Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

Unhappy Customers: What to do When an Account Goes South

I have flown millions of miles on American Airlines over the course of my career. I am a loyal customer of theirs. However, this past week American Airlines cancelled thousands of flights which infuriated many loyal customers like me.  If you are in sales there’s no doubt you’ve faced your share of angry customers before. I received this e-mail from American Airlines and it provides valuable lessons for dealing with unhappy accounts. 

1. Be proactive in contacting the customer because bad news should always be told ASAP.

2. Apologize.

3. Explain what happened and why.

4.Tell them how you will get better and avoid the problem from happening again.

To: Steve Martin

Subject: An Apology from American Airlines

Dear Steve Martin,

As one of our most valued customers, please accept my apology on behalf of American Airlines^® to you, your family and your fellow AAdvantage^® customers for disrupting so many peoples' lives with the recent flight cancellations related to the inspection of our MD-80 aircraft fleet.

As you can imagine, American's decision to cancel thousands of flights this week was difficult, and it undoubtedly created concern among our best customers – even those who had no travel plans during the period.

If in your travels you were among the many who have been personally affected, I sincerely regret the inconvenience you have experienced. Our employees will continue to work around the clock to accommodate all who still need to reach their desired destinations. We anticipate returning to a full schedule by Monday.

While the media reports have documented the reasons why American took this action and the steps we're taking to re-accommodate and compensate affected customers, I've also attached an explanation of the events for your understanding. It's a bit complex, but at the end of it all, please know this:

First, your safety and the safety of our employees remains our number one priority.

Second, we will learn from this experience, and we will get better.

Finally, we wholeheartedly appreciate your loyalty to American Airlines, and we remain committed to earning your business each and every day.

Respectfully,

Dan Garton
Executive Vice President
Marketing

P.S. You may have already contacted us via AA.com^® or by writing directly to Customer Relations. Let me reassure you that we will respond directly to your contact just as quickly as practical.

Are You Likeable???

It was just about a year ago today that I wrote a blog entry about the upcoming Presidential election titled, “The Power of Likeability.” Here’s a brief excerpt:

      

Nationally syndicated columnist Paul C. Campos recently wrote a very interesting editorial on the same subject titled, “Idea that Presidential Candidates need to be ‘Likeable’ a Dangerous Cultural Idiocy.”

    

Tongue-in-cheek Campos wrote, “Getting elected President is much like winning a high school popularity contest, except that in high school the cool kids generally aren’t given access to thermonuclear weapons.” He went on to compare Barak Obama’s likeability (“articulate, and clean, and bright, and nice-looking”) to that of Hillary Clinton (“cootie vibes”).

.   

What can salespeople learn from all of this? Well, given the fact that your product is probably very similar to your main competitor’s and both companies are roughly equivalent, likeability becomes a key factor in customer decision-making. Sometime today, take a moment and honestly ask yourself, “What makes me more likeable in the eyes of my customers than my arch-enemy?”  Whether choosing a president, electing a homecoming king, or selecting between two salespeople, likeability is one of the most important differentiators.

            

Last November, an AP-Yahoo poll was conducted to rate each candidate on single-word-characteristics considered critical to becoming President. Here’s the result of that poll. Based upon how the campaign is turning out, it’s obvious they left off perhaps one of the most important words… LIKEABILITY.

            

Five Presidents Club Meeting Ideas

Although the Internal Revenue Service requires you to conduct business-related meetings at your annual President’s Club, there’s no reason why the meetings have to be boring, unimaginative, and dry. Instead, reward your company’s Heavy Hitters (truly great salespeople) with a unique program they are sure to find engaging, enlightening, and entertaining.

Your Presidents Club is a once a year opportunity to recognize the contributions of the key sales leaders who have helped make your company a success. These top performers don’t want to spend half of their day listening to another state-of-the-union company update. They want to learn something new about the topics which interest them the most. Equally important, they want to share a laugh or two with the other Heavy Hitters in attendance.  With this in mind, here are five Presidents Club recommendations:

1. Focus on Soft Skills Improvements. Because all the attendees have mastered the “process” of selling, the focus should be on improving their intangible and intuitive sales skills. These soft skills include the art of persuasion, building rapport, and maximizing their sales intuition. For example, a favorite topic that I like to present at Presidents Clubs is neurolinguistics (the study of how the mind processes and interprets language) and the role that psychology plays during the customer’s decision-making process.

2. Provide Sales Career Advice. The life of a salesperson is far from perfect. Everyone in the profession has trials and tribulations. They experience incredible highs, tremendous lows, and a constant fear of the unknown. Arm them with mental and emotional training to deal with the stress and uncertainty. This will not only make them a better salesperson, but a better person as a whole.

3. Conduct a Study of your Heavy Hitters. Think about it for a moment, you have assembled your best salespeople from all around the world. Why not conduct a study to understand how and why they are successful? Take some time to interview your Heavy Hitters about the strategies and tactics they use to win business. Document this information so that it can be shared with your entire sales organization. This valuable advice will help every salesperson understand and emulate the behavior of your very best salespeople.

4. Furnish Some Sales Adrenaline! Every long-term salesperson knows they need an occasional shot of sales adrenaline to renew their sense of excitement. Instead of parading the same old company executives in front of the team, bring in a sales-related motivational speaker to provide a fresh perspective and mental refreshment about the noble career of sales.

5. Give Them “Meaningful” Gifts. Forget about presenting the winners with a souvenir beach towel or company pen; give them the gift of knowledge that will last a lifetime. Furnish books about advanced sales techniques and marketing strategies that will help them succeed in the tough times of today so they make Presidents Club next year!

You want to ensure every detail of your President’s Club is perfect and the event to be long remembered because it will be the topic of company conversations for months to come. Never forget, the most frequent question salespeople ask of each other throughout the year is, “Do you think you will make Presidents Club?” Click here for more information about conducting the perfect Presidents Meeting.

The Year End Cesspool

December is the most important sales month of the year? Make sure you don't get stuck in the Year End Cesspool like Brian’s story below…”                  

    

Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story.

    

Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for months had selected his software solution. After several weeks of ensuing price negotiations, a $300,000 purchase order was submitted into the customer’s capital expenditure software system (referred to by the customer internally as the “CES system”). Since several weeks were left in the quarter, Brian expected that he would receive the purchase order well before the quarter’s cutoff.

    

In Brian’s mind the deal was done. The purchase order would be printed and signed and he forecasted the deal accordingly. However, Brian was quite surprised to learn that the rules-based CES system required that a purchase of that magnitude be approved by twenty-one different people. The purchase order had entered the cesspool of order approval.

   

Between vacations and busy schedules, it would take another three months before all twenty-one signatures were gathered. In the meantime, Brian embarrassingly had to explain to his manager why a deal he had positively guaranteed would close wouldn’t.

   

His assumption about the purchase order turnaround time was dead wrong. If only he’d had the foresight to ask about the details of the procurement process before he committed the deal on his forecast.

Tip: Always ascertain the customer’s procurement process with the same diligence you devote to understanding the customer’s selection process

How to Select a Sales Kickoff Meeting Keynote Speaker

Let’s assume you are in charge of planning your company’s annual sales kick-off (global sales conference, annual sales meeting, or national sales meeting), the most important sales meeting of the year. You’ve picked the best location, chosen the right hotel, and are in the process of finalizing the meeting agenda. However, one critically important task remains to be completed--you must select the perfect keynote speaker. After keynoting more than one hundred sales kickoffs, I’d like to share my sales meeting ideas with you.

There are four main types of keynote speakers to choose from; celebrity, motivational, industry mavens, and sales experts. Celebrities (entertainment stars, sports heroes, business icons, politicians, etc.) will speak mainly about their personal experiences. Conversely, industry mavens are analysts and consultants who talk about current issues and future business trends. Meanwhile, motivational speakers exuberantly try to touch listeners’ emotions. And finally, there are sales experts who share their specific sales-related wisdom and knowledge with the audience.

So, how do you decide which one is right for you? Here are five questions to ask a potential keynote speaker in order to help you determine whether or not he or she is right for your meeting.

1. What is the profile of the typical audience you present to?

There aren’t any two sales forces that are exactly alike. Every sales force is unique in three different ways; complexity of the sales process, the average level of sales experience, and the state of morale. Perhaps the biggest mistake when selecting a sales kickoff presenter is picking one whose main message doesn’t apply to the products you sell or resonate with the sophistication of the sales force. For instance, even though a keynote speaker has successfully presented to mid-western real estate agents in the past, he or she would not be a good fit to for a software company.

Ensuring that the speaker is in tune with the sales forces’ morale is another critically important consideration. Even though it is an imperfect world, you are in charge of creating the perfect experience for an audience that is in a variety of states of contentment. Many salespeople are happy, some are apathetic, and others are downright despondent. Ideally, you want a speaker who is experienced in speaking in this type of difficult circumstance. For example, if your company has been part of a recent merger you want a speaker who is familiar with the intricacies of this situation and how it affects morale.

2. How would you prepare for our meeting?

Even though you may sell the same products as several other companies, your sales force faces distinctive competitive challenges. For instance, there’s a big difference between selling for an eight-hundred-pound-gorilla-sized company than an upstart competitor.

The successful keynote presentation should include major messages that are applicable to the realities of your company’s competitive situation. Therefore, the presenter should conduct extensive pre-presentation interviews and diligent background research to ensure he or she understands your marketplace, products, and salespeople.

3. Do you customize your presentation?

Since salespeople present for a living they know when they are being fed a “canned” presentation. The most successful keynote presentation will incorporate elements of the salespeople’s daily lives into the actual presentation. This may include tangible advice to defeat your archenemies and tactics to present your products more effectively. As a result, the presentation needs to be customized so that it helps address the toughest obstacles your sales force faces.

A one size fits all presentation delivered exactly in the same way over the past five years has a high likelihood of falling flat today. Audiences appreciate a presenter who has taken the time to understand their challenges and provides them with strategies they can put to use immediately.

4. When do you typically present at sales kickoffs? At the beginning, a nightly dinner, or the meeting’s end?

You wouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail. Similarly, the particular speaking slot you are trying to fill requires a specific type of keynote speaker. If the speaking slot is at the meeting opening, you most likely want a powerful presenter with an impactful message (because he or she is probably speaking right after your company’s chairman, CEO, or VP of sales). A keynote to be delivered during a dinner gathering should be fast-paced, up-tempo and include a healthy dose of humor. Conversely, a closing speaker needs to be able to rally the troops and reinvigorate them with a sense of purpose.

5. What takeaway materials do you provide?

A typical keynote presentation will last just an hour or two at most. Given such a short timeframe, how can it be more than just a “feel good” experience? The best way to achieve lasting impact is by providing takeaway materials that the salespeople can reference over the long-run. That’s why I’m a big fan of presenters who provide copies of their books, informational CD’s, and PowerPoint presentations to the audience.

Finally, one of the most important factors you should continually remind yourself of during the selection process is how well does the speaker dovetail with your sales kickoff theme. The best speaker will center their presentation on your theme and work his or her material around it. If you’re still not one-hundred percent certain what your theme should be, they should possess the practical experience to help brainstorm with you on an appropriate theme. Because the best speakers understand that your success and their success are intimately intertwined.

How to Select a Sales Kickoff Meeting Theme

When I was a vice president of sales, one of my key responsibilities was to ensure that our sales kickoff was a complete success. Because it was the only annual gathering of the entire worldwide sales force, I wanted everyone to leave the meeting trained on our new products, well-versed about competition, and most importantly, re-energized to get back into the field and sell.

After participating in more than one-hundred sales kickoffs as a keynoter speaker, I can now attest that the first step toward conducting a successful sales kickoff starts with choosing the right theme. With this goal in mind, here are five factors to consider when selecting your sales kickoff theme.

1. Sales Force Morale

One of the most important factors to keep in mind as you chose your theme is the level of the sales force’s morale. All sales forces go through periods of high and low morale. When morale is high, you can be more creative and take bigger risks with the theme you choose. For example, one of the best sales kickoffs I ever participated in was based upon the theme of “A night at the Oscars.” In advance of the meeting, each of the sales regions created their own video about the average day in the life of a salesperson. The videos were exceptionally well-done, full of side-splitting humor, and their ingenuity was inspirational. Everyone loved watching them and a judging panel of company executives awarded Oscars to the best.

Conversely, I wouldn’t recommend such an over-the-top theme during tough times. In this situation the theme should be more commonsensical like “Better, Stronger, Faster,” which provides a platform that meeting presenters can use to talk about changes and improvements. If you are in the midst of a merger, pick a theme like “Winning Together” that promotes teamwork, or something like “The Power of Synergy” that emphasizes how the companies combined are greater than the separate parts.

2. What is the Sales Mantra?

The leader of every sales organization will typically have a clearly defined area of sales force improvement for the new year. It might be to close more seven figure deals, sell more of a certain product line, increase customer satisfaction, or to get the reps to consistently make their quarterly quotas. Obviously, it makes sense to make this mantra the underpinnings of your sales kickoff theme.

For example, one company wanted to focus their sales team on closing bigger deals. They selected a theme centered around baseball and used the tagline, “Swing for the Fences!” Throughout the meeting they showed movie clips of the greatest home run hitters of all time. At their awards dinner the vice president of sales presented inscribed baseball bats to the top sales performers.

3. Should the Theme Focus on Your Arch-Rival?

Every company has enemies, and every sales force has an arch-rival that is truly despised. If you really want to rally the troops and concentrate the meetings focus, use a competitive theme that directly targets your arch-rival. For example, instead of a nebulous theme like “In it to win it,” use the name of your competitor in the sales kickoff them like “BEAT ACME!” Remember, sometimes the most straight-forward theme is the best.

4. Can the Presenters Dove-tail to the Theme?

The theme’s tagline is critical because it provides the centerpiece idea from which the meeting presenters can embellish upon. Recently, I attended a meeting where the theme was “Reach for the Stars” with an accompanying graphic of a rocket heading into space. Although it’s not necessarily a bad theme, it proved difficult for the presenters from the marketing, engineering, and customer support departments to incorporate into their presentations. A better space theme would have been “All Systems Go!” This would have enabled the presenters to better-explain what new products and improvement programs were being launched in their area of the organization.

5. Consider the Meeting Takeaways

It’s very important that sales kickoff attendees are provided three types of meeting takeaways. First, all of the presentations and information that is presented should be available online over the internet. Don’t fall into the trap of associating the success of your meeting to the thickness of the materials you hand out. Second, you should provide some type of sales skills self-improvement takeaway (a copy of book on advance sales strategies for example). Finally, always give company-logo’d chatska (T-shirts, hats, pens, mouse pads, etc.).

Ideally, you would like your takeaways to tie into your meeting theme. For example, “Swing for the fences” meeting attendees were given different colored company baseball hats and jerseys that designated which group they were part of in their team-building games and exercises. Be sure not to skimp on the takeaways, because your annual sales kickoff is the most important sales meeting of the year.

Top Five Sales Kickoff Mistakes

Every vice president of sales knows the most important meeting of the year is the annual sales kickoff. It’s usually the only time during the entire fiscal year where the worldwide sales team gets together. Therefore, the success of this meeting is critical.

Perhaps the best way to measure the sales kickoff’s success is whether or not the salespeople leave better educated about their products, enlightened about their company’s future direction, and most importantly, energized to attack and conquer the new year’s sales quota. With these three goals in mind, here’s the “Top Five Sales Kickoff Meeting Mistakes” based upon my participation in more than one hundred sales kickoffs.

#1 It’s Too Long!
Studies have shown that the average person will hear only seven and a half minutes of a one-hour presentation and remember only half of the words he or she hears. Here’s another startling fact based upon a massive study completed by the US Air Force. Within 72 hours of a meeting, attendees forget 95% of what they hear. You should keep these studies in mind if you are planning a three, four, or five day sales meeting (because you are going beyond the point of diminishing returns).

#2 Not Enough Individual Recognition
No one has ever been fired for saying too many compliments or handing out too much recognition. Awards are extremely important to salespeople. As a vice president of sales, I experienced more motivation and a harder work ethic from my sales team by handing out a $45 trophy than would be achieved by increasing the compensation plan by one hundred times that amount. Salespeople enjoy the acclaim and the public identification as a role model within their group. Therefore, compliments to individual salespeople should be given out continuously throughout the sales kickoff and awards should always be done in full view of the entire organization.

#3 Too Many Presenters
More is not always better. I once attended a sales kickoff where there were thirty-four different presenters over the course of a two day meeting. It seemed every departmental manager within the company wanted their fifteen minutes at the podium, regardless if they had anything significant to say. By the end of the kickoff, the audience was completely anesthetized to the president’s closing comments and call to action.

#4 Not Enough Humor
A recent study found that hypertensive men who drink moderately and have one to two drinks a day had a 44 percent lower risk of dying from a heart attack than nondrinkers with high blood pressure. Of course, salespeople have known this for years… Sales is a stressful, high stakes profession. Humor helps release pent-up tensions and reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.

One of the most impressive (and funniest) things I have ever seen at a sales kickoff was a competition between the various sales regions to create a marketing video for a soon-to-be released product. The movies were incredibly creative, totally hilarious, and so well done you would have thought they were made by Hollywood professionals. As the movies were shown, the entire sales organization bonded together through laughter. While you don’t have to stage elaborate competitions, you shouldn’t forget to insert some laughs into your agenda.

#5 Too Much “One Way” Communication
An old adage about military style communication says, “Tell it to them once, tell it to them twice, and then tell it to them again.” Unfortunately, too many sales kickoffs subscribe to this philosophy and forget to involve their salespeople in any aspect of the presentations. I strongly recommend every sales kickoff include panels where top salespeople are interviewed about their major wins and losses. At the very least, key salespeople should be asked to present summary overviews of their most important wins.

Closing Thoughts
What is your company’s greatest asset? Is it its patents, products, or brand name? Technologies will come and go as new products are continually introduced into the market. I doubt you own any record albums, a typewriter, or a Ford Pinto. And while we tend to think of a company’s brand as unique, it is only as valuable as the integrity of its people. Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco were once very respected company names.

In reality, every company’s most important assets are its customers and it is salespeople who are tasked with the vital responsibility of recruiting and keeping them. In this regards, salespeople have the most important job in the company and it’s incumbent that the annual sales kickoff be a resounding success—educating, enlightening, and energizing the team!

When Did We Lose The Deal?

You’ve may have seen the humiliating video clip of Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina, lose the Miss Teen USA Pageant. It happened when she gave her response about why some Americans could not locate the United States on a world map…

“Personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so, because umm soma people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education such as that South Africa and the Iraq where like such as, I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US, I mean South Africa should help the Iraqi and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our.”

   

Every deal has a critical moment or turning point that determines the winner and the losers. In some cases, the turning point is easy to spot. For example, a salesperson may be presenting his solution and encounters a deal-breaking objection that he is unable to overcome. Even though the customer remains cordial for the rest of the meeting, a turning point has occurred and the deal is lost.

   

Every salesperson competing for the same piece of business is trying to gain momentum. Momentum includes positive buying signs and other forms of customer favortism. While the winning salesperson is enjoying preferential treatment, the losers are unaware that they have experienced “buzz kill,” the moment during the sales cycle where the customer has eliminated them from contention.

   

Buzz kill represents the person, business reason, political issue, or technical obstacle that causes momentum to turn downward. Ninety-nine out of one hundred times you will not recover from buzz kill. Unfortunately, losers will continue to waste time and effort on the deal with the mistaken hope they can reseruct momentum. However, even though the customer may not make a public announcement about the winner for weeks or even months, the deal is lost.

The Wrong Stuff (Drunken Astronauts & Peer Pressure)

NASA, America's space agency, was shaken Thursday by a startling report: astronauts were drunk before flying!  Aviation Week & Space Technology reported on its Web site that on two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a safety risk. An independent panel also found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch — within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, the magazine reported.

The Associated Press quoted retired NASA executive Seymour Himmel on the latest bad news, “Let's face it. Astronauts are a bunch of brothers and sisters, OK, and they'll cover each other's backsides because they're part of the team," he said. "And who knows what the role of the particular ones was to be. If he was just to sit in the middle seat somewhere and just be a passenger, you kind of say, 'Well, gee, I hope he doesn't vomit on the way up.'"

Obviously, there is intense peer pressure among astronauts not to embarrass one another. The same type of peer pressure is also an important influencer over customers. Peer pressure plays a powerful role during the decision-making process. People naturally don’t want to look stupid or embarrass themselves in public. Most technical people are very reluctant to publicly admit they don’t understand something. Peer pressure prevents them from doing so. Doing so could affect their position within the group, particularly in a presentation environment that includes their peers and management.

Selection team members constantly monitor the attitudes of others. Most of the time they will acquiesce to peer pressure in public but disagree in private. Therefore, when you ask at end of your presentation, “Does everyone believe we are the best solution?” even though everyone nods, the audience probably includes objectors who will try to sabotage your deal later on.

   

SALES TIP: The corporate sales presentation is a key moment in most every deal. It is the pivotal event where all the vendors are asked to present their advantages and why they should be selected over everyone else. Usually, it is the deal’s turning point. It is also the most complex environment a salesperson faces during the entire sales cycle. The entire event is influenced by politics and peer pressure. Audience members have different agendas. Roles and titles do not clearly define power and responsibilities. Attendees not only have different reasons for attending the presentation, but have also planned in advance to use peer pressure to achieve different outcomes as well. 

Joking Around About Price

A friend of mine sent me the following joke about a salesman:

A neatly dressed salesman stopped a man in the street and asked, "Sir, would you like to buy a bottle of this mouthwash for $200?" Aghast, the man said, "are you NUTS?, that's robbery!" The salesman seemed hurt and then tries again, "Sir, since you are a bit irate, I'll sell it to you for 1/2 price at $100?” Again, the man replies bluntly, "you must be crazy pal, now go away!" The salesman then reaches into his briefcase and pulls out 2 brownies and begins munching away on one of them. He tells the irate guy, "Sir, please share one of my brownies since I have annoyed you so much". Unwrapping the brownie, the guy takes a bite. Suddenly, the guys spits it out and says, "HEY, this brownie tastes like crap!!!" "It is," replied the salesman. "Wanna buy some mouthwash?"

What’s Moral of the Story? Obviously, price is an important purchase factor, and most competent salespeople try to postpone the discussion about price till the end of the sales cycle for good reasons. When you lead with price, you commoditize your product. While it might seem like a good idea to lead with price when yours is the lowest or when your product’s capabilities lag behind the competitions’, usually this information will be used against you later.

TIP: Always try to postpone the discussion about price, and then have that discussion with someone who has a personal connection with you or your product.