SERVICE ORIENTED SELLING: Perspectives That Serve # 10

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Welcome to "SUCCESSPATH SELLING SERVICE ORIENTED SELLING", a site designed to "Revolutionize Your Approach To Sales and Marketing" . Our goals are to offer ideas and resources that will help you make increasingly high levels of income by offering increasingly high levels of service. This site is for corporate sales and marketing professionals, small business owners who sell, and direct marketers. It is for anyone who is tired of the old, manipulative "me first" and "get all you can" methods. Servant sales people sell their products, services, and themselves with refreshing and sometimes radical "How Can I Serve You?" attitudes and strategies. It is our hope to offer new, contemporary, fresh approaches, integrated with timeless principles that will give your customers "WOW" Experiences". In the process we hope to lead you toward tremendous career success, satisfaction, and significance. Topics we cover include all parts of a sales presentation, time management, creativity, people skills, competition, attitude and more... all from our unique "Servant Selling" perspective.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Perspectives That Serve # 10 - Future Orientation

A future focus or orientation is critical. You are going to spend your whole life there. My Dad has this in spades. He has always had a bent this way, but it is even more impressive at age 74 (when I’m writing this) during a phase of life where the tendency is to slough off and reminisce about the past. For Dad, life is still all about the future.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 3: 13-14. It starts out like this,
“ Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race…” Of course we can all learn and grow from each of our past life experiences. Productive reflection is critical if we want to optimize our future. They key is to squeeze all the learning out of an experience and then move on to the future.

Many people live a “whatever” life. There is no direction, destination, or preferred future that they care about. This certainly isn’t they way life is meant to be lived. To live fully we must have a series of “I can hardly wait” activities, events, goals, and plans lined up in front of us. These “I can hardly wait” things can be simple daily routines that get us out of bed in the morning as well as once in a lifetime peak experiences. In fact, I believe we all need a good healthy mix of both.

I have an extensive life list of big and small adventures that I am incorporating in my life...my own "Bucket List". I have bungee jumped, gone around a NASCAR Track at 165 MPH, gone hang gliding, bicycled to Death Valley, completed triathlons, biathlons, 1/2 marathons, and more. This coming weekend (as I write this) I am flying to Denver to go indoor sky diving with some friends. But I also look forward to reading the daily news paper, exercise, a trip to Starbucks, my breakfast fruit medley, my protein shake, writing, training, coaching, volunteering at church, a movie, a massage, an occasional TV show, and walking my dog. I most look forward to any activity with Susy... walks, meals, a movie, watching an episode of American Idol, working on a church project, just hanging out, a drive to the beach, dancing, sharing ideas about books we're reading... it's all wonderful.

I intentionally intersperse my days, weeks, months, and years with a whole potpourri of “I can hardly wait” activities. Your peak experiences, life list, and perfect day may look totally different than mine. But you can begin to shape and mold a life you can’t wait for.

This applies to your sales career at least three ways. First, there should be aspects and activities in your work that are intrinsically rewarding. There should be big chunks of work that you look forward to just because it is enjoyable. Second, there should be career goals and milestones you are reaching for. You should have something meaningful to accomplish. Hopefully this accomplishment ties into some mission that makes the world a little bit better. And thirdly, the income should provide opportunities to reach a preferred future in others areas of life as well. A good income can help you reach other faith, family, finance, and fitness futures that are important to you.

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Servant Sales Maxims

Why else get out of bed in the morning?
Organizations exist to serve. Period.
~Tom Peters

A business is simply an idea to make other peoples lives better.

~Sir Richard Branson, Billionaire

My staff’s job is to adjust to circumstances with technical precision and artful grace so that every patron has a wonderful experience.

~Danny Meyer

My secret was focusing on the needs of other people. I constantly asked the question "How can I add something of value to other people's lives?" Through this thought process I became a leader... I went from living hand-to-mouth to more than a million dollar net worth in less than one year.

~Tony Robbins

We're running a company to serve more people.

~Mark Zuckerberg

Never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers. Make every decision - even decisions about whether to expand the business, raise money, or promote someone - according to what's best for your customers. If you're ever unsure what to prioritize, just ask your customers the open-ended question, "How can I best help you now?" Then focus on satisfying those requests."

~Derek Sivers

Our competitive advantage is that when we make a promise we keep it.

~Warren Buffett

Help people do what they already want to do.

~B.J. Fogg

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

~Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

There is a clear goal and it isn't to make money. The goal is to desperately try to make the best products we can. We are not naive - if you trust it, people like it, They like it, they buy it and we make money. This is a consequence.

~Jony Ive, Senior Vice-President of Design at Apple

Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.

~Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

For us, our most important stakeholder is not our stockholders, it is our customers. We're in business to serve the needs and desires of our core customer base.

~John Mackey

The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates a customer.

~Shiv Singh

Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.

~Mark Cuban, Shark Tank Shark

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.

~Roger Staubach, Quarterback, Realtor

A business devoted to service will only have one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

~Henry Ford

When life is about caring for the orchard, rather than picking the apples, you get more apples to eat.

~Nicholas Lore

The well-served customer...is an appreciating asset. Every small act on her or his behalf ups the odds of repeat business, add-on business, and price-less word-of-mouth referral.

~Tom Peters

Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same.

~Og Mandino

Don't be reluctant to give of yourself generously. It's the mark of caring and compassion and personal greatness.

~Brian Tracy, Author of The Psychology of Selling

There is no difference between selling and customer service; they are the same thing.

~Kip Tindell, Co-Owner, The Container Store

Focus on the promise, not the prize.
~Leslie Mayer, Wharton School of Business

I kept on improving as a salesperson because I kept on learning better ways to service the customer.
~Patrick McCarthy, Nordstrom's All-Time Top Salesperson

Stop worrying about the money and concentrate on serving the customer, the money will follow.
~Patrick Kennedy, Nordstrom's Sales Manager

I realized early on that I didn't need to worry about whether they did business with me or not. I needed to help them make a good decision. If, at the end of the conversation, they didn't need to buy a home or, later in my life, get into real estate, or later, buy one of our franchises, then I didn't want them to do it. I never needed to worry about me. I just needed to worry about them.
~Gary Keller of Keller-Williams, the fourth-largest and fastest growing real estate firm in North America

You don't fall in love with online marketing. It's only a distribution channel. You fall in love with the clients, the people you can reach and the benefit, the impact, the enhancement, the contribution you can make in their life. One of the biggest philosophical breakthroughs we have established in the business arena which I think is directly applicable here is teaching people how to adopt the attitude of what I'll call a "super-servant". The more you realize the concept of being a "super-servant", the more you will take full control of your life. It's not dependency, it's liberation.

~Jay Abraham, Business Consultant

I define selling as a process of identifying and fulfilling people's wants or needs, and creating value for them. It's a mutual win-win activity, where both sides benefit from the transaction.
~Ron Willingham, Integrity Selling

Stop getting and start giving!When you are in the “how I can GET a client” mode, you are focused on you – and that doesn’t make you very attractive. Shift your thinking to “how I can GIVE clients more VALUE” and you’ll become an irresistible client magnet!

~Adam Urbanski, Marketing Consultant

Forget about the sales you hope to make and concentrate on the service you want to render… I tell our salespeople that if they would start out each morning with the thought, “I want to help as many people as possible today“, instead of “I want to make as many sales as possible today“, they would find a more easy and open approach to their buyers and they would make more sales. The person who goes out to help people to a happier and easier way of life is exercising the highest type of salesmanship.
~Harry Bullis, Former Chairman of the Board, General Mills

"When you’re needy it’s difficult to truly care about your customers.”
~unknown wise person

“My challenge was to be patient. There’s no percentage in trying to push the river or speed up the harvest. The farmer who’s so eager to help crops grow that he slips out at night and tugs on the shoots inevitably ends up going hungry.”
~Phil Jackson, Basketball Coach

“What the losers don’t realize is that big money-makers aren’t lucky, and they don’t wait for breaks, and they know how to take care of a new client. To emulate the super-salesperson, you must give your new customer a lot of thought. You must make darned sure that he’s glad that he met you and that he continues feeling that way. You must see to it that he never forgets your name and that you won’t forget his. You must make sure that your new client becomes a customer who will buy from you again and again and again, and will recommend you to his friends and associates. There’s only one way to make all this happen: You must do what I do. Do it with service!
~Joe Gandolfo

“I just discovered many years ago that Major Transformational Experiences don’t pay the rent. What pays the rent is small things done consistently in strategic places. Small things done consistently in strategic places create major impact.”
~David Allen, Efficiency Coach

“A good sales presentation should be like a woman’s skirt… long enough to cover everything but short enough to keep the interest.”
~Unknown Wise Person

“Selling is helping people discover the value for something they haven’t discovered the value of.”
~Jerry Gilles

“When you drink water, remember the well.”
~Zen Saying

“I am convinced by my own experience, and by that of others, that if there is any secret of success it lies in the ability to get another person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own.”
~Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

“Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service.”
~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is no such thing as hard sell and soft sell. There is only “smart sell” and “stupid sell.”
~Charles H. Browser, Ad Executive

"Use visual sales aids, they are 15 times more powerful than words. The average attention span of the average prospect is 3 sentences."
~Brian Tracy, Sales Tracy

“If you are trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language in which they think.”
~David Olgilvy, Advertising Giant

"Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full - pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."
~Jesus Christ, From Luke 6:38, New Living Translation

"You can get everything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want."
~Zig Ziglar, Sales Trainer

"You heighten your own life when you help others heighten theirs."~Les Brown

I slept and dreamt that life was joy,
I awoke and saw that life was service,
I acted and behold, service was joy.
~Rabindranath Tagore

If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it.

~Harper Lee, From To Kill a Mockingbird

In an age of universal deceipt, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

~George Orwell

There is a whole lot of growing up between "it fell" and "I broke it".

~Anonymous, World Renown Philosopher

Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

~Jesus Christ, From Mark 10:43

To often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

~Leo Buscaglia

Every single person on the planet is rewarded for one thing and one thing only, and that is for serving other people. The more you serve others, the higher your reward.

~Larry Winget

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others succeed."

~Napoleon Hill

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

~Anne Frank

"You are responsible...for the customer understanding/utilizing the product! If the customer has problems in usage...blame yourself!"

~Tom Peters

SSAT (Servant Selling Achievement Test

1. List 7 ways you serve your customers and exceed their expectations.

2. List 3 things you regularly do for each associate that you work with to make them feel special.

3. How do you personalize your marketing? How often do you send a hand written note with your signature in real ink?

4. How well do you listen? Do you give customers what they want or what you think they want?

5. List 3 recent mistakes you personally made in handling a customer. How did you fix it? Was the customer satisfied? How do you know?

6. How do you treat team members who make mistakes? Give a recent example.

7. What sort of tools do you have in place to get customer feed back? What do you do with the information when you get it?

8. List 3 "New" things you've personally introduced... products, services, ways of thinking about things. How have they benefited your customer? Do you have an ongoing mindset of introducing new things that serve your customers?

9. Do you belong to any groups, formal or informal, where you exchange ideas on sales and service?

10. From your previous answers, list 3 new ideas you've come up with to improve your Servant Selling and exceeding customer expectations.

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Friday, April 4, 2008

Perspectives That Serve # 10 - Future Orientation

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