We’ll close the week with an article from ManageSmarter.com titled Building Client Relationships: Use Sales Psychology to Create More Lifetime Clients.  The thrust of the article is how to use DISC styles when selling.  This tool is one of four assessments we incorporate into our hiring process.

The author is correct – knowing your prospect or customer’s style should be part of any saalesperson’s repetoire.  This isn’t the Jedi mind trick but rather a focus on clear communication.  If a sales rep doesn’t know how to sell, understanding a prospect’s preferred style will only make the salesperson clearer in their failure.

However, an effective salesperson who learns and uses the styles becomes far better at qualifying and closing.

Some good tips from the article:

How to Put This Knowledge into Action During Two Key Stages of the Sales Process

Opening the call:
€¢ Customer behavior type D: Be clear, specific, brief, and to the point.
€¢ Customer behavior type I: Be friendly. Listen for both facts and feelings. Make time for relating and socializing.
€¢ Customer behavior type S: Be genuinely sincere. Create a non-threatening environment for them.
€¢ Customer behavior type C: Ask lots of questions and be patient while they answer in minute detail.
Obtaining commitment:
€¢ Customer behavior type D: Briefly highlight their key options and ask for the order assertively.
€¢ Customer behavior type I: Inspire them to action. Keep the close relaxed and friendly.
€¢ Customer behavior type S: Detail how they can take practical action and confirm without pushing or rushing them.
€¢ Customer behavior type C: Create a scheduled approach to implementing action with step-by-step timetables. Point out guarantees.

We have more descriptions of DISC styles on our website.

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Here is a fascinating survey regarding customer service from large companies. The article is from ManageSmarter.com – Return to Sender: Responding to Customers.

I think you will find the format quite clever:

Every year, our organization conducts a customer service survey by sending the following one-sentence e-mail to our list of respected and admired companies: What is your corporate policy regarding the turnaround time for e-mails addressed to customer service? The subject of the e-mail is “Customer Service.” The goal of the research is to see who actually answers the question, which is different that simply responding and how long it takes them.

The results:

Here are highlights from this year’s survey:
€¢ 33 percent of companies answered us within 24 hours, down almost half from a high of 63 percent in 2002.
€¢ 51 percent answered us, regardless of time frame from 2002’s high of 86 percent.
€¢ My favorite response: “Thank you for your inquiry. [Our] corporate goal is to respond to ninety-five percent of all inquiries within twenty-four hours. I know that seems strange as I’m responding to you seven days after receiving yours€¦I apologize for that.”

This is not a game and we were not trying to trick anyone. We are simply looking at companies through the eyes of a humble customer, because the proof of dedication to customer relationship management is what happens to one individual’s e-mail; it’s where the rubber meets the road.

And I can’t top the closing paragraph:

Based on the dismal results of our annual e-mail survey, the common thought seems to be, “We would have a great business if it weren’t for all those annoying customers.” This begs two important questions: How responsive is your company? How do you know?

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