Customer Service
Calling Cycles
Prospecting is at the top of the list of daunting tasks. We all know that it is much easier to communicate with existing customers than to prospect for new ones. However, building new relationships is crucial for the sales professional.
It is important to put in place a prospecting strategy that works. If you do not, it will cost you time and effort. Our unique prospecting strategy therefore enables the sales professional to maximise results. And, we do this by ensuring that engagements with new customers build a relationship rather than merely chase a sale.
System Screens at a Glance
Prospecting Radar
The prospecting bar is based on our unique prospecting methodology. The screen is developed to display a list of scheduled actions or interactions. It is therefore a follow up list that allows a sales person to action interactions on a scheduled date. The calling cycle is colour coded. So, if you are behind, the action will display red. Current actions display blue and future actions display green. In addition, we have added a chart that shows the number of interactions that are scheduled per day. In other words, the idea is to achieve a line that is constant, which prevents overscheduling.
Contact Cycles
Contact cycles are based on the principle that staying in contact with your customers is necessary to build a relationship with them. To clarify, you need a relationship with someone before you can sell to them. The contact cycle therefore allows the sales person to determine interactions by providing a maximum duration before the next interaction. The golden rule is three months. In other words, do not take more than three months before contacting a customer. If you extend this timeline you risk the contact not remembering you. However, people differ, so, contact cycles can occur even a day later. It all depends on the activity. Smart sales people use calling cycles as a reminder system for each individual customer. Plus, calling cycles are excellent for remembering customers. This might seem strange, however, the number of customers lost due to sales people forgetting their customers is actually substantial. Take as an example meeting a previous client in the street. Are you still selling to this customer? If not, you should be asking yourself why. Have you forgotten about them?
Building Relationships
We sometimes forget that the 'R' in CRM stands for relationship. Think about it. For example, how strong is your relationship with the person that sold you your car? Do you still get phone calls from him or her? Does this person want to build a relationship with you? If so, where will you be buying your next car? Remember, even if you get just one or two calls every year, your relationship with that person will grow. So, when you are ready to buy a new car, you already have a relationship with a car sales person. It is therefore important to not underestimate the power of regular contact. Let the relationship part of the CRM system be your focus and not just the sale.