The first step is identifying and defining the five stages within the customer lifecycle: Prospects are non-customers who fit the profile of a target customer.
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Full buyers are customers who buy only from you. Full buyers look to you for advice and guidance, and most importantly, they speak highly of your company to their friends and associates. At risk customers have become dissatisfied with or lost faith in the products or services you offer. As such, they have the potential of defecting, and moving their business elsewhere. Some at risk customers show themselves in an open manner by a large decrease in spending while others are more passive and covert in their approach.
Understanding these five customer stages is essential to developing effective marketing and communication strategies to better manage your customer relationships.
Each of these five customer segments has its own unique set of experiences, expectations, needs and desires from an organization. In order to fully maximize the revenue and profit potential each segment holds, different sales and marketing strategies should be applied to each of the five customer types. Acquisition strategies encompass sales and marketing ideas designed to acquire new customers. Activation strategies move first-time buyers to limited buyers.
The core objectives include welcoming new customers, educating them to what you have to offer, and persuading them to purchase as many times as possible in order to create a consistent buying pattern. The more hooks there are into a given customer, the stronger his or her relationship becomes with your organization. Retention strategies cover sales and marketing efforts that reinforce the customer value proposition when it has been lost. Key warning indicators — declining sales volume, customer complaints — often signal dissatisfaction and predict the likelihood of attrition. There are many situations where this approach can be appropriate and successful.
Here are three general scenarios:. Anything relating to the product color, size, shape, etc. Identifying the cost to the user and determining a pricing strategy. Using an array of communications tools advertising, sales promotions, public relations, etc. Being successful means learning to manipulate the marketing mix in a proactive manner, rather than merely reacting to what your competitors do. Winning organizations understand the need to constantly change and move. Other organizations just react. The most forceful benefits are those that offer customers emotional or financial rewards. Products that bring financial rewards translate into the customer saving money, making money, or gaining time and convenience.
For example, the more service-oriented your business is, the more the customer is buying. Harms cautions that the needs of retail customers differ from those of business-to-business B2B customers. Obviously, your pricing strategy has a great effect on how well your product does in the marketplace. But basing your marketing approach primarily on the element of price can undermine your entire business, warn the TEC experts. In general, companies operating within the same industry in a specific locale use a similar cost structure.
When one competitor cuts prices, others usually follow. The result is that any advantage gained by the first competitor is quickly lost. Any long-term strategy based on reduced prices entails very real risks. It can eventually drive a company out of business. Promotion refers to all the tools available to communicate to your customers and prospects.
The primary channels include: Any endeavor to generate a positive image or message for your product is considered public relations. Tools include press kits, press releases and PSAs public service announcements , and maintaining contact with reporters in print and electronic media. Although the Founding Fathers would disagree, not everyone is created equal — at least not in business anyways.
Choosing the right clients can enhance the speed and quality of your ultimate success. When looking at potential clients, ask yourself these questions:. Do they have realistic expectations of your product and service? Is there good chemistry? Is the work challenging? Do they pay on time? Do they have additional needs?
Customer Profiles
Do they have referrals for future work? There are three types of customers at Netflix. One group likes the convenience of free home delivery, the movie buffs want access to the widest selection of, say, French New Wave or Bollywood films, and the bargain hunters want to watch 10 or more movies for 18 bucks a month. We need to keep all the audiences happy because the more someone uses Netflix, the more likely they are to stay with us.
How do you perform the market and competitive studies that are necessary to equip your team with the information it needs to make good decisions? So you have finally held your first strategic planning meeting: You have now set the stage for the many potential benefits of disciplined analysis and decision-making. Expectations from your management team are high. Whether you are a first time strategic planner or you are a veteran of many cycles of the process, you realize that you need good information if you are going to make good decisions.
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Then comes the biggest challenge: How do we perform the market and competitive studies that are necessary to equip the team with the information it needs to make good decisions? Few of us in management have ever had the task not to mention the job description of a market research specialist. In spite of the ever-increasing access we have to information today, it is still a daunting challenge for the uninitiated to find the sources and quickly distill the information required for good planning. In this article, we will identify the easiest and most direct ways to get your research off the ground.
A recent visit to the Management Library at the University of Rochester put me in touch with Suzanne Bell, a management data librarian. The good news is that many useful sources of information are available on the Internet. This is good news if you enjoy the prospect of conducting this effort from the comfort of your office chair.
The bad news is that many of the best sources, like the best things in life, are not free. For the most part, the most complete sources of information on the web are available through subscription services. The favorites in this category are among a list of prominent, long-standing information providers: It is no big surprise to discoverthat most of the information from these services concerns public companies and their markets.
Subscription rates typically run a few thousand dollars per service per year. Fees for single use depend on the level of detail that you seek. For some companies, this would not be too much to pay if it provided them with a few critical pieces of information about an important direct competitor or market opportunity.
The price tag becomes high, however, if you take this approach for a dozen competitors and a handful of market segment analysis. If all of this is beyond your budget, do not despair: If you are lucky, they will allow a limited amount of use of their subscriptions through a community membership arrangement.
Armed with a list of your major competitors and market segments, a volunteer from your firm could gather a significant amount of information in a single afternoon for free! For competitor analysis , the first logical step is to go right to the source: It is safe to say that, today, most companies have established their own Internet presence.
Customer Targeting
If all else fails, try guessing the address using the format www. Beyond this, of course, one may find all sorts of other interesting data e. Of course, one must keep in mind that the information provided there is primarily for marketing purposes. Claims that the company makes on its own behalf concerning product superiority or outstanding customer service should be measured against indicators from other, more objective sources.
Often people have not taken the time needed to know their customers cold. First , they try to sell the prospect the notion that they are right and the prospect should become a customer. The successful entrepreneur is listening from the very beginning, in order to change and adapt more quickly to real market needs. Market research is often lacking in entrepreneurial endeavors because it can seem difficult and expensive. The trick to avoiding the trap is to apply dogged determination to the task.
That means subjecting yourself to sometimes harsh market feedback. If you are starting a new business in a previously untapped market, there is no substitute for primary research. Entrepreneurs on a budget may feel unable to apply formal market research techniques, but a simple four-step process can be effective:. If your product is for a highly targeted market, and direct sales calls will be your method of selling, start by identifying the type of person you expect to sell to and engage in a mock sales call to understand what such people find interesting.
If your product is aimed at a mass market, it may be more beneficial to recruit small numbers of people for focus groups until you have a feel for the market, and then validate it further using a survey. Market research is a prelude to selling. It teaches you a great deal about what you will need to know to develop your offering for the market and whether your offering is even worth developing.
A positive and aggressive attitude toward market research enables entrepreneurs to make that most critical of decisions: Should I spend the next several years of my life on this business? If you have decided to become an entrepreneur, then also decide to become a market researcher. Ultimately, the two are inseparable. A company recently asked us to help them better understand how their target market is likely to respond to a new computer software product under development. Since they were calling us for the first and only market research work on this proposed new product, we advised them that they were doing it in the wrong sequence.
There is simply no good reason to fail to listen to the marketplace for guidance in developing a new product before those significant development costs are incurred. At its essence, business strategic planning consists of defining an offering for a specified, target market.
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Like so many other business decisions, the objective of this effort is to generate ideas for which customers will pay a profitable price. The starting place for effective strategic planning is to hypothesize how customers perceive value in the realm of the proposed business unit. Contrary to what we might hope, customers are not all the same.
They come in many shapes and sizes, and their needs and wants are varied as well. If the product has multiple benefits, different parts of the marketplace will value those benefits. He shares instructive anecdotes and step-by-step guidelines on how to develop the style, spirit, and presence of a winning salesperson. No matter what you sell, you will be more efficient and profitable—and more valuable to your company. Tom educates on how to succeed in sales, including new information on using the latest research techniques and using e-mail and online resources to generate deals more quickly and efficiently.
Here in a short, compact and concise format is the basics of how to persuade more people more effectively, more ethically, and more often. Mastery synthesizes the years of research Robert Greene conducted and demonstrates that the ultimate form of power is mastery itself. This easy-to-follow guide helps you beat today's cold calling obstacles, such as voice mail, cell phones, and e-mail. Schiffman's professional experience and corporate wisdom guarantee your future success.
The Secrets of Question Based Selling provides a step-by-step, easy-to-follow program that focuses specifically on sales effectiveness—identifying the strategies and techniques that will increase your probability of success. If you have no previous sales experience, this book can be your quickstart guide to B2B sales.
If you already have a sales background, you'll find the step-by-step action guides, proven templates and detailed strategies helpful to take your sales game to the next level. In this graphic adaptation of his best-seller, Robert B. He leads a team of special forces through a battleground filled with psychological sneak attacks designed to elicit pre-programmed responses from unknowing victims. Use data, technology, and inbound selling to build a remarkable team and accelerate sales The Sales Acceleration Formula provides a scalable, predictable approach to growing revenue and building a winning sales team.
Customer Centered Selling teaches the secrets of the world-famous Xerox sales training by reversing the conventional selling practices of searching for customer needs, pitching product, and adopting an order-taking mentality. When they compared the winners to the second-place finishers, they found surprising results. Not only do sales winners sell differently, they sell radically differently, than the second-place finishers. Use these sure-fire strategies to crack into big accounts, shrink your sales cycle and close more business.
Check out the Account Entry Toolkit for ideas on how to apply this process to your own unique business. Through the dialogue of the two main characters the authors have fashioned an entertaining story to present the key concepts essential to sales success. That failing and failure are two very different things Why it's important to celebrate success and failure How to get past failures quickly and move on That the most empowering word in the world is not yes Selling to Vito contains all the tactics you need to get appointments with impossible-to-reach top decision-makers.
This book conveys the experience of more than men of great wealth, who began at scratch, with nothing to give in return for riches except thoughts, ideas and organized plans. Here you have the entire philosophy of moneymaking, just as it was organized from the actual achievements of the most successful men in America in the first half of the 20th century. From Impossible to Inevitable details the hypergrowth playbook of companies like the record-breaking Zenefits , Salesforce.
Doctors, housewives, ministers, parents, teachers … everyone has to "sell" their ideas and themselves to be successful. This new guide by America's 1 professional in the art of persuasion focuses on the most essential part of the sale—how to make them say "Yes, I will! Learn how to convert leads to sales, motivate yourself and motivate others, give killer presentations, and keep your sense of humor.
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In Sell or Be Sold, Cardone breaks down the techniques and approaches necessary to master the art of selling in any avenue. You will learn how to handle rejection, turn around negative situations, shorten sales cycles, and guarantee yourself greatness. Cardone will also teach you the success essentials of selling in a bad economy. The Greatest Salesman in the World is a book, written by Og Mandino, that serves as a guide to a philosophy of salesmanship, and success, telling the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who achieves a life of abundance.
Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity--principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. Internationally recognized sales strategist Jill Konrath shows how to overcome customer hesitation to get more appointments, speed up decisions, and win sales.
Drawing on her years of selling experience, as well as the stories of other successful sellers, she offers four SNAP rules:. Contrary to popular sales training, you don't have to make presentations to everyone who will listen. You don't have to be subservient, forfeit your self-respect, or fake enthusiasm about your product or service.
In fact, you don't have to be enthusiastic at all. And, you never have to lie! Prospects never control anyone who has mastered David Sandler's revolutionary 7-step program for top sales. The purpose of this book is to give you a series of ideas, methods, strategies, and techniques that you can use immediately to make more sales, faster and easier than ever before. This book, based on a very successive course given to thousands of people, shows the art and science of making first contact with complete strangers. The secret is in the preparation and approach, rather than having the gift of the gab, that will enable even yellow-bellied chickens to make that call with confidence.
How do you succeed in the profession of selling while also maintaining your sanity, avoiding ulcers and heart attacks, continuing in a good relationship with your spouse and children, meeting your financial obligations, and preparing for those ""golden years"", and still have a moment you can call your own? Zig Ziglar shows you how. If you specialize in complex sales, the business-to-business transactions that involve multiple decisions made by multiple people from multiple perspectives, this is the book for you!
It presents The Prime Process—a diagnostic, customer-centered approach that clearly sets you apart from your competition and positions you with respect and credibility as a valued and trusted advisor. A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline.
Its concept is simple: Only by getting to know your customers and their needs — and believing that you can meet those needs — will you enjoy relationships with customers built on trust and reap the rewards of high sales. While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you're after big goals, you don't want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action.
In this quick read, author Linda Richardson encapsulates, in a very simple and straightforward fashion, the entire sales cycle. She simplifies where other sales books complexify, making it clear that there's no reason that any reasonably intelligent person can't move a sale forward. It's perfect for entrepreneurs and professional salespeople alike.
It's difficult to overestimate the enormous influence that Tom Hopkins has had on the world of sales. He was the first to recognize that what's now considered commonplace: In addition to being a groundbreaking business book See Top 10 Most Influential Business Books , Og Mandino's classic helps the reader discover the positive "why" behind selling, reframing the act of selling from something that's manipulative to the act of helping other people achieve their dreams. There's a reason why Zig Ziglar's death last November generated an outpouring of tributes from nearly every corner of the business world.