullet form. Let’s start with the Regain Client Description.

Regain Description

We will have received a large, or small amount of business in the past and have not had on-going or follow-on business for a certain period of time
Past or lost relationships with the Client. We have to possibly start at, or below, ground zero and move the Client into the “Attraction” Stage and then on into the other Stages
Because of the business potential we recognise that it is worth a significant effort to try to Regain a share of the Client’s business

Regain Strategies / Tactics / Actions

Sincerely go to the Client with non-chargeable services and/or extra help to show your intent (extra mile)
Do an organogram of who the right people are, as it might have changed. Power Players & strategy
Invite to VIP functions once the mindset about us has become neutral or positive
Bring in Top Management to show our sincerity about regaining their business
Utilise success stories and mutual associates to help regain the Client’s confidence
Present new information; new management, new products, new technology, new services, new skills, etc.
Offer a “Door Opening” business gesture to spark their interest, or correct the past…a free trial on a product or service etc.
Apologise if appropriate and make it clear that we want their business
Continue with your frequency, even if their initial response is unforgiving
Even if you miss out on a couple of quotes continue with pursuing the business
Refer business to them in the spirit of rebuilding the relationship

This strategy is extremely important if your company has upset distributors or customers in recent months or years. These ideas can help gain back a loss of market share. Go for the AAA, AA, A Regain Clients first rather than the B’s and C’s.

The foundation of this blog article comes from Module 1 – Targeting The Right Clients of Bill Gibson’s 25 Module Complete Sales Action System.

Bill Gibson – How To Grow Those Develop Clients Into Big Retain Clients

Friday, April 11th, 2014

In the Wild West days there used to be a saying…“there is gold in those hills.” In your Develop column of clients you will find real gold…you already have a relationship…you just have to “mine” it. Again, for easy use…just like in the previous blog article “Sure Fire Ways To Retain Your Best Clients” the blog article is done in bullet form. Let’s start with the Develop Client Description.

Develop Description

We have a small share of the potential business they could give us and there is lots of room for growth. Probably the majority of their business is most likely placed with competitors and they haven’t seen the benefits of awarding us more business
Relationships with the client would most likely be at the “Exploration” and “Development” Stage
We need to dedicate a high level of energy and focus to develop and grow our “share of wallet” from this client (take from our competitors)

Develop Strategies / Tactics / Actions

Complete a comprehensive needs analysis / opportunity analysis on the Client Organisation.
Pro-actively look for every opportunity there is to convince the client to grow his/her amount of business with us.
Treat the AAA, AA, A category Develop Client as if they are already a AAA, AA, A category Retain Client (Believe it & you’ll see it)
Through social and business activities, start developing more of a personal professional relationship.
Match up and mingle our management and key personnel with relative and/or related client personnel
See them frequently and continually present value added suggestions, ideas and solutions (Educational, personal, business building)
Provide a high level of service on the present business you are receiving. Impress them!
Have consistent follow-up with database selling tools, newsletter, thank you’s, e-mail, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
Expand your contacts within the Client Organisation and deepen your relationships with them
Clarify who the main Power Players (Influencers) are and how to best influence them and keep that information up to date.

Review that present list of clients that you are only receiving a small share of their wallet and prioritize the ones that have the most potential for growth…then move to action. Planning alone won’t do it. Action creates clarity and remember 50% of success is just showing up!

The foundation of this blog article comes from Module 1 – Targeting The Right Clients of Bill Gibson’s 25 Module Complete Sales Action System.

Bill Gibson – Sure Fire Ways To Retain Your Best Clients

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

It’s great to gain and regain new clients but not at the expense of losing the great clients you already have. My approach to Sales and Marketing is that we have 4 main strategies. They are Retain, Develop, Regain and Gain.

In this blog article I will address the Retention (Retain) strategies, tactics and actions that you can apply with those very important AAA, AA, A Clients (Platinum). The blog article is done in bullet form to make it fast and easy to understand. We will start with the description of what a Retain Strategy is.

Retain Description

Most likely we would have a large share of the “Client’s Wallet”. (We are the supplier of choice)
The relationship would most likely be at the “Commitment” and/or “Unity” Stage
We should be dedicating sufficient energy to retaining the level of business we are receiving, looking for opportunities to increase the amount and share, as well as minimising the competition’s share (High barrier to entry)

Retain Strategies / Tactics / Actions

Be pro-active by anticipating and bringing in-depth cost savings and business building solutions to them before they see the need
Take a leadership role and be seen as a useful and resourceful partner to them
Avoid taking the Client and their personnel for granted, continue to “romance them”
Look for ways to give them special treatment and incentives for their continued loyalty (utilise appropriate governance)
Be alert to any issues that could deteriorate the relationship and act quickly with all parties involved (Slow Delivery, Conflict with credit, etc.)
Be alert to any changes with the Decision Makers, Influencers and Key People. Implement needed actions.
Make them part of all VIP functions, especially if they are AAA, AA, A Retain Clients.
Utilise frequency of contact at all levels of the Client Organisation.
With permission, carefully utilize the Client as a reference and show appreciation for that help
Jointly with their team and our team develop valuable “win-win” strategies and solutions “value propositions” for both organisations and individuals within the organisations
Seek out new markets and innovative new products and new solutions in partnership with them

Retain Risk List

At every sales meeting discuss who may be on the “Risk List” because of one or more of the following situations that may have taken place. Then put an action plan together.

Personality clash with the Sales Representative or another staff member or management person
Poor service…slow turnaround on quotes, delivery or broken promises, etc.
Competitors are aggressively pursuing them
Poorly turned down on an important quote…we cannot handle, cannot extend more credit, etc.
Showing continual unhappiness with our quotes and prices.
Hasn’t been visited for quite some time
Change in their management
Change in our sales representative who services them
Not enough personal attention
Political differences between our companies

“If A Competitor Has One Of These Situations With A Client, It Is An Opportunity To Gain Some Business”

Watch for my next blog article on the Develop Strategies, Tactics and Actions that you can apply to clients where you have a small share of their business although there is lots of room to develop them into a large Retain Client.

The foundation of this blog article comes from Module 1 – Targeting The Right Clients of Bill Gibson’s 25 Module Complete Sales Action System.

Bill Gibson – Utilise A Montage Of Photographs

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

One restaurant owner, with the permission of the customers, began taking pictures of everyone having a good time. Now he has over 1 000 photographs in a wall montage at the entrance to his restaurant. There are always people standing in front of the montage scanning the pictures for familiar faces. He could even take a data projector and have the entire display on the outside of his building at night time for impact.

Photographs are endorsements and as the old adage states “a picture can be better than a thousand words”.

Any business could do this. I know of a bulk fuel dealer who took dozens of pictures of farmers and contractors driving heavy equipment and doing farm chores. The montage of pictures he displayed had such impact that customers were asking when they were going to have their pictures on the montage wall.

If you have the opportunity to take pictures of you and famous personalities do it and display them. Show business can be fun. I have pictures with Dr John Demartini, Dr Robert Schuller “Hours of power…and they are in my marketing materials.)

In what situation could you take photographs of clients and then put up a “Photo Montage” or put it on your web-site, blog, facebook, in your ads, etc.

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Bill Gibson – Why My Closing Ratio Is 90%+

Friday, October 4th, 2013

Salespeople often ask me…why is your closing ratio so high Bill? Following is a quick summary of what I do. You may find a few tips that will work for you. My experience has shown me that on every call it is important to first become present within myself before entering the meeting and remind myself to “also listen to understand not just to respond, advise, defend and sell”. What I do sounds much like a “long affirmation”…I am open, flexible and prepared for unexpected directions, situations, objections and questions and am client focused, solution driven and relationship sensitive. I am relaxed, non-pressuring, honest and am my funfilled self in a respectful manner and remain unattached to a specific outcome. I create client value by really knowing my business and as much about the client’s business as possible. I always present value before price (client’s financial investment).The results! I continually receive an amazing amount of business from unprescribed sources. I also let the client know I would really like to have the contract and will deliver beyond expectations…and I give examples. This approach at this time is gaining me more than 90% of the business where this is a win/win fit! Again, this is my experience these days. Are there some elements in here that “ring a bell for you” or “can be used by you more often”?

Posted in Marketing - Internal & External, Sales & Key Account Management | Comments Off on Bill Gibson – Why My Closing Ratio Is 90%+

Archive for the ‘Sales & Key Account Management’ Category

Bill Gibson – Boost Your Business…Dig Deeper!

Bill Gibson – Your Perceived Self-Worth…The Key To Negotiating

Bill Gibson – The Discipline of Destiny…A Glimpse of A Chapter In Jim Janz’s great book “A Rendezvous with Destiny”

Bill Gibson – Turning Prospects Into New Clients

Bill Gibson – How To “Win Back” Lost Clients

Bill Gibson – How To Grow Those Develop Clients Into Big Retain Clients

Bill Gibson – Sure Fire Ways To Retain Your Best Clients

Bill Gibson – Utilise A Montage Of Photographs

Bill Gibson – Why My Closing Ratio Is 90%+

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