Anyone who has ever worked in a customer relation role will know the joy and sorrow that comes with serving customers. They can make or break your day – and your spirit. They can make your job enjoyable, or a nightmare.

In sales, customers sit on a pretty high pedestal. For most businesses, they treat every single customer with unquestionable service, regardless of how the customer treats them. Anything they want, they got it. After all, without them you’d be out of business, right?

But what about when customers push our buttons, and stretch us to the limit? What if they waste our time and start to cost us money instead of make us money? Do we have to put up with it?

Absolutely not! A business full of unprofitable customers is an unprofitable business. The key to customer service lies in the ability to identify the gems and the rocks, and deal with each effectively. Your customers don’t have to hold you hostage.

80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients, and
those 20% are your ideal customers.

Generally, these customers are loyal, spend a lot and spend often. They may be demanding, or ask you to stretch a little bit further, but they’re fair and they’re profitable. You make a substantial amount of money from them. You want to keep these customers in your business, and keep them exceptionally happy.

The rest of your customers can be organized on a sliding scale all the way down to your c-list, or unprofitable customers. These are the people who waste your time, energy and resources. They’re never satisfied, and nearly always cost you more to serve than they actually spend in your business.

The most profitable – and enjoyable to work in – businesses know how to spot and cater to their 20%, as well as how to spot and fire the difficult customers.

If you’re not working to get more customers from your existing customers, you’re missing out on a huge pool of revenue that could have a significant impact on your bottom line.

The beauty of referral business is that referral customers cost less to acquire. Compared to the leads you generate from advertising, direct mail campaigns, and other marketing initiatives, referral customers come to you already qualified and already trusting in the quality of your offering and the respectability of your staff.

If you have a referral-based business, you can potentially create a stream of qualified customers who arrive at their doorstep ready to spend. You’ll be able to put less focus on advertising, and more focus on serving and communicating with your existing customers.

Generally speaking, a referral program can generate outstanding results for nearly any business. Since most referrals do not require any effort, the addition of a strategy and a program will often double or triple the number of qualified referrals that come through a business door.

There are, however, a few types of businesses that will not benefit from a formalized referral strategy. These are businesses with low price points – like fast food restaurants. Their customer base is already large, and I would say that their efforts would be best spent on increasing their average dollar sale.

If you’ve been in business for a while, you know that the people who work for you can be your biggest lifesavers and biggest headaches.

When they are invested in your company and take ownership of their roles and responsibilities, they are your biggest allies in the growth of your business. But when you are stuck in a cycle of hiring and training only to lose employees, they can be the largest drain on your time and pocket book.

There is little doubt that finding and keeping good employees is a big challenge for every business owner. You want to have the right people in each of the roles, and spend as little time and money as possible recruiting and training.

Your strongest defence against this vicious cycle is a solid human resource strategy. Just like customers, the cost of hiring and training an employee is a lot higher than working to keep the employees you already have.

Invest time in your staff’s training and development, and you’ll be investing in the growth of your business.

In most cases, exchanges with customers can be rather unpredictable. They can depend on your mood or the time of day, or the type of customer you’re speaking with. When you’re engaged in the sales process, there are any number of variables that can influence whether or not you close the sale.

Sales scripts are tools you can create for your business to increase the level of predictability or preparedness in the sales process. They guide salespeople during interactions with customers on the phone, on the sales floor and in sales presentations.

When you have a higher level of predictability in your sales process, you have more control and an increased ability to close more sales. More closed sales means a higher conversion rate, which means higher revenues.

I run into quite a few clients who think scripts are too time consuming and would prefer to sell the ‘natural way,’ without planning and preparation. For some of them, this strategy works really well. But others are leaving money on the table that could be in their bank accounts.

Your scripts don’t need to sound scripted, or like a cheesy commercial. They don’t even have to be read verbatim. Scripts are a road map for your sales process, alerting you to the signs and stops along the way to keep you on track.

Risk reversal increases buyer confidence and encourages completed transactions.

A lot of the businesses I work with don’t have a risk reversal strategy, and aren’t really familiar with what one looks like, or the power it could have over their conversion rates.

Each time a customer completes a transaction, they leave your store or website with 99% of the risk associated with the purchase. Even if you overcame all of their objections and answered their questions about the performance of the product, the moment they hand over the money they lose their leverage.

If the product doesn’t do what you say it will, or if it breaks down, your customer has parted with their cash and hasn’t received the promised results. They’ve lost – or wasted – money.

So, risk reversal simply means taking the purchase risk away from the customer, and taking it on yourself or your business. When your business allows customers to make purchases without fear or doubt, you will encourage them to make decisions, spend money and complete sales because there is less at stake.

And whenever you can encourage more customers to buy from you, you will boost your conversion rate and your average number of transactions. So, offering a strong guarantee is a strategy that will increase conversions as well as repeat business.

Give yourself and your staff a refresher on sales 101.

The selling process is a system that can be taught, developed and continuously improved upon. When you follow clear, step-by-step actions and have a working knowledge of your product or service and the person who will be buying from you, the system will nearly always result in a sale.

Going back to the basics is always a worthwhile exercise. No matter how experienced you may be, there is always something new to discover or remind yourself of.

Eight ways to streamline your sales process

1. Build long-term relationships. Treat each potential customer like they are about to become one of your best, most loyal clients. Be genuinely interested in what each customer has to say, ask questions and remember everything.
2. Position yourself as an expert. Know more than you need to about the product or service you’re selling and you will build trust and respect with your prospects. Build your knowledge of your product or service, the people who use it, as well as industry news and trends.
3. Be confident and convincing. Assume you have the sale from the beginning, and leave any self-criticism at the door. Take time to explain yourself, don’t rush, and connect your message to your audience in a meaningful way.
4. Prepare your image. Ensure that everything your prospect sees is professional and put together. Dress in a manner that reflects what you’re selling and is comfortable for your audience. For example, a suit and tie is professional, but jeans may be a more appropriate choice for your market.
5. Use common language. While you should show your prospect that you know what you’re talking about, avoid using too much industry jargon or sales phrases like finance, sold, contract, sale, etc. Use language that your market understands and can relate to.
6. Stay positive. Be enthusiastic about your product or service benefits, and maintain a smile on the phone and in person. Your overall mood is apparent in your voice, facial expressions and body language, so ensure it’s a positive one.
7. Remember your manners. This seems like a no brainer, but it’s a helpful reminder. Be punctual, use a strong handshake, accept courtesy items, listen and don’t interrupt.
8. Steer clear of hot topics. Avoid any discussion of religion, politics, sexual innuendos and racial comments. Don’t swear, and steer clear of negative comments about other customers or the competition.

Sales is a system that can be created, improved, taught and perfected.

Think about the last time you were looking to hire a contractor, or some type of professional for a service. Or, say, the last time you were about to purchase an expensive item.

Who did you consult with before making your decision? Did you ask a friend or colleague for recommendations? Did you consult a consumer report about the expensive item’s performance?

Just like you and I, most people would. You see, word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there. Buyers want to confirm that they’re making the right decision by hearing about positive experiences from other buyers and friends.

As a business owner, you can use testimonials to harness the power of word of mouth marketing. Testimonials will help overcome objections and break down barriers in the sales process. Prospects weighing their purchase decisions will have more confidence knowing that someone else has had a positive experience or seen the promised results.

A strong testimonial program will generate more conversions, bigger sales, more credibility and more qualified leads. Sound good?

If you’re going to go to the effort of collecting testimonials, do what you can to make sure that they’re credible ones you can use.

Testimonials need to be used strategically to maximize their value and their impact on your business.

Let’s say you were reading a brochure about a new product that you were interested in purchasing. The copy describing the product claims that it is the ‘best product you’ll ever use’ and that the quality ‘far exceeds the competition.’ That might be true, but I bet you’re a little sceptical.

Next to the sales copy, there is a quote from a customer that reads, “Exceptional customer service. The salespeople made every effort to ensure I found what I needed, and left the store happy.”

What does that do to increase your confidence in the product? Does it help to eliminate some of your skepticism? Probably not. It’s just telling you that you’ll be treated well in the store.

In order for you to really harness the power of testimonials in your marketing materials, you have to put some thought into where you place them and why. They need to support the message you’re trying to communicate, even though the words aren’t yours. They need to make sense in the context of where they’re used.

Each time you use a testimonial you need to decide what you are trying to accomplish or what message you are trying to support.

In fact, unless you have some form of measurement system in place, how will you even know if your business is growing or making a profit?

Of course if your net income is greater than your costs, you know you’re making money, but how do you know that cost of one marketing strategy isn’t eating all the profit of another? You need to know that each penny of your marketing budget is bringing in an acceptable return on investment so that your business grows and stays profitable.

Too many business owners fail to test and measure their marketing, and end up spending way beyond their budgets or leave heaps of money on the table. I find that there are three reasons for this:

1. They don’t know how to test their marketing
2. They think the testing process is too time-consuming or complicated
3. They don’t know how to evaluate their results or make decisions based on them

Testing and measuring is the only way to make the most of your marketing campaigns and avoid repeating costly mistakes.

Make sure that your business is set up to reap the most profit from the efforts you have made attracting new, loyal customers.

What you decide to spend money on, how you price your products and services, and how much you pay to acquire your products and services are all choices that you make in running your business. Profit margins can be optimized so that each transaction that goes through your point of sale is contributing the highest possible dollar value to your bottom line.

There are three basic ways to increase profit margins

1. Maximize your existing margins.

Increase high-margin items and decrease small margin items.

Stop discounting

1. Reduce fixed and variable costs.

Be aware of and manage spending.

1. Increase Prices

Don’t be afraid to boost prices by 10%. Many business owners are afraid they will lose customers if they increase their prices, but this is rarely true. Most customers won’t notice a hike in prices, so you’ll lose very few.

Monitor your costs and profit margins carefully to ensure that your business is running as efficiently as possible.

When you buy a product, you want to receive the most for your dollar. The same is true for customer acquisition

Generating leads and converting those leads to customers is a process that costs you money. Time also equals money.

Increasing your repeat business is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to boost your bottom line

 Give yourself permission to fire some of your customers.

Everyone has a group of customers they enjoy doing business with and are pleased to continually serve (our A-list). Likewise, we all also have a group of customers (our C-list) who are a pain to deal with. They may consistently complain, take advantage of special offers or never spend much money after a bunch of hassle.

Like a good business owner, I bet you treat every customer with respect, and give them the attention they need – even the C-list. 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers. That 20% of your customers is what we call your A-list.

The important point here is that while you’re busy trying to make your C-list customer happy, you’re missing the opportunity to give your A-list customer the level of service they deserve. Since the majority of your revenue comes from your A-list customers, that’s where you should be focusing your efforts.

So, give yourself permission to fire your C-list, and stop bending over backwards to address their concerns. Don’t let them rule your time. Spend your efforts making your A-list happy, and their purchases will more than make up the difference.