Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com September 14, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 23 W henever the subject of relationships comes up and I ask how important they are in the sales and business process, I usually get the answer that they're the most important part. I think we all know that the more a prospect or customer likes us, the more likely they'll do business with us, regardless of most other factors. In fact, a prospect will buy a higher-priced, inferior product from someone they like versus someone they don't. Make no mistake, building solid relationships takes time, effort, energy and money and that's precisely why most people continue to cop out with price and other excuses when they lose a sale. So, if you decide you'd like to do the hard work upfront so you can hang on to customers long term, here's the information you need to gather and use with each customer. • Name • Title • Company • Address • Phone number • Fax number • Cellphone number • Home phone number • Email address • Birth date (month and day) • Where they live now • Where they grew up • Where they went to school (high school, college, other). What degrees they have and what their majors were • Activities they were involved in growing up (sports, clubs, student government, fraternities, sororities, etc.) • Military service, and at what level • What, if anything, you know about their political or religious beliefs • Subjects they like to talk about and what subjects you should avoid • Where they were employed previously • Activities they're involved in (sports, clubs, groups, trade associations, travel, hobbies) • Their levels of involvement and proficiency (Board of directors? Instructor? Scratch golfer?) • Are they related or connected to anyone else you know? • What do they consider their most significant accomplishments? • Do they plan to retire someday? What would they like to do? • Where they vacation and where they would like to vacation • Marital status: a) If married now, how long? b) Anniversary date; c) Spouse's name and birthday; d) Spouse's occupation; e) Spouse's interests • Children: a) Names, ages and birthdays; b) What activities are they involved in? You won't gather and use this information on all your customers. Ideally you'll be doing this to build relationships with the top 20 percent of customers that give you 80 percent of your business. In addition, you'll gather and use this information on other good customers, such as those giving you the most referrals. The goal is to reach out to these customers 14 to 18 times per year through a variety of methods, such as birthday, holiday and a n n i v e r s a r y cards; thank-you notes; in-person calls, phone calls, emails and regular mail. While you won't likely get all this information from everyone, the more you have about each customer and the better you know them, the better your relationship can turn out. Once you have this information, use it. Ultimately, you're looking to make loyal customers and good friends. The more of this information you have and use, the less likely someone will leave you or buy from someone else. n John Chapin is a sales and motivational speaker and trainer based in Auburn. Contact him at johnchapin@ completeselling.com By Matt LaBarre Matt LaBarre is president of LaBarre Communications in Worcester. Contact him at Mattlabarre53@gmail.com. 10 Things I Know About... The data that generate more sales KNOW HOW 10) Develop a plan. Every business and nonprofit organization needs a 12-month, 6-month and 3-month public relations and promotion plan as part of a strategic marketing plan. Evaluate results and update every three months. 9) Identify primary audiences. Who do you want to notice your business? Identify your "publics," from potential customers to your employees, donors, members and volunteers. 8) Go to where your audience is. Recognize that some of us lean toward "traditional" media outlets, while others read industry-specific publication and still others are social media-oriented. 7) Customize your messages. Announcing a new product utilized only by the construction industry may interest industry-focused publications, while announcing an employee-driven United Way campaign would be appropriate for community media. 6) Get to know the media. Ask about the ways different media outlets would like information submitted, time lines that are most convenient for the outlet, who to submit the information to — and what each reporter or media outlet finds most appealing. 5) Use social media selectively. If most of your news and features are "targeted" to industry leaders and potential business customers, promote on such sites as LinkedIn or Twitter. Facebook, Instagram, and other sites can be useful for consumer- or community-driven news. 4) Push people to the Web. Place information on your website if you have one, but remember that people usually visit websites only when prompted to. Use blogs, social media posts and news releases. 3) A picture is worth … Be aware of opportunities to take compelling photos that add to your information and branding efforts. 2) Promote events in advance. You'll be helping media outlets by providing them with lead time, giving enough notice to potential participants. 1) Be engaging and concise. Make key points right away, and direct those interested in more information to your website or an email address. n E go-driven decisions are never the clear, thoughtful and strategic decisions we hope they'll be. The need to be superior, to have the attitude of, "It's the best idea because it's mine," can trip managers up more than they might realize. Here are three things to keep in mind to ensure you're taking a deep breath, getting a solution that comes out of a 360-degree view (no matter who thought of it) and allowing yourself to be a true leader: Don't ever lose sight of the fact that ego is a barrier. "Instead of seeing reality, you see The Me Show … you fail to realize the best leaders bring out the best in other people, not just themselves," writes Bruce Kasanoff at Forbes.com. He calls ego a giant trap, one managers can fall into if they aren't careful. He suggests being more in the background, behind the scenes in your office, letting your key people know you have faith in them, and to "help without revealing that you are helping." Know the symptoms of being an ego-driven manager. These involve, according to Ray Silverstein at Entrepreneur.com, finding it difficult to delegate tasks to others; having a knee-jerk reaction in shooting down your employees' suggestions, and micromanaging. "Pick a project languishing on your to-do list and hand it off to an employee," he suggests, as an exercise in letting go and trusting others. Give up old habits. These will likely include asserting yourself, defending your image and putting energy into being right, writes William Frank Diedrich at SelfGrowth.com, and it may take time to stop doing these things. "The image of being a good leader is unnecessary when you focus, instead, on leading well. Just lead," he writes. Giving up the old habits will involve adopting new ones, too, such as acknowledging others' feelings and ideas, and apologizing when you're wrong. n 101: MANAGING YOUR EGO >> BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY JOHN CHAPIN Special to the Worcester Business Journal Key pieces of information that build strong relationships with potential customers Marketing strategies

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