Sales – Do we talk too much and listen too little?

When your salesperson makes a presentation, how much time do they spend talking about the product or service they are selling and how much time do they spend listening to the customer’s needs or desires?

Do they jump right into the presentation without determining what attributes or qualities of their product or service the customer will be most interested in?

In other words, how do they know what “floats the customer’s boat” unless they have listened intently to what the customer is saying?

Instead of monopolizing the majority of their customer’s valuable time talking about things that may or may not be of interest to the customer, they need to spend more time asking questions, soliciting input and allowing the customer to be more involved in the sales process. They should continue to ask questions and clarify the customer’s responses until they know what interests need to be satisfied for that customer to agree to the sale.

Once they have determined the customer’s needs or interests, they can tailor their presentation to highlight the appropriate attributes of the product or service they are trying to sell. If they don’t spend the time investigating the customer’s “hot buttons”, than your salesperson will walk away without the sales and with the same amount of knowledge they had before the call, or worse, they may lose their credibility and possibly future sales to that customer.

One last thought, a thorough “interview” of the customer will open doors for future sales. You will most likely have other products or services that this customer is not currently using that fill a need or interest that they have just shared with you.

Remember that you were born with two ears and one mouth, so realistically, you should listen twice as much as you speak.

If you would like more information on this topic or my consulting services, please contact me at cmzassociates.com or 610-369-5067. Let me show you how I can help you to build a High Performance Workforce.

Have a great day,

Chris Zobel – President – CMZ Associates

Sales - How deep is your bench?

If you saw the AFL playoff game between the Colts and the Chargers, you saw the Chargers starting Quarterback leave the field with an injury late in the first half, forcing the team to put their back up Quarterback into the most crucial game of the 2007 season. The back up QB not only performed well, he performed well enough to insure the win against the Colts.
All championship caliber sports teams have a deep bench. They have players who can step on the field at a moments notice and fill in for an injured or tired “starter”. And on successful teams they perform well, because they have been trained and coached for that particular moment when they are put into the game for a play, a quarter or the remainder of the season.
Do you have players on your bench that are capable and prepared to jump into your starting lineup at a moments notice?
Have they been coached and trained to the level that they can perform the duties and responsibilities of their position without negatively impacting the success of your Team?
Many beverage wholesalers depend on their supervisory or management staff to fill in when a sales rep becomes injured, goes on vacation or quits. Although the supervisor or manager is well qualified to fill in, is it really an efficient use of their time and your money?
Have you ever put a pencil to the cost of paying manager’s wages for sales rep responsibilities? Additionally, what happens to the daily tasks and responsibilities that the manager or supervisor can not perform because they are doing the sales reps job?
Some wholesalers use a “swing driver” system or their merchandise team as their bench. This is certainly an adequate solution to this problem but are these “substitutes” trained and coached on a regular basis?
How many of these individuals are included in regular sales meetings, training sessions, vendor presentations, etc.?
Are they up to speed on the current monthly programming?
Is it really important to include the “bench” in your meetings and planning sessions? I guess it depends on how successful you want to be and how prepared you want to be for the unexpected. If the #2 QB for San Diego had not been included in their practice sessions throughout the season, the Colts would have played the Patriots for the AFC Championship.

What is your opinion on this topic?

Need some help with your bench? Give me a call – 610-369-5067


Chris Zobel – CMZ Associates

Your best sales rep just resigned! Now What??

Sales – How does Employee turnover impact your bottomline?

John Jones, a sales supervisor, who has been with your company for 15 years, walks into your office on Friday and hands you his letter of resignation. You are shocked, as you had no indication he was intending to leave.

Peter Smith, a Star sales rep who calls on the accounts in the upscale section of town, is offered a lucrative position in a new industry and is scheduled to start with this new company in 3 weeks.

Obviously these examples are fictional but not out of the realm of reality when you manage a business in today’s Beverage Industry.

What system do you have in place to address these issues?
Do you know the financial impact, on your company, of these situations?
What amount have you budgeted for “employee turnover” this year?

If the answer is zero, you are not alone; unfortunately you are also not being realistic in regards to your budgeting process.

To understand the financial impact of these situations, you first have to analyze the wide reaching impact of Employee turnover. There are significant costs involved in all of the following areas:
Interviewing, advertising and other costs associated with hiring, such as travel, meals, etc.
Training and retraining time
Lost customers, sales and opportunities
Unemployment lawsuits and other hiring or termination litigation
Potential loss of proprietary information to your competition
Reduced or lost productivity
Management time taken away from normal, essential job responsibilities
Various ripple effects in other areas of your business, depending upon the employee’s position.

Experts in the Human Resource industry estimate the cost of turnover ranges from 1.5 to 7 times the value of that employee’s annual compensation package. (The higher range pertains to costs associated with litigation, buy outs, contracts, etc.)
Now that your attention is focused on the significant costs associated with turnover, wouldn’t you want to reduce your financial exposure by improving your hiring practices?

Contact me and we can discuss how I can help you address these concerns.

Chris Zobel CMZ Associates 610-369-5067