...And This Is My Receptionist - Salesperson
Brad Huisken is one of our salesmanship experts, and the author of I'm A Salesman, Not a Ph.D. He and I are fellow travellers in the world of selling. During one of our visits on The Small Business Advocate Show, we discussed the importance of EVERY member of an organization being part of the sales force.
Brad and I are in lock-step on many things regarding the selling process, but none more than the proposition that, regardless of what your company or organization does, if you have customers (and who doesn't), EVERYONE in your organization is a salesperson: from the CEO to the courier, from the vice president to the receiving clerk.
Brad says that whether first or last, all impressions with a prospective customer can be either valuable or detrimental. He reminds us that those impressions often can come from support staff who, unfortunately, may not be trained to put your company's best foot forward.
If you are having trouble thinking about your support staff being part of your sales team, just imagine how many people each of your employees come in contact with during their day or week, regardless of the occasion. Even though everyone in a company might not make contact with a customer on a regular basis, sometime during their weekly routine, everybody talks with someone about where they work, what they do there, and what their company does.
Here's a good question: Who in your organization, regardless of their assignment, talks with the most customers during a typical business day? If you say your salespeople, you might want to rethink that notion.
Brad and I believe that, depending on your business, your receptionist, your delivery person, your installer, or even your accountant might actually talk with more customers than your salespeople do in any given day. Granted, not necessarily about selling anything. But remember, we're talking about impressions now, not sales calls.
As you do the math on how many customer impressions your employees could be making, hopefully you are starting to see a picture of those potential impressions. But what does that picture look like?! Here are three possibilities:
1. Bad impression. A negative statement, lack of job pride, limited or no knowledge about what the company does, etc. Either way, definitely not putting the company's best food forward. This image might wake you up nights.
2. Opportunity lost.Who knows when someone might need what your company sells at about the same time that they meet one of your employees. But that employee is not one of your spit-shined salespeople, he's one of your truck drivers. That prospect isn't going to care what your employee does; she is going to start talking about what she needs, and expect some kind of productive response. If that doesn't happen, the prospect probably isn't going to get mad, but they might be disappointed, and they will definitely keep looking. Elsewhere.
3. Opportunity gained. Can any one of your employees begin the process of developing a relationship with a prospect that could turn into a customer relationship? They don't need to be Zig Zigler, or the best closer in the world. But they do need at least two things:
a) A conversational knowledge of what the company does that pays them a salary and provides benefits, why you do it, how you deliver it, and how valuable that prospect's business would be to his or her employer. Here's what it might sound like, "John, as you know, I'm not in sales, but it sounds like we might be able to help you. I'll be your contact until I can get you to the people who can fix you up. When would you like to be contacted?" $$Cha-chinggg$$
b) A sales culture attitude that you can instill in your support staff with training. And it doesn't hurt to hang a carrot out there; a little reward they get when a prospect they bring in becomes a paying customer.
How much training has your receptionist, installer, warehouse manager, had with regard to your company's mission, vision, products, service philosophy, ....(your idea here).... . Brad likes to encourage small businesses to find ways to "own their customers." He says that one of the best ways to own your customers is to have ALL of your people thinking like salespeople.
I don't have to tell you how tough it is out there. Small business owners must take advantage of EVERY opportunity to sell. We can't afford to rely just on our sales staff or our marketing efforts to bring in new business. In a year's time, the "opportunity gained" contacts your support staff makes can literally be your gravy for the year. The difference between profit or loss, success or failure.
By now I've worn you down and I'm sure you agree with me and Brad that everyone in your organization should be part of the sales force. But are they prepared for that assignment? Remember, a little training will go a long way toward getting them ready to deliver a customer you might never have had otherwise.
Write this on a rock... Make sure your company has a sales culture. Simply put, having a sales culture means EVERYONE SELLS. You can begin the process by investing some time and resources in sales training for your support staff. Now go make some mashed potatoes to go with all that gravy that's going to come rolling in.
