Business Strategies In A Recession: How to Create Loyal Clients & Steal From Your Competition

You are on a city bus, train or a plane going somewhere and you strike up a conversation with the person next to you. You find out they plan a major meeting at least once a year that you would like to have at your hotel. You tell them this and you get the business. Is there anyone out there reading this that thinks this is highly unethical? Besides me?

I think this is unethical because that same person has been using your competition for many years now and you did not know it. Long ago you could have had this event at your hotel, providing for your employees and their families; providing for the hotel ownership so they could have afforded to invest in needed capital items; helping your brand grow stronger each booking at a time; making it easier for lenders to say yes to investments needed to keep your hotel competitive and the list goes on to your vendor partners, community and so on. It begs the question "how happy or unhappy has the client been at your competition?" Wo uld that person have moved to your hotel much sooner if you would have bumped into them, sat next to them, or better yet....you planned to meet them sooner? Sitting here right now you do not know who they are or who they work for but you plan to find these kinds of opportunities each and every day. If you don''t do that now, you certainly should. There are many people who are counting on you to provide for them and the truth is some of these employees counting on you don''t even know who you are, or what you do or how much power you possess to impact their livelihoods, but man they need you none-the-less.

In one of the fifty stories I tell in my new book, "Ethical Theft", I would go up to a meeting that would be breaking at my competition and I would approach the person closest to me and ask them who the person in charge is. He would point out the person to me and I would wait until that person would finish whatever they were doing before I would approach them with my bu siness card in my hand. I would say something like "this is not the right time or place to go into this, but I wanted you to know that I would love to have this meeting at my hotel. Could I please make a call on you after this meeting is over this week to talk about it?" 85% of the time this person would either think or say I was crazy. I would say "I don''t know if I am a little crazy doing things this way, but I what I do know is that I am more confident in my hotel to do a better job for you....that''s why I do it." If it is a sales meeting that is taking place I have often been brought into the meeting room after everyone has returned from the break and sat down. The leader of the session would announce what I just did and would ask if any of them would be willing to do that....sometimes a hearty applause would follow. I said 85% kept an open mind, the other 15% would think that I was nothing short of a river pig and would not want to have anything to do with me....proba bly a bunch of accountants. If I could bat .850 and impress 85% of the people I first meet then those are pretty good odds that I can live with.

If I can liberate business from my competition then that client was not as loyal as they needed to be and it was just a matter of time before they sit on a plane with someone someday and decide to move their business elsewhere. Is that stealing? Or is it just fast forwarding the process a bit? If you can steal from your competition, then they deserve to lose it. If someone steals from you, then shame on you....you deserve it. Same goes for employees too.

So when does loyalty begin? What happened to just satisfying people? I was a speaker at a conference several years ago where we asked the audience to open their wallets and count how many "loyalty programs" they belonged to. The average was 8 programs per person and in some cases they belonged to several competing programs at the same time. Satisfaction is not the goal, loya lty is and it can''t come in the form of just a marketing program. It has to come in the one on one dealings with each and every one of your employees. Each and every one of them from the person who answers the phone to the person who fixes the toilets. If they are that good then your guest and your customer will know that the people running that ship are geniuses. You have figured out that flat screen TV''s and free internet are cool things to have, but the deciding differentiator in how you drive loyalty lies within your greatest asset....your people. Many talk a good game here, but very few deliver like they should.

So, what are some of the things that you can do to communicate and show that you desire loyalty....better yet, that you want to earn their loyalty? Well, it starts with that first sales call. That sales person needs to care more than their competition does. If they have to fake it, or invent it, or pretend it....then they are the wrong salesperson or they w ork for the wrong hotel (maybe both). You can''t fake caring and you can''t fake wanting to earn your customers loyalty. As a leader, see talent anywhere and everywhere you go and when you spot it...steal those people. Have a value proposition ready to go for that potential superstar employee. Chances are you can''t steal them on the spot, so set up a meeting over coffee and talk about what is important to them before you ever tell them what is important to you. Tap into their wants and needs just like you do your customers. Treat your employees like volunteers that could be gone tomorrow if you don''t give them what they need to be successful (guidelines, expectations, training, resources, score boarding and more care than they have ever gotten from any employer). Now you are starting with people that truly care and want to succeed....things that are hard to impossible to teach.

You educate your staff on how you compare to the competition. Some have better amenities, so me have better locations....but none....absolutely none of them will have a greater desire to make that guest happy and loyal. Nobody will be able to take that from you or copy it. It is something you are constantly defining and refining.

All of your employees will know that the customer is not a dollar sign or an American Express card. They are real people that want to be recognized and felt connected just like all of us do. You see them as real people with real needs and real challenges that you can help them with. Here is an example of what I am thinking here: you have a "policy" (doesn''t that word give you chills?) that your clients sign an agreement to use your sleeping rooms and meeting space. Several days before their planned event the meeting planner has something happen to their chairman and featured speaker for the day and they have to cancel. By the letter of the agreement they owe you for the applicable charges. Instead, you not only void those charges or ma ybe give them a total credit for the same function in the future, but you call on that chairman in the hospital with a huge card signed by every employee in your hotel. You offer any help that you can to the chairman''s family and fellow workers. You mean it and it is real. On a happier note, you tap into your client''s hobbies and interests and give them a gift. It could be a book, an article or connecting them with someone of similar interest. Real people serving real people. Ritz Carlton wants ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. For the rest of us just being real people serving real people works.

Net net, when you and I are old and grey and we are sitting on our front porches telling our grandkids some of the cool things we saw and did, I promise you it won''t be about the financials. It will be the about the human interest stuff. The things you did and they did and the things you accomplished together with your staff.

Measure the worth of your clie nts or potential clients not just by the small meeting they can give you today. Measure them over the course of the next ten years or more of small meetings. Measure how much they will say about you and your operation and how loyal they are because you communicated care and then delivered it every single employee experience at a time. With this kind of culture

you will kick the snot out of your competition who wants to focus on plasma TV''s and free internet service. You will be well on your way to fostering loyal clients.

Another story from my book before we wrap it up this week...."A Salute to Industry". I would approach our top six clients and tell them that we have been thanking them for far too long now and it was high time we helped them improve their profits as well. I would explain that we wanted to dedicate a space in our hotel for them to advertise their products and services. We would calculate how many guests would walk past their exhibit over the course o f a month and the number would be quite impressive....it even surprised us when we first calculated it. So for 30 days there would stand an attractive display behind velvet ropes, a sign telling our guests who this client is and how they can contact them if they wanted to hear from them. At the end of the month when it was time to take their display down for the next client, we would have a cocktail and hors d'' oeuvres party around their display. We would take an 8X10 photo of the event and mount it in an attractive frame and mount it on the wall where the display would be for posterity. We would also send a similar photo to that company for their use (pr, company newsletter, annual financial statements). We were in essence thanking them for their business by helping to provide them with business as well. Now, for the remaining six months of the year we would ask POTENTIAL clients to advertise their "wares" in this Salute to Industry area. We would have a reception around t heir display at the end of thirty days and they would see a wall with pictures of our happy existing clients. We would now be on a fast track to liberating more business. What was normally dead space in our hotel became a real profit and social center of attraction. I would sometimes be passing by that area and see an unknown guest looking at it and picking up a brochure to learn more about that company. I would approach them and tell them who I was and tell them the cool things about our clients or hopeful client''s product or service. A real person having a real conversation with a real person who had real interest. How cool is that?

Why 80% of Salespeople Fail and How to Make Sure You Don''t

Most people do not realize that anyone selling anything successfully whether they know it or not, are in "the relationship business." I have to emphasize the word successfully because most people in sales are not as successful as they could be because they are not aware of this fact and therefore give little attention to the skills needed in the relationship business.

The fact is you can only succeed in sales when you understand this fact. Top salespeople in all markets make sure they know their prospects and customers and their prospects and customers know them by contacting them before and after the sale via email, brochures, newsletters and by referrals from the friends and business associates of their peer groups. They realize that the acquisition of a new customer is an important event in the building of their personal asset base. They know that they are in it for the long haul and treasure each new client.

Most people will not buy from someone they do not like, so top people will study how to gain rapport with prospects as early as possible. The skills involved here range from their appearance, a friendly approach, a smile, a firm handshake and other body language skills such as mirroring the prospects stance and using NLP (Neuro Linguistic programming) methods to attain congruence even before any attempt is made to present their product or service.

Trust has to be gained, there are a number of factors that play a part in building trust right from the start of a relationship, such as looking the person straight in the eye when meeting and presenting to them, having a confident manner and a firm grasp of the benefits of the product or service, understanding in advance of all the likely objections to the offer so that they can be offered up in the presentation and dealt with adequately before they can develop into barriers in the prospects mind.

It can be seen from the above that successful salespeople are people who enjoy meetin g a wide variety of people and have an expertise in human relationships.

Selling in a Recession

Sales consultancy Huthwaite recently conducted a survey asking senior executives if they are finding it more difficult to sell in the present economic climate. An unsurprising 88% of respondents confirmed that the recession is indeed making sales more difficult. 47% of them are now having to accept deals that make them very little profit.

Steven Shove, VP of information provider OneSource Information Services, says: "In a recession companies need to feel far more comfortable to part with their money. Approval limits and processes change, decisions become delayed or postponed and at the very least are scrutinised a lot more. The salesperson has to factor all of these scenarios and more into their work even if they are to stand still."

The same is true for consumer sales. To put it simply, the recession is making life in our profession much tougher. This much we all know - the question is what to do about it. After all, as Marcus Cauchi, MD of sales trainers S.A.L.T Euro pe, puts it: "Recession doesn''t mean the economy has stopped. People are buying - just not from you."

Step it up a gear

Business coach Marc Hogan believes there are two steps salespeople can take to improve their sales figures in a recession: "First, if there is any way to work harder or faster, then you should be aiming to do so. In a recession, surviving as a salesperson is about upping your game, so if a person''s sales ratio has dropped from one in three to one in six as a result of the recession, they need to up their calls or pitch volume by 50% to keep their sales figures healthy."

However, not everyone agrees that working harder is necessarily the answer. Annalize Cuthill, Sales Director at Huthwaite, says: "Many managers revert to pressing the ''more'' button, but in all the research we''ve done in the last 30 years, we''ve seen no evidence that this works. Asking a sales team to make more calls, to chase up every scrap of potential business and put pre ssure on them to close sales might create a lot of activity but in most cases, it simply diverts them from the actions that might help them win good business."

Target the right sectors

So, instead of simply upping your workrate you need to change the way you do things. Hogan''s second piece of advice is to improve your targeting by looking back at your records and working out which types of buyer, company or industry you have had most success with in the past. In the same way, the recession is not affecting every industry to the same extent, so you can improve your conversion rates by targeting those that still have money to spend.

Chris Gallagher, Training and Development Director at business development consultancy Upfront Business Development, says: "There are some sectors that are getting hit far more than others. Automotive, estate agency, travel agents, and training have all been crippled by this recession, but industries like teleconferencing and budget re tail chains, are faring relatively well. It makes sense to be targeting them."

The consultative sell

As well as re-thinking your targeting, you should also be looking at your technique. Dr Peter Hughes, Chief Executive at Cognition Group runs sales training courses, and he believes that the most important thing for salespeople to realise is that in a recession buyers are looking for safety: "People tend to panic in a recession and do everything they can to find the safest option," he explains.

He continues: "Buyers want to do business with people they trust. So, sales becomes even more about the relationship, and a consultative sell becomes even more important. High pressure sales techniques will just put people off. Instead, salespeople need to listen to their customers, ask the right questions, avoid making assumptions, and provide the appropriate solutions and reassurance."

He concludes: "More than anything else it is about understanding your prospect''s wo rld and fitting your product or service into it." Note that the safest option is not necessarily the cheapest option. Get this sort of consultative sell right and you can maintain your margins, even in a recession.

NLP

Christine Knott, MD of sales trainers Beyond the Box, recommends neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) as a useful technique for proving to your customers that you do understand their world. Often seen as a mysterious, even dark, art, NLP is in fact a fairly straightforward but potential very powerful sales technique.

Knott explains: "People tend to use either visual, auditory or kinaesthetic words. So, those who favour visual language will use phrases such as ''Do you see what I mean?'', those who prefer auditory words might say ''Can you hear what I''m saying?'', and those inclined towards kinaesthetic phrases would say ''Do you get a feel for this?''"

She continues: "Once you identify someone''s style, respond back to them by using their prefer red language of words. It is unconsciously flattering to the receiver and they will also have a better understanding of the content. It helps build a quick rapport and a solid foundation for any sale."

You can take it further, showing pictures and samples to stimulate the visuals, allowing the kinaesthetics to handle the samples, and describing your product or service to the auditories.

Go back to basics

While these more complex techniques can work and produce results for salespeople who are struggling through a recession, it is equally important not to lose sight of the fundamentals. In fact Mark Savinson, MD of Accredit Limited, who has BT Global Services, BT Wholesale Markets, AT Comms and Orange Business as clients, has worked also with HP, IBM, and coaches many of the world''s leading telecoms sales teams, does not believe that selling in a recession is that different to selling in a boom.

He says: "There is a real misunderstanding that the approach to s elling changes depending on the state of the economy. Whilst it is true that closing the deal becomes easier in a booming economy, the fundamentals of selling do not change. Salespeople need to listen to prospects, clearly articulate the benefits of their solution, and look for opportunities to cross-sell. They need to identify what works for them and then repeat it."

Stay strong

Finally, you need to stay positive. This is for two reasons. Firstly, salespeople always need to appear positive. As Hugo Mahoney, Sales Director of information provider LexisNexis puts it: "Above all else, retain your personal confidence and optimism. Customers buy from confident, assured suppliers; they don''t buy from people or suppliers who are one step away from meltdown!"

Secondly, despite all the gloomy forecasts, the tumbling budgets and the news of redundancies, there is still much to be positive about. People are still spending. There is business to be won. And the salespeople who have reacted to this recession by sharpening their targeting, refining their sales skills, and reinforcing their focus on the fundamentals of their trade will, when the good times finally return, be in an ideal situation to take full advantage and prosper.

Alex Blyth

Sales Director Profile - Tom Devine, Vodafone

Sales Director Profile - Tom Devine, Vodafone - 01 April 2009

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How to Lower Internet Fees with Online Direct Deposit Payment Processing

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The BlackBerry 9000 sells fall to 3100yuan

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