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Competitive Advantage Ezine
Formerly Sales and Marketing Strategies & News Ezine
October 13, 2005http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net
Lori Smedley, Editor lsmedley@douglaspublications.com
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CONTENTS:
* Web Marketing: Women rule the Web in e-spending
* Career Enhancement: Navigate through workplace ‘muck’
* Sales Tips: Eight tips for closing strong
* Customer Service: Great customer service is a balancing act
* Ask the Expert: Tips to tackle those top-level prospects
* Competitive Advantage: Think like a champion to be a winner
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Web Marketing
Women rule the Web in e-spending

Move over men; women rule the World Wide Web. There are more of them online, accounting for well over 50% of home Internet users, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, and they spend more than men do.

During the 2004 holiday season, women were the driving force behind online sales, which rose 25% from the previous year, to $23.2 billion, according to the e-spending report from Nielsen//NetRatings, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Harris Interactive.

Every day more women join the millions already online, so you can bet e-tailers will bend over backwards to court them. As well they should: Women use the Web far more efficiently than men do. They generally know what they’re looking for, get it, and move on to other chores. While women view fewer sites than men, they stay on them longer.

But most important to e-tailers, women quickly outspend men once they feel comfortable shopping online. Because women make most of the buying decisions in two-partner households, and growing numbers of single women are using the Web, e-tailers would do well to find out what women want and give it to them.

One thing is clear: Women don’t want a hard sell. They want information. And they want to be able to ask for more of it or have their questions answered immediately. Sites that provide a live chat feature are likely to gain women’s trust. Also, knowing that women take longer than men to feel comfortable making purchases online, e-tailers would do well to address the issue upfront, and even encourage women to search elsewhere and return when they feel ready.

Women often visit a site a dozen times or more before making a purchase, usually a modest one, around $50. After an initial success, however, women ramp up quickly, spending less time online than their male counterparts, but spending more money.

Women’s online presence was felt clearly during the 2004 holiday shopping season. Online clothing sales increased by 22% from the previous year, according to VeriSign, while photo printing and sharing sales increased an impressive 95%.

PriceGrabber.com reported sales spikes of 149% in jewelry, 239% in apparel, 153% in home and garden and 313% in flowers—making consumer electronics gains of 121% look anemic. Consumer electronics remains Overstock.com’s largest category, but the site saw a fivefold increase in clothing purchases, a category they didn’t even have 18 months ago.

“Women are flocking to the Web, and all indications are their numbers will grow even stronger in the future,” writes Sandy Berger on computer help site Compukiss.com. “It will not be surprising to see their preferences as well as their numbers influence the online world.”

As more women go online, expect the Web to become more content driven, more dynamic and more interactive, as women demand better information and the ability to communicate in real time. And expect online sales to soar, because once women discover the time- and cost-saving features of Web shopping, they’re hooked.

Advice: Given this trend, businesses should reassess online marketing messages to make sure they appeal to women. And companies should launch or augment live-chat capabilities to improve relationships with current and potential buyers.
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Career Enhancement
Navigate through workplace ‘muck’

Workplace “muck” is anything that impedes progress. Typical muck includes miscommunication, hidden agendas, disorganization, finger-pointing, personality clashes and duplicated efforts.

Here are some techniques for cutting through muck:

• Pick your battles. Wage too many battles and you will end up commanding less respect.
• Focus energy where it will count. If people show that they’re unreceptive, invest your efforts elsewhere.
• Overcommunicate. Err on the side of overdoing your instructions and feedback to reduce the chances of miscommunication, duplication of work or contradictory information.
• Ask probing questions to reveal motives, agendas, and the intent behind comments and ideas.
• Repair relationships. It can be uncomfortable, but it is important to repair damaged relationships with employees or co-workers. When not dealt with, bruised feelings get in the way of communication, work flow and results.

Lighten up. Sometimes the best approach is to laugh at something and move on.
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Sales Tips
Eight tips for closing strong

Increase your closing percentage by following these suggestions:

1. Review your personal goals. Why did you come to work today? To buy a house? To pay off debt? To take your family on a trip? Review your goals to build your determination.
2. Track your closes. On average, how many customers do you visit or call before you make a sale? Knowing the numbers keeps you from getting bogged down in rejection.
3. Practice. Rehearse your presentation—and your closing questions—with anyone who will listen. Convincing them to help is good practice in itself.
4. Expect a fight. Plan for your prospects’ resistance—in fact, welcome it as a strong buying signal.
5. Boost your spirits. Before you make a call, re-read some good, strong testimonial letters. They will help you recall the merits of your product/service.
6. Keep your cool. Don’t show your emotions—doing so can cause you to miss physical or verbal buying signals.
7. Concentrate. Don’t give in to distractions: other people, phone calls and miscellaneous interruptions. Focus 100% of your attention on the prospect.
8. Be optimistic. That’s the soul of selling.

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Companies continue to be challenged with compensating their salesforce.  Often, sales compensation plans fail because they do not motivate the right behaviors from its participants.  Many plans are redesigned, almost on an annual basis, in an effort to steer sales in the right direction, but they only succeed in encouraging the same behaviors that they were trying to avoid and increasing the discontent of an already cynical salesforce.  However, there are solutions that can encourage salespeople to perform relative to the company’s goals and objectives.

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For More Information Please Visit: http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net/Audio/Audio83.asp or Call (804) 762-9600 ext. 3.
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Customer Service
Great customer service is a balancing act

Customer service is a real balancing act. You have to juggle incoming calls, respond to e-mail, process paperwork and make follow-up calls. But you must perform another type of balancing act to provide outstanding customer service.

“The two customer service elements that need to be in balance are the technical skills (product knowledge) and the people skills (how you treat the customer),” explains Nikki Sweet, president of Customer Service University in Wellington, Fla. “Picture a seesaw at the playground. If you put your technical skills on one end of the seesaw and your people skills at the other end, then place your customer at the very center, would the customer feel ‘balanced’?

“Being balanced and comfortable makes any customer service experience more enjoyable for both you and the customer,” Sweet explains. Use these tips to bring your service into balance:

• Understand the benefits of balance. Sweet recently worked with a high-tech company where that wasn’t the case—and the results were very dissatisfied customers, Sweet says.
  
  “The company provides customer service to the end users of its products. The support reps are highly skilled technically, able to troubleshoot problems and provide solutions. But customer surveys rated their service experiences as ‘poor’ to ‘fair’ due to the ‘attitude’ of the support reps.”
  
  Customers had no problems with the technical service they received, but they felt mistreated by abrupt and impersonal service reps. “The reps were serving from the technical side at nearly 80%, directing only 20% of their attention towards people skills such as being friendly, understanding, listening, acknowledging customers’ frustration, reassuring customers that they’d be taken care of and thanking them for calling. The customer in the middle of the “seesaw” was sliding toward the technical end, resulting in a not-so-great overall experience.”
• Warm up your people skills. Sweet advises taking these steps in every customer interaction:
  • Welcome your customers. Give each a warm greeting and a friendly smile. That’s important even when you’re on the phone.
  • Make customers feel special. Use their names during your conversations. “It makes them feel important, and they appreciate the personalized service,” Sweet points out. “Treat customers the way you’d want your family members to be treated.”
  • Be highly attentive to needs. Ask customers how you can help. Comfort them with the assurance that you will make everything OK.
  • Always thank your customers. In addition to thanking customers for their business and their patience, sincerely tell them it was a privilege to serve them.
• Sharpen your technical skills. Don’t go to the other side of the “seesaw.” If you’re cordial and caring with customers but lack the technical knowledge to help them, they will still end up dissatisfied with their overall service experience. So learn about the products you are supporting and know how they work. And make sure you can answer all the basic—and not-so-basic—questions that your customers are likely to ask.

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Ask the Expert
Tips to help you tackle those top-level prospects
By Terry Booton

Which is easier? Starting at the top and climbing down a ladder, or starting at the bottom and climbing up? Most would agree that climbing down is an easier task. Yet, many salespeople prefer to start at the bottom in prospects’ organizations and fight their way up to the top decision-maker.

Sure, calling on the top decision-maker may seem intimidating. In fact, you may be able to offer any number of excuses:

• “Presidents don’t get involved in these decisions.”
• “I can’t get past her secretary.”
• “The CEO won’t talk to someone like me.”

Actually, any intimidation you feel is unfounded. Company presidents are among the easiest people to reach. Reason: Like you, top decision-makers are interested in making money. If you can show them ways to do that, they will be very interested in listening to what you have to say.

However, you must earn the right to spend time with them. That requires two things. You must:

• Have comprehensive knowledge of your product or service and your customer’s business.
• Be able to use that knowledge to show decision-makers how you can save them money or increase their profits.

Bottom line: If you plan to call on presidents and CEOs, be fully prepared. Have something of real value to offer and know all about it. Top-level prospects won’t give you time if you can’t explain the specific benefits they will receive if they buy.

Don’t try to force-fit your product or service to the customer. Think like the customer: Learn about what the person needs, learn how your product or service can fill those needs and have a positive impact on the decision-maker’s income statement.

Take these five steps before you attempt to set an appointment with a top decision-maker:

1. Understand the customer’s industry in general and business in specific.
2. Know your competition for that business.
3. Prepare a cost justification for your product or service.
4. List references—the names and phone numbers of current satisfied customers.
5. Identify an “earth-shattering” point about your product or service that will grab the decision-maker’s attention quickly.

Then, search for an innovative way to make contact. One of the best: Take advantage of networking. Ask the top decision-maker in one of your current customer organizations to give you the names of some of his or her friends. Ask that person to contact those associates for you, introduce you and help you set up an appointment.

Terry Booton is the author of Cracking New Accounts and President of Advanced Marketing Instruction, he’s a speaker, consultant and sales trainer.
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Competitive Advantage
Think like a champion to be a winner

Champion athletes know they have to adopt a winner’s mindset long before they actually start dominating the field. To succeed in the workplace, you need to think like a winner. Here’s how:

• Pay attention to what isn’t working. Just as star athletes have to modify training regimens that aren’t working, you may have to change your plans if they aren’t producing results. Don’t ignore information that might force you to change your goal or do things you don’t like.
• Assume there is a solution for every problem. That attitude will clarify your thinking and open your mind to novel ideas. It will also keep you going if your first solution doesn’t work.
• Control your emotions. When experiencing a setback, psych yourself up to continue trying your best by thinking aggressive, positive, courageous thoughts.
• Think long term. Don’t allow yourself to lose motivation or become disheartened if success eludes you. Most people entering a new business master 95% of what they need to know within one to two years. After that, the work becomes largely routine.

However, the last 5% is where all the significant progress occurs, and mastering that takes five to 10 years to accomplish.
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Competitive Advantage e-zine, formerly Sales and Marketing Strategies & News E-zine, is published by Douglas Publications LLC.
Visit us at http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net.
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