"Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth."
Doc Rivers
A true sales professional understands the importance that client feedback provides in how they run their business.
They proactively listen to the voice of their clients.
If you want to stay ahead of competition you should never stop listening to client feedback whether it is positive or negative, prompted or unprompted.
If you fail to continually discover what your clients actually think about you and how you've been helping them, then you will never be able to give them the best client experience they deserve.
It's their opinions about the experience they have with you that is helpful to use to adjust your support to fit their needs more accurately.
Sales professionals seek the truth from their clients. Sales reps struggle to ask their clients for the truth.
CRAVE FEEDBACK
To truly serve your clients is to listen to them. Intently listen to their voices through consistent and constant feedback. Treat your clients like royalty, providing everything to match their wants and needs all the time.
- How do you know if what you're doing is working?
- How do you know if your clients are happy with their experiences?
- What do they like and dislike?
- How are you keeping up with what's going on inside their company?
Client feedback is the breakfast of sales champions. The single best thing you can do is to go to your clients and ask for feedback.
"Forget Wheaties, Cheerios or Oatmeal, Selling From the Heart Champions eat feedback for breakfast."
I'm a huge fan of Deb Calvert and her book, "Stop Selling and Start Leading", from her book...
"When you give your buyers feedback, you are giving them a gift. In turn, they'll understand what works and what doesn't work in your interactions. When you seek and respond to feedback from your buyers, you differentiate yourself, set an example, and make it easier for them to hear your suggestions."
I encourage you to seek honest, candid and sometime uncomfortable feedback from your clients. A sales professional knows this makes them better. In order to get great feedback, one must become vulnerable. Shall I say, surrender.
BE COURAGEOUS AND ASK
How can you take your "sales game" to the next level? It's simple, feedback will set you free!
It's the feedback you get from a cross section of your clients that will provide the avenues to grow the relationships.
Courage must become your best friend. A professional with courage can ask those tough personal questions and welcome the answers to improve their performance.
If you can listen with humility and capture the opportunity to improve yourself, the truth from your clients becomes a gift.
Sales professionals lead with courage
Here is a quick tip to start you on your way. Place your clients into three buckets:
- You love them and they love you
- Challenging
- Middle of the road clients, ones you just don't hear much from
The best place to start gathering feedback is from those clients who have been placed in the "middle of the road" bucket.
Here is the deal. You may not see them on a consistent basis, and you may tell yourself, "all is well" but in actuality they may become vulnerable to a hostile competitive takeover.
It's these "middle of the road" clients which I bet is 75% of your clients that need the love, the attention and the enhanced client experience.
FEEDBACK REESTABLISHES THE RELATIONSHIP
The opportunities for growth with these "middle of the road" clients is huge.
I'm confident you've established a relationship, but the question becomes, "How credible is the relationship?"
Courageously dig in and ask...
- What can I do differently?
- What can I do to improve or enhance my service to you?
- What can I do to help you do better business?
I'm asking you to rock the boat on this one because a comfortable mindset with these clients is a terrible thing to waste.
Think of the competition as they circle your clients just waiting for the right moment to reel them into their establishments of paradise.
The voice of your clients is priceless, never stop listening!
Deepen the relationship with feedback. Show you care! Show you mean it! Your clients are your most precious asset!
JUST INVEST THE TIME
Invest the time to enhance the experience. Investing in client feedback is a source of business growth. The opportunities for referrals become mind-blowing.
"Take care of your clients and they will take care of you"
Asking for feedback from your clients isn’t easy; but you risk more, both in terms of personal growth and professional prosperity, if you shy away from it.
Live up to the promises you made and what was expected of you when your clients decided to do business with you.
Your clients, they are the most important stakeholders. It is mission critical to listen to their feedback. However, collecting client feedback is the first step to ensuring an outstanding experience. It’s what you do with the feedback that truly matters.
Think about this for a moment...
If you have 10% of your client base that are raving fans, then my challenge is for you to set a goal. The goal is to double the number of raving fans you have by a certain date. Then once this happens double it again.
I encourage to you to develop a client feedback plan.
Watch what happens to your sales growth! I need not say anymore!
Constantly crave client feedback. It is the breakfast of sales champions.
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and heartfelt strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback, kindle and in audio. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
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